Blue Jays’ Jason Grilli rounding into form of late

May 31, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Jason Grilli (37) wears a fireman's hat during a pregame promotion for fire safety awareness before playing Cincinnati Reds at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
May 31, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Jason Grilli (37) wears a fireman's hat during a pregame promotion for fire safety awareness before playing Cincinnati Reds at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

For the first month of the 2017 campaign, it appeared that Father time was finally catching up to 40-year old Jason Grilli as his earned run average was dangerously hovering around the designated for assignment mark.

Jason Grilli is a fan favourite who wears his emotion on his sleeve and is the glue that holds the Blue Jays bullpen together so it would have been a painstaking assignment to send the hurler packing to the reliever graveyard with little hope of a return.

However, Grilli appears to have turned a corner and his manager is beginning to utilize him in higher leverage situations once again after spinning scoreless innings in 9 of his last 10 appearances.

The reliever has only allowed 2 runs since May 06th and has managed to lower his earned run average to 6.35 in 21 appearances. Not too shabby considering on May 02nd he was owning an earned run average of 10.38 with little hope in sight.

If Grilli can catch lightning in a bottle and mimic his 2016 stat line, the Jays will stack up pretty well in their pen. That will leave J.P. Howell as the only pitcher in the pen flirting with a designation for assignment due to his poor start to his Blue Jays career.

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Grilli appears to have found his swagger back as in his last 10 appearances he has fanned 10 batters in 8.1 innings of work

Credit should be given to the Blue Jays coaching staff for sticking with Grilli and affording him enough innings to work out the kinks and find some of his former self on the bump.

Grilli is still a steal of a deal earning $3 million dollars this season even if he isn’t as effective as 2016.

Next: Blue Jays designate Bolsinger, hoping he clears waivers

Regardless of how the season started for him, he appears poised to put out some fires once again coming in during some hot situations out of the bullpen.