Breaking: Blue Jays deal with Ronald Belisario falls through

Just when you think the pieces of the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen are starting to fall into place, the puzzle falls apart. At least, that appears to be what happened with their deal with reliever Ronald Belisario.

According to Mike Wilner of Sportsnet (via Twitter, the minor league deal with Belisario has fallen through for an unknown reason.

As of mid-afternoon on Thursday, it was reported by Jim Bowden of ESPN that the Blue Jays and Belisario had agreed to a minor league pact for 2015. The deal included a $1.7 million salary if Belisario made the Major League team and followed reports from Jon Morosi of Fox Sports that the Blue Jays were working hard to land the former Dodgers and White Sox right-hander.

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Currently, there are no details as to why the deal has fallen through.

At the time of the announcement, many were surprised to see the Blue Jays were able to make this a minor league deal, and many more were equally shocked that Alex Anthopoulos and his crew were able to get it done for a $1.7 million Major League salary. We even cited it as a possible coup here, with Belisario being a strong possibility for a bounce-back season.

Whether someone came along at the 11th hour with a better, guaranteed deal remains to be seen. It could also mean that the right-hander failed his physical before making the deal official.

One thing is for certain though. The Blue Jays are still in pursuit of quality bullpen arms to finalize their relief corps for 2015. Losing out on Belisario at this stage in the game, especially on a minor league deal, doesn’t change that, but it certainly will increase the team’s focus on other available arms like Burke Badenhop, Francisco Rodriguez, and Rafael Soriano as the prime candidates. Other buy-low arms also exist on the market, with John Axford, Brian Wilson, Chris Perez, Jose Veras and even former Blue Jays reliever Dustin McGowan still looking for work.

As for Ronald Belisario and the Blue Jays, we’ll stay on top of the news throughout the day and keep you updated as to whether or not things are completely kaput with Belisario and if so, what the underlying factors of the fallout truly are.

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