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Blue Jays: Get to know pitcher Tim Mayza

By Clayton Richer |
NEW YORK - AUGUST 30: Baseballs sit in a basket during batting practice before the game between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies on August 30, 2005 at Shea Stadium in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Mets defeated the Phillies 6-4. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - AUGUST 30: Baseballs sit in a basket during batting practice before the game between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies on August 30, 2005 at Shea Stadium in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Mets defeated the Phillies 6-4. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The Toronto Blue Jays made a handful of roster moves yesterday with one of them being the promotion of 25-year old pitcher Tim Mayza. Here is the 411 on the newly promoted reliever.

Tim Mayza was selected by the Blue Jays in the 12th round, 355th overall of the 2013 amateur draft from the Millersville University of Pennsylvania. The 6’3″ southpaw inked a signing bonus of $100,000 and began his professional career with Bluefield.

Mayza features a mid-nineties fastball from the left side and a much-improved sweeping slider as his put away pitch. The hurler has back of the bullpen stuff so look for him to be thrust into some high leverage situations if he performs well out of the gate for Manager John Gibbons.

The native of Allentown, Pennsylvania began the 2017 campaign with Double-A New Hampshire and struggled. Mayza posted an inflated 4.86 earned run average surrendering 17 earned runs in 33.1 innings of work before his promotion to Buffalo. Even during his struggles with the Fisher Cats Mayza still fanned 42 for an 11.3 SO/9 clip.

Once Mayza joined the herd in Triple-A his season turned around as the reliever has been lights out in his first 11 games. Mayza owns a 0.93 earned run average giving up only 2 earned runs in 19.1 innings on the bump.

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His splits versus righties and lefties are similar this season with righties batting .230 and lefties batting .253 against him. However, that line may be a little skewed due to his early struggles to begin the season. In 2016 lefties batted nearly twenty points lower at .203 while righties sat at .228 versus Mayza.

In five minor league seasons, Mayza is 11-15 with a 3.91 ERA striking out 232 batters in 228 innings. Surprisingly Mayza has only fallen victim to the long ball 10 times in his career and 5 of them were this season in New Hampshire.

The hurler made 10 appearances this spring during Grapefruit League action with the Jays posting a 3.86 ERA while fanning 9 in 9.1 innings of work.

The Mayza promotion did not come without consequence for Taylor Cole who was released from the organization as a result. Cole made his MLB debut last week but got tagged for 6 hits and 4 runs in one inning of work. Leonel Campos was also optioned back to Buffalo in another corresponding move yesterday.

Next: Blue Jays: Brett Anderson a worthwhile gamble

We will soon see how Mayza fairs with the big club as the Blue Jays continue to hang around in the wild card race refusing to put that final nail in their coffin.

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