Blue Jays: Matt Shoemaker Signs One Year Deal

Friday morning Mark Feinsand of MLB.com announced that Matt Shoemaker and the Toronto Blue Jays have avoided arbitration and agreed on a one year deal worth $4.2 million dollars.

The Blue Jays have one more piece of their 2020 rotation puzzle in place, avoiding arbitration with veteran right-hander Matt Shoemaker on a one-year, 4.2 million dollar contract.

Shoemaker joined the Blue Jays in December 2018 when he signed a one-year deal after spending 10 years in the Angels organization.  The Angels had decided not to qualify him after the 2018 season because of injury concerns, as he missed the majority of the previous season with a forearm injury and was also limited to just 77 innings in 2017 because of injuries.

Although Shoemaker has had three consecutive seasons of injury trouble, this is a low-risk, good contract for the Blue Jays.  Shoemaker was off to a strong start in 2019 in his five starts going 3-0, 1.57 ERA and 0.87 WHIP, and thankfully his injury last season had nothing to do with his throwing arm. He also has a career record of 43-30, with a 3.81 ERA over seven professional seasons.  The signing does walk Shoemaker right into free agency at the end of the season.

With Shoemaker now signed, it appears he will slide somewhere in the 3-4 spots in the pitching rotation behind Hyun-Jin Ryu and Tanner Roark.  While the rotation is not a knock you over group, it is vastly better then the 2019 line-up when they used 20 different starting pitchers.

The signing also comes one day after the Blue Jays agreed to a one-year deal with Brandon Drury at $2.05 million, and just leaves Ken Giles as the only Blue Jays left with a scheduled Arbitration Hearing.  Toronto has now committed roughly $82 million dollars on the field for the 2020 season.

What do you think of the contract?  What are your hopes with Ken Giles?