Blue Jays juggle roster as Erik Kratz, Darin Mastroianni optioned, Brad Mills DFA’d

The Toronto Blue Jays announced the following roster moves today on Twitter:

Kyle already wrote about the reported call-ups of Aaron Sanchez and Ryan Goins this morning, which are now official. Sanchez, 22, becomes the youngest pitcher on an active roster in the majors (h/t Megan Robinson, The FAN 590) and should provide a big boost for the Blue Jays much maligned bullpen.

His changeup lags well behind his fastball and curve but as a reliever he should be able to shelve the pitch and focus on ramming fastballs down hitters throats, with the occasional hard curve mixed in for good measure. He will struggle with control at times but has been better of late and is a ground ball inducing machine.

Goins, as we know, is great with the glove and questionable with the bat but has been hitting better of late in Triple-A. Goins gets the start at second tonight while Munenori Kawasaki moves over to third.

Esmil Rogers hasn’t pitched for the Blue Jays since May 21 but since clearing waivers has been decent for the Bisons with a 3.14 ERA and 1.223 WHIP to go along with 41 strikeouts and 18 walks in 48.2 IP. Todd Redmond‘s promotion within the bullpen to a higher leverage role left the Blue Jays without a true long man after DFAing Brad Mills (more on that later).

He’ll likely only be seen in mop-up duty and if either Sergio Santos or Steve Delabar start showing signs of life in Buffalo, Rogers will likely be designated again, unless for some reason he’s lights out for a consistent stretch with the Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays also finally decided to option Darin Mastroianni, who has no business being on a major league roster. I guess because he had an option Anthopoulos didn’t want to DFA him but I expect Mastroianni to be the next player removed from the 40-man if another player is added.

For Erik Kratz, it’s the third time he’s been optioned this season and once again, it’s through no fault of his own. The Jays insistence of carrying Josh Thole as R.A. Dickey‘s personal caddy has left Kratz on the outside looking in for parts of this season, despite the fact he’s the team’s best defensive catcher. He also brings some thunder with the bat and hits right-handed. Basically everything the Blue Jays need right now. And he’s going back to Triple-A.

The Brad Mills experiment was a disaster but at least it sounds like Deck McGuire will clear waivers so not much was lost from a transaction I still don’t understand. Mills, who was a fourth round draft pick of the Blue Jays, should clear waivers and if he does will likely be kept as depth at Triple-A, which was probably the Blue Jays plan when they acquired him in the first place.