Adam Kloffenstein pitched a three up, three down inning in his big league debut

Originally posted on Bluejaysnation | By Ryley Delaney | Last updated Jun 21, 2024 5:00 PM ET

Boy has this trade come back to bite the Toronto Blue Jays in the butt.

At last season’s deadline, the Blue Jays moved starting pitching prospects Adam Kloffenstein and Sem Robberse to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Jordan Hicks.

You know the story, Hicks was good for the Jays, but they crashed out in the Wild Card series, falling in two games to the Minnesota Twins. Hicks signed with the San Francisco Giants and has been good, while the Blue Jays starting pitcher depth has been precarious at best.

It didn’t start out that way though, the team had two long-man on the 40-man roster, Mitch White and Wes Parsons. But after poor starts, both those players were traded. There were interesting starting pitching prospects in the upper-minors, but both Chad Dallas and Ricky Tiedemann were injured early in the season, only making their return in recent weeks.

Ricky Tiedemann's latest rehab outing was … perfect

2 IP
0 H
0 R
0 BB
4 K @BlueJays | @DunedinBlueJays pic.twitter.com/TZhTbzhfic

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 20, 2024

The fifth starter spot was to be contested between Alek Manoah, Bowden Francis, and Yariel Rodríguez, but injuries have seen the Blue Jays utilize a bullpen day on a few occasions. On Friday, Rodríguez was taken off the 15-day Injured List, so hopefully the team’s starting pitching depth can get settled.

But boy, would it have been nice to have two prospects in Triple-A ready to go at a moment’s notice. In fact, that’s exactly what happened with the Cardinals and Adam Kloffenstein, who made his Major League debut on Thursday.

Pitching the top of the eighth in a one run game in favour of the Cardinals, Kloffenstein pitched a 1-2-3 inning, generating two fly outs and a ground out to record the hold. Overall, he threw 15 pitches, 10 of which were strikes.

Adam Kloffenstein delivered a 1-2-3 frame of relief in his MLB debut!

The @Cardinals' No. 15 prospect, whose mom is from Alabama, got to showcase his stuff at Rickwood Field in Birmingham. pic.twitter.com/Fp56dMQEiP

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 21, 2024

The 23-year-old has had a solid season in Triple-A, posting a 3.97 ERA and a 5.22 FIP in 77 innings pitched, along with a 21.9 K% and a 9.4 BB%. Although he’s no longer in the Blue Jays organization, it’s nice to see the former farmhand have success elsewhere.

It’s only a matter of time before his teammate, Sem Robberse, is called up as well. This season in Triple-A, the Dutch pitcher has a 4.65 ERA and a 4.95 FIP in 71.2 innings pitched, along with a 24 K% and an 8.4 BB%.

Robberse has had a rough go of things over his last three starts, as the 22-year-old has given up 15 earned runs and six home runs in 11.1 innings pitched for a 11.91 ERA. Prior to this stretch, Robberse had a 3.28 ERA in 60.1 innings pitched.

Either way, it’s nice to see two former Blue Jays prospects find success elsewhere, but it would’ve been nice if they were still with the organization.

me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

This article first appeared on Bluejaysnation and was syndicated with permission.

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