Toronto Blue Jays Year in Review: Cups of Coffee 1

For this installation of our Blue Jays Year in Review, we’re going to take a look at the group of guys who had a quick “cup of coffee” with the big league club in 2014. Some may be back for another cup in 2015, some may stay longer. Others may end up sipping another team’s java next year.

Rob Rasmussen

The Good: He made his MLB debut against arguably one of this generation’s best hitters in David Ortiz. And all he did was get him to ground out to first on a 2-2 count.

After going 3-11 in the Dodgers AA & AAA teams last season, Rasmussen had a fairly decent bounce back this year as part of the Erik Kratz deal with the Phillies. He spent a few stints with the Blue Jays totalling 11.1 innings. He managed an impressive 10.32 K/9. Yes, the small sample size rule applies here. 

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The Bad:

Rasmussen walked 7 batters in his 11.1 innings. That is obviously not going to give him much more than a spot filler role. Facing AAA hitters, he gave up just 17 walks in 43 innings. Those numbers are not exactly dominating, even in AAA. If he wants to see more MLB hitters, he has to be that much better.

The Future:

Given that Rasmussen will be 26 at the start of the 2015 season and he has just a few days of service time, the Jays will be in no rush to worry about his contract. All they need to do is keep him on the 40 man roster and then see what happens. The way the bullpen shakes out this winter will go a long way to potentially giving Rasmussen a shot (even if it’s along one) at cracking the bullpen to start 2015.

Kyle Drabek

Remember him? He was supposed to be the cornerstone of the Roy Halladay trade. In fairness, Drabek has been injured. He’s had Tommy John surgery…twice. But now, the real problem appears to be his inability to throw consistently. This season, he managed to get into 2 games for a total of 3 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 5 in his whopping 5 days in August. How the mighty have fallen.

The Good:

If there is any good to be gleaned from the 2014 season for Kyle it is that he is healthy. He got through this season without significant time missed. Hey, it’s something. His numbers in AAA weren’t obscene. His 7-7 record isn’t so bad. I’m trying, here.

The Bad:

In AAA, Drabek was getting lit up for a WHIP of 1.475 and giving up 2.7 walks per game including 10 (!) wild pitches. Lefties hit .333 against him with a .500 OBP. They’ve even tried putting him in the bullpen. Whatever he was sent down to figure out didn’t happen. They’ve been tinkering with his delivery seemingly since he arrived. They’re trying to figure one out and then have him be able to repeat it consistently. In fact, the Blue Jays must have not been confident in they’ve seen from him, they overlooked him when it came time to make their September call ups.

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The Future:

You have to feel for Kyle Drabek. He will be 27 in December. He has one more year before he is eligible for arbitration. Barring something drastic, he’ll be in spring training trying to compete for a big league job. With his recent performances and the depth that has caught up and passed him, he is going to have an uphill battle.

Check out our poll and have your say as to what the Blue Jays should do with Kyle Drabek.

Brad Glenn

Glenn was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 2009 amateur draft after Oakland drafted him the year previous. He managed to find himself in 6 games for the Jays this year.

The Good:

Glenn has a history of hitting for power. His past few seasons have seen him compile 19, 22 & 15 round trippers. 2014 saw his average against left handed pitching at .293. For a team who was desperate to solve southpaw pitching, we can see why he would have been promoted.

The Bad:

While that theory would have made sense, it didn’t exactly play out that way. Again, we must remember that this is a small sample, but in his 6 game stay, he was given 16 at bats. He managed one walk and one hit, his fist MLB hit. That’s it. He had to give way to Nolan Reimold.

The Future:

Glenn is an outfielder who is on the outside looking in. At the beginning of the 2015 season, he’ll turn 28. Considering he finished 2014 being sent further down (to AA), his future doesn’t look bright. Right now, the Blue Jays have quite a few outfielders who are grabbing more attention and opportunity to crack the big league roster.