Blue Jays Activate Darren Oliver, Option Thad Weber to Triple-A

February 14, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Darren Oliver (38) during spring training at Bobby Mattick Training Centre. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays continued the carousel of bullpen arms today, announcing via Twitter that Darren Oliver would be activated from the disabled list tomorrow while Thad Weber was optioned back to Triple-A Buffalo.

Oliver has pitched effectively this year, allowing six earned runs in 17 innings for a tidy 3.18 ERA. He’s been effective as a 42-year-old reliever but I question his role now that the Jays have fallen out of contention. If he can stay healthy he may still provide value at the trade deadline but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he hangs up the cleats after this season.

Weber pitched a clean five-pitch ninth inning today before being rewarded in similar style to Brad Lincoln yesterday basically being sent down for pitching well. But as over dramatic as it sounds, no big surprise. Weber had one bad outing and probably pitched well enough to stay. But obviously it would be Oliver going back to the big league bullpen. Weber is just another victim of the options game. He very well could be back in Toronto again.

Chien-Ming Wang is expected to make his first start as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. I think the next set of roster moves really depends on the health of Brandon Morrow. If he’s able to return after this week it would be huge to have another regular starter back in the rotation. The bullpen has been abused as previously documented here, and if the Blue Jays can just get some better production from the front end maybe the days of having a normal seven-man bullpen will return.

But until that time comes it’s probably best you get used to us trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle of Blue Jays roster moves.