Blue Jays Designate Joe Mantiply For Assignment

The Blue Jays reinstated righty Trey Yesavage from the 15-day injured list and recalled fellow right-hander Chad Dallas from Triple-A Buffalo on Monday, the team announced. In a pair of corresponding moves, Toronto optioned right-hander Spencer Arrighetti and designated left-hander Joe Mantiply for assignment. Yesavage will start tonight’s game as the Jays try to keep their faint postseason hopes alive. Mantiply, 35, has spent the entire season with the Jays organization. He originally signed a minor league deal with Toronto last summer and, after becoming a minor league free agent at season’s end, returned to the Blue Jays on a second minor league pact. Toronto added him to the 40-man roster back on April 5. Despite being selected to the majors early in the season, Mantiply has pitched only 27 innings with the big league club. He spent months on the injured list after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late May. When Mantiply has been healthy this season, he’s generally been effective. The soft-tossing journeyman has logged a 3.33 ERA in his 27 frames, fanning 19.8% of his opponents against a terrific 4.5% walk rate. He’s allowed runs in three straight appearances, however, and has yielded a total of six runs in 9 1/3 innings since the calendar flipped to September. He’d have been controlled through 2027 via arbitration had he made it to the offseason on Toronto’s roster, but today’s DFA suggests they’d likely have outrighted or non-tendered him in the offseason anyhow. Mantiply is sitting just 88.5 mph on his sinker this season, but that’s nothing new; the crafty southpaw hasn’t averaged even 90 mph on his fastball since the 2022 season. Though he’s never had premium velocity — his career-high average on his sinker is 91.4 mph — Mantiply has racked up more than five years of major league service and notched a 4.41 ERA in 243 major league innings. Opponents have never had an easy time squaring him up, and he’s regularly posted strong walk and ground-ball rates, which have helped mitigate a strikeout rate that’s typically well below the league average. More to come. View Comments (4)