Blue Jays address minor league pitching depth with signing of Wilmer Font

The most recent Blue Jays signing made two very brief appearances with the Texas Rangers at the MLB level in 2012 and 2013

The Toronto Blue Jays added to their upper-minors depth prior to Monday night’s game with the signing of 26-year-old Wilmer Font. The right handed pitcher has worked as a starter for the Ottawa Champions of the Canadian American Association this season. 


Font originally signed with the Texas Rangers back in 2006 out of Venezuela and ascended through their minor league system by 2012, making his major league debut. After two very brief stops in the big leagues and varying minor league results, the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Font was released from the Rangers organization after eight seasons in 2014. He spent an offseason with the Cincinnati Reds entering 2015, but could not latch on and has spent the past two seasons with Ottawa.

In 2015, Font threw 116.2 innings with a 4.09 ERA for the Champions, seeing his typically high strikeout numbers drop drastically to 6.2 per nine innings. It’s been a different story this year, however, as Font has struck out 9.1 batters per nine and walked just 1.9. He’s also kept a very strong home run rate throughout his professional career.

The addition of Font should not have a significant impact on the Blue Jays by any means, but it does represent the type of transaction that may be seen several more times in the coming weeks.

Following the trade of Wade LeBlanc and the release of Roberto Hernandez, the Blue Jays find themselves lacking depth behind Drew Hutchison in the high minors. Especially considering the possibility that Hutchison may need to spend time with the major league club in the near future (Marco Estrada‘s back, Aaron Sanchez‘s curiously still-ongoing bullpen discussion), reinforcements are needed beyond Scott Diamond and Chris Leroux.

This was one of the topics covered on yesterday’s Monday Morning Mailbag:

Dismissing the value of non-MLB pitchers is a mistake, because often they still hold a value to the MLB-ready starters or relievers. Just as the value in Diamond or Leroux is keeping the triple-A rotation stable and allowing other (often younger) arms to work around them, Font is an option that could keep another upper-minors rotation spot “quiet” for the remaining months as the Jays look to continue improving upon their depth.