Blue Jays: Edwin Jackson intends to pitch again in 2020

After a very rough stint with the Blue Jays in 2019, it looked like Edwin Jackson’s career was over. If it’s up to him, he’ll get another crack in 2020.

There are some guys who just can’t walk away from being a professional athlete, and it would appear that Edwin Jackson is that type.

Despite a disastrous showing with both the Blue Jays and the Detroit Tigers last season, it sounds like Jackson intends to pitch again this coming season, or at least look for an opportunity to prove that he has something left in the tank.

This likely comes as a surprise to Blue Jays fans, as they watched the 36-year-old struggle through the arguably the worst stretch of his professional career. Nothing went right for Jackson in a Blue Jay uniform, and at one point when manager Charlie Montoyo was asked why he kept running the veteran out every fifth day, he famously said, “we don’t have anyone else”.

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Here are the numbers for the 17 year MLB veteran in 2019:

With Toronto:

1-5, 11.12 ERA, 2.188 WHIP, five starts (eight appearances), 28.1 innings

With Detroit:

2-5, 8.47 ERA, 1.907 WHIP, eight starts (ten appearances), 39.1 innings

In total, Jackson finished the year with a 9.58 ERA and a 2.025 WHIP over 67.2 innings, and realistically was lucky to land another job after the Blue Jays finally cut him loose. The entire effort was worth a shocking -2.4 bWAR, which is pretty hard to do in that limited amount of time.

Despite the fact that last season went about as poorly as it could, the German-born right-hander will look to redeem himself and see if he can find a team to take a chance on him this spring. If he does, it’s possible that Jackson could add to his MLB record for the most teams played for, which already sits at 14. After signing MiLB contracts before the last three seasons, I’m sure an opportunity is all he’s looking for.