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Blue Jays announce relief pitcher Junior Fernandez Not claimed in waiver.He’s fully assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. Zach Thompson Originally from Pittsburgh.
Fernandez has bounced back a bit in the last few months. A Cardinals amateur signer in 2014, he spent his entire career with the St. Louis organization until being appointed last September. Fernandez landed on waivers to division rivals Pirates, where he finished the 2022 season, where he made three appearances in a stretch. At the end of the season, Pittsburgh nominated him to clear 40-man roster space for prospects they wanted to keep out of the Rule 5 Draft.
The 25-year-old has since landed waivers for the Yankees and Blue Jays in quick succession. His stay at the Toronto 40-man lasted less than a week, with Fernandez claiming on January 5 and the DFA five days later. Remains in the organization as an adult depth. Fernandez has never been outrighted and has less than three years of service in the big leagues, making him incapable of electing minor league free agency .
Fernandez has played at the MLB level for part of the last four seasons. A right-hander, in his 50 appearances he pitched 54 innings and posted an earned run average of 5.17. He induced a ground ball in almost half of his allowed batted balls, but combined that with his mediocre 18.7% strikeout rate and his high 13.9% walk rate.
While he has yet to find consistent success, it’s easy to see why multiple teams have turned to Fernandez over the past few months. He averaged 98.7 mph on the sinker and 88.9 mph on the slider during 16 big league appearances last year. That speed hasn’t translated into many strikeouts, but he’s gotten quite a few swings and misses. Opponents have whiffed in his 13.5% of the pitches he has thrown throughout his MLB career. This is about 2 percentage points higher than the average.
Fernandez will receive a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training. Assuming he doesn’t break camp with a major league team, he reports to Buffalo, the owner of a 4.12 ERA and boasting a 27% strikeout rate in 83 career triple-A innings, he’s the best for the Jays. An interesting bullpen would be his depth his flyer. But he’s out of the minor league options year. This means that if the Jays promote him to the majors at any point, they should either keep him in the big leagues or make him available again to other teams through a trade or waiver.
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