Another member of the Buffalo Bisons’ pitching staff is moving on. According to the team’s transactions page, right-handed pitcher Luke Bard, the brother of Colorado Rockies closer Daniel Bard, has been released.
Bard was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the 2012 draft and made his big-league debut in 2018 after being selected by the Los Angeles Angels in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s tossed 81 innings in the Major Leagues between the Angels, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Yankees and has a 4.44 ERA for this career.
The Blue Jays inked Bard to a minor-league contract back in February. The 32-year-old made 16 appearances with the Bisons, six of which were starts, and posted a 6.15 ERA with 29 strikeouts and 13 walks. Most recently, Bard was tagged for three earned runs over one-and-one-third innings in a relief appearance against the St. Paul Saints.
Bard is the second veteran pitcher to leave the Bisons in the past few days. Over the weekend, Drew Hutchison opted out of the minor-league deal that he had signed with the Blue Jays in order to become a free agent.
This is a standard thing to happen around the beginning of June. Teams have a sense of which Quad-A veterans will be able to help their big-league club throughout the season and which ones won’t, and the players in the latter category wind up moving on to make room for prospects who will be coming up from the lower levels.
Pitching prospect Hagen Danner was recently promoted from Double-A New Hampshire to Buffalo and there are some other names who might not be far behind. Adam Kloffenstein, who was Toronto’s third-round pick from the 2018 draft, has posted an impressive 3.12 ERA over 10 starts with the Fisher Cats and the Blue Jays might want to see how he fares against Triple-A competition.
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