Blue Jays’ former pitcher, Bo Schultz, signs with Pittsburgh

The closest thing resembling news about the Toronto Blue Jays is that their former reliever, Bo Schultz, signed a MiLB deal with the Pirates.

As we wait on the Blue Jays to do something with their 2018 roster (anything!!), we may as well celebrate a minor deal that went down on Friday. The Pittsburgh Pirates handed a MiLB deal to former Blue Jay reliever, Bo Schultz, according to Chris Cotillo of SBNation.

Schultz is coming off Tommy John surgery, which he had in March of last year, so it’ll likely take awhile before he’s ready to pitch in the Pirates organization. He was injured before the regular season began in 2017, and last appeared with the Blue Jays in 2016, when he made 16 appearances and pitched to a 5.51 ERA in limited time.

2015 was the best year of the right-hander’s career thus far, as he made 31 appearances out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen that season, finished with a 3.56 ERA across 43 innings pitched. His WHIP was a very fine 1.070, and he slowly started to earn the trust of John Gibbons as he wracked up successful outings. For his career, he owns a 4.54 ERA across 67.1 innings pitched, all with the Blue Jays from 2014-16.

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He was out of minor league options for the Blue Jays entering spring training last year, but the Tommy John surgery took that decision out of management’s hand, and he was unfortunately lost for the year. With a plethora of talented right handed pitchers out of the bullpen in Toronto, it’s understandable why the organization moved on, especially since he won’t be ready at the start of the year. He would have been hard pressed to earn a job in the 2018 big league pen with the presence of Roberto Osuna, Ryan Tepera, Danny Barnes, Dominic Leone, Carlos Ramirez, and more from the right side.

It would appear that the Pirates are entering a down year as rumours continue to swirl around possible trades of Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison. With that being the case, it’s possible that Schultz could earn his way into an opportunity in Pittsburgh, once he gets fully healthy of course.

Schultz had been on the Blue Jays’ roster as recently as November 1st, but he was outrighted along with Darrell Ceciliani, and Cesar Valdez, as the Blue Jays trimmed the roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

We must also recognize the fact that the most exciting thing related to the Blue Jays in the news is Bo Schultz signing a MiLB deal with Pirates. C’mon Ross, give us something already… we’re dying here.

Next: Why there are still Josh Donaldson trade rumours