Josh Winckowski’s rehab assignment moving to Triple-A Buffalo

Josh Winckowski will make his first appearance with Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday, per the club’s announcement.

The 28-year-old righty has spent most of this year rehabbing from off-season elbow surgery — an internal brace procedure, not full Tommy John — but began a Single-A rehab assignment with Dunedin late last month. He made a trio of appearances, two starts and a bulk outing out of the bullpen, amassing 6.1 innings in that span, allowing one run on four hits and three walks while striking out eight.

Winckowski is coming off his finest performance of the season, during which he punched out a season-high five batters across three scoreless innings of one-hit ball with zero walks. These marked his first appearances of any kind since the Boston Red Sox shut him down in May 2025 due to elbow concerns.

Pre-elbow surgery, Winckowski — who inked a two-year, minor-league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays last winter after electing free agency from the Red Sox organization — sat in the mid-90s with both his fastballs (four-seamer and sinker). They each averaged 95.1 m.p.h. in 2024, his most recent healthy season. But they’ve yet to return to those marks post-surgery, ranging between 92-93 m.p.h. during his rehab assignment.

That’s fairly common for pitchers returning from invasive elbow procedures, so it isn’t concerning for the previous Blue Jays farmhand — selected in the 15th round a decade ago — at this point. But it’ll be worth monitoring now that he’s progressed to Triple-A.

Buffalo’s season will end on Sep. 20, meaning Winckowski — who hasn’t been stretched out beyond three innings and has been pitching on four days’ rest thus far — should have an opportunity to make multiple appearances with the Bisons before the campaign concludes.

Depending on the success of those outings, it’s at least possible that Winckowski — carrying 242.1 career innings of MLB experience, all with Boston from 2022-25 — could become an option for the Blue Jays’ bullpen towards the end of this month. However, since he isn’t currently on the 40-man roster, the more likely scenario could involve finishing ’26 with Buffalo and, hopefully, hitting the ground running next spring.