Blue Jays Designate Michael Lorenzen For Assignment

The Blue Jays announced that they have designated right-hander Michael Lorenzen for assignment. His roster spot goes to fellow right-hander José Rodríguez, who has been selected to the roster.

The Jays scooped up Lorenzen about three weeks ago after he had been released by the Rockies. He had posted a 7.08 earned run average with Colorado but Toronto needed some innings due to a number of injuries and perhaps hoped that getting Lorenzen away from Coors Field would improve his numbers.

That did not pan out. It’s been a small sample of 11 2/3 innings over six appearances but Lorenzen allowed four home runs and posted an 8.49 ERA in that time. In addition to those poor results, other factors probably pushed Lorenzen to the edge of the roster. The Jays had an off-day yesterday and now have a fully rested bullpen going into the weekend.

They are also expecting to get Trey Yesavage back from the injured list in the coming days. That will give them five guys who could be called starters or at least bulk guys. Dylan Cease and José Soriano are scheduled to throw tonight and tomorrow, respectively. Yesavage, Max Scherzer and Spencer Arrighetti should be able to log multiple innings in the games after that in some order. The Jays could circle back to Cease on Wednesday and then have another off-day on Thursday.

Lorenzen will now head into DFA limbo. With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll have to be placed on waivers. There would be little incentive for another team to claim him. He has some good seasons under his belt but has a 7.21 ERA this year. He wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any new club he joins and there’s barely a week left in the regular season. If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency but might choose to stay with the Jays on the off chance they make the postseason and need to add him back to the roster.

Bumping off Lorenzen gives the Jays a chance to see how Rodríguez can fare against big league hitters. The righty will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He was just acquired from the Dodgers at the start of this month. Since that trade, he has made three appearances for Triple-A Buffalo. He allowed three earned runs in his 3 1/3 innings and issued three walks but struck out five.

That’s a tiny sample but fairly illustrative of what the Jays can likely expect. Dating back to the start of 2025, Rodríguez has thrown 92 innings in the minors with a 4.79 ERA. His 32.9% strikeout rate is a very nice number but he has also walked opponents at a very high 14.1% clip.

Rodríguez was likely going to qualify as a minor league free agent in a few weeks, which presumably motivated the Dodgers to trade him. Since the Jays picked him up, it can be assumed they were planning to give him a roster spot before that happened, so they’ll do it now. That will keep Rodríguez from hitting the open market and give them a chance to see his stuff under the bright lights. He has a full slate of options and six full years of club control remaining.

The trade was announced on the afternoon of September 1. If it was officially completed before noon on that day, then Rodríguez would be eligible to pitch for the Jays in the postseason, even though he didn’t get a roster spot until today. Technically, the team would have to petition the league for Rodríguez to be included as a replacement for an injured player, but such sequences happen regularly without issue.