Blue Jays say goodbye to Kyle Drabek, outright Scott Barnes to Buffalo

When the Toronto Blue Jays traded then-ace Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies on December 16, 2009, it was supposed to infuse the team’s rebuild and create a new generation of baseball in Toronto. After all, the Blue Jays were infusing the minor league system with top talent with the likes of Kyle Drabek, Travis d’Arnaud, and Michael Taylor. It was the jump start the team needed.

Unfortunately, as is generally the case with prospects, you never truly know what you’re going to get, and in this case, the Blue Jays didn’t really get much out of the deal. On Friday, the last piece of that trade was seen saying his goodbyes to teammates in the clubhouse, presumably with the Blue Jays placing him on waivers according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.

For Drabek, it will always be a question of what could have been. The former first round pick has always had tantalizing stuff on the mound, but was never able to translate it in the Major Leagues, as control issues got the better of him. In 39 games (30 starts) with the Blue Jays, Drabek owns an unimpressive 5.27 ERA against a BB/9 of 5.8 and a K/9 of 6.2. On the other side of that, he was always much more impressive in the minor leagues, posting a 3.98 ERA, a 3.4 BB/9, and a 7.0 K/9.

Now 27-years-old, the prospect status is well behind him. A pair of Tommy John surgeries have sapped his velocity and relegated him to trying to make the team out of the bullpen this spring. While he’s looked okay this spring, striking out 7 in 7 innings of work and surrendering just 2 earned runs, Drabek unfortunately ran into a buzzsaw in the form of young Jays arms Roberto Osuna and Miguel Castro, who are presumably going to make the bullpen as 20-year-old rookies after stellar springs.

Without options for Drabek, the Blue Jays were forced to expose the right-hander to waivers. With his potential still in the mirror, another team was sure to pounce on that, and that’s exactly what happened, as Jon Morosi reports and confirmed by Shi Davidi, who says it was the White Sox who plucked Drabek.

So Kyle Drabek will get a fresh start in Chicago. With so many teams looking for relief help, someone was bound to take a chance on Drabek’s arm, and it looks like the White Sox had the priority on the waiver wire.

Following Drabek out the door today was Scott Barnes, who the Blue Jays placed on waivers as well but were able to maintain control of. Barnes will be outrighted to Triple-A Buffalo after posting a 3.60 ERA, 4 walks, and 6 strike-outs in just 5 innings of work this spring.

Next: Josh Donaldson has been quietly impressive this spring

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