Blue Jays DFA Ryan Borucki, Release Orelvis Martinez

[Leo Morgenstern]

To make room for top prospect Trey Yesavage on their active and 40-man rosters, the Blue Jays designated Ryan Borucki for assignment earlier today. In additional transaction news, the team released former top prospect Orelvis Martinez.

Borucki, 31, signed a minor league contract with Toronto in late August and joined the big league club in early September. He threw 4.1 scoreless innings for the Blue Jays, striking out five and walking four. While his second stint with the Blue Jays turned out to be a short one, he has reportedly expressed a desire to remain in the organization (per Sportnet's Arden Zwelling). So, if he clears waivers, he will presumably accept an outright assignment and return to Triple-A Buffalo. 

Martinez, 23, was DFA'd last week. He could not be traded with the deadline in the rearview mirror, and because he is injured, the Blue Jays did not have the option to place him on outright waivers. So, his release was an inevitable outcome. Of course, it would have seemed like an inconceivable outcome back in 2018, when the Blue Jays signed the promising young infielder to a contract with a $3.5 million bonus. This only goes to show how much he has struggled since his days as one of the top 100 prospects in the sport.

Featured image courtesy of Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images.

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[Jonn]

Jesus they weren't willing to pay him 70k to just be on the 60-man for 2 weeks. He's done done.

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, Jonn said:

Jesus they weren't willing to pay him 70k to just be on the 60-man for 2 weeks. He's done done.

Huh? They had to designate someone from the 40. Or are you talking about Martinez, that one's odd. Still just 23. They obviously don't like what they see with him, though.

 

[Jonn]

1 minute ago, Spanky__99 said:

Huh? They had to designate someone from the 40. Or are you talking about Martinez, that one's odd. Still just 23. They obviously don't like what they see with him, though.

 

They could have placed O-Mart on the 60-day DL and paid him a pro rated salary for the last 2 weeks of the Season. Instead they just chose to flat out release him because he was that bad this year. It's just quite the plug pull on a guy who was your top prospect 2 years ago.

[Spanky__99]

6 minutes ago, Jonn said:

They could have placed O-Mart on the 60-day DL and paid him a pro rated salary for the last 2 weeks of the Season. Instead they just chose to flat out release him because he was that bad this year. It's just quite the plug pull on a guy who was your top prospect 2 years ago.

Why do all that though? They already designated Orelvis and he cleared, they could've just kept him for free.

[Laika]

23 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Why do all that though? They already designated Orelvis and he cleared, they could've just kept him for free.

Not sure they could. Saw something like they aren't allowed to put him on outright waivers since he is injured. 

So only options to get him off the 40 were DFA and release or put him on the MLB 60 day for the rest of the year 

They probably thought about it and were like, well he sucks and won't make the team and we can probably use any AAA PA on someone more useful next year so f*** him 

[glory]

Martinez is out of options next season, by all accounts sucks on defense anywhere he plays, and now can’t hit after a PED suspension. Maybe he figures it out somewhere else but given where the Jays are now as an organization, they had no reason to hold on to him. If he still had options after this season then maybe they would have handled it differently.

[Spanky__99]

11 hours ago, Laika said:

Not sure they could. Saw something like they aren't allowed to put him on outright waivers since he is injured. 

So only options to get him off the 40 were DFA and release or put him on the MLB 60 day for the rest of the year 

They probably thought about it and were like, well he sucks and won't make the team and we can probably use any AAA PA on someone more useful next year so f*** him 

I see, didn't know he was injured.