Blue Jays minor leaguer Scott Copeland sold to Korean team

Scott Copeland started three games in his Blue Jays debut last season, and was expected to provide depth from the triple-A level in 2016

Not all Blue Jays transactions are alike.

Scott Copeland, a 28-year-old right-hander who made his Major League debut last season after pitching well with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons, has been sold to a Korean team. (h/t to Tom Joyce, whose tweet this morning was the first we’d seen of the news).

The LG Twins, playing out of Seoul in the KBO League, have acquired Copeland for a transfer fee. The details have not been released, though a deal of this variety is unlikely to carry a high-magnitude cash value.

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Copeland started 20 games for the Bisons in 2015, pitching 125.0 innings and emerging as valuable organizational depth with the potential to fill in as a swing starter. He overcame a very low strikeout rate to post a 2.95 ERA, but the success did not carry over to the Major League level.

Toronto had originally signed Copeland in July of 2012 after he was released mid-season by the Baltimore Orioles.

For Copeland, this represents an opportunity to earn a paycheque that more closely resembles a Major League salary. The KBO has been kind to former Blue Jays, too, with Eric Thames doing his best Barry Bonds impression over the past two seasons with the NC Dinos. In 2015, Thames batted .381 with 47 home runs, 140 RBI, 103 walks, and an OPS of 1.288. No, none of those are typos.

While this is a nice piece of organizational depth going out the door for Toronto, the waiver wire should offer up an equal replacement should the club so desire. Given the Blue Jays excess minor league depth after a busy offseason, though, this may not be necessary.