Sean Nolin Expected To Start Friday For The Blue Jays

Welcome to the Show, Mr. Nolin!
Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY SportsAccording to a Shi Davidi tweet, the Blue Jays are expected to call up Sean Nolin from AA New Hampshire to start Friday’s game for the Blue Jays. No corresponding roster move has been announced, but one is expected to be made, as Nolin is not on the 40 man roster.

The Blue Jays left hander has a fastball that sits around high 80’s to low 90’s, curve ball, changeup and slider (one that he’s only picked up this past year). As well, since reaching A+ Dunedin last year, he’s gone 12-0 with a 1.93 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 2.47 BB/9, 9.56 K/9 and 0.54 HR/9 over 116.2 innings of work over A+ and AA New Hampshire. You can read more about Sean Nolin on our own prospect writeup here.

Knowing the Blue Jays current pitching woes (read: having Ramon Ortiz in your starting rotation), it was clear that Sean Nolin was going to be rushed to the majors sooner rather than later. Alex Anthopoulos himself said that he was likely to be called up this year, and being able to shutdown the competition in the minors might result in some stop-gap innings while Josh Johnson and J.A. Happ come back from injury. On the other side of the coin, bringing up a guy too early can be a bad thing, especially if it stunts his development.

Just like the Ricky Romero call up, this move is out of desperation. The team is 46 games into the season, and very close to getting to a point of no return 9 games back of the division-leading Yankees. Bringing in Sean Nolin now means that the Blue Jays are more focused on making up ground in a tough AL East division than taking it slow and steady with Nolin’s development. Hopefully it will result in a pleasant surprise, similar to Drew Hutchison‘s early MLB call up (minus the TJ surgery).