Blue Jays ink southpaw Matt Tracy to minor league deal

According to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation, the Toronto Blue Jays inked yet another reliever, this time signing southpaw Matt Tracy to a minor-league pact.

The Blue Jays continue to stockpile bullpen depth having signed five relievers to minor league contracts over the past couple of weeks. The Jays have the likes of Al Alburquerque, Jake Petricka, John Axford, Craig Breslow and now Matt Tracy all battling for a spot with the ball club.

Tracy was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 24th round, 749th overall in the 2011 amateur draft out of the University of Mississippi. The lefty made his MLB debut in 2015 making one appearance for the Yankees pitching two innings in an 8-4 loss. The hurler has not gotten a sniff of the majors since his two-inning cup of coffee.

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Tracy made 18 minor league appearances including 13 starts over the course of three minor-league levels last season with the Minnesota Twins affiliates. The 29-year old finished the campaign with a 4.71 earned run average while fanning 74 over 84 innings of work. The hurler struggled last season in 4 appearances in Triple-A surrendering 15 earned runs in 17.2 innings with Rochester.

During his 7 minor-league season’s Tracy is 32-40 with a 4.03 earned run average and a 6.8 SO/9 rate. Tracy has made 99 starts out of his 151 career games however at this point in his career it would appear his best chance at making it back to the show would be pitching out of the bullpen.

The southpaw has reverse splits as lefties batted fourteen points higher than righties last season. He will more than likely provide the Jays with some organizational depth at the Triple-A level with the Buffalo Bisons.

Next: Blue Jays sign reliever Craig Breslow to MILB deal

The Jays were busy yesterday as they also signed reliever Craig Breslow before inking Tracy with the opening of camp on the horizon. Look for the Jays to be busy in the coming days as they still have approximately $12 million earmarked to spend with a need for another starting pitcher on the to-do list.