Former Blue Jays pitcher hooks on with the L.A. Dodgers

Former Blue Jays pitcher Sam Gaviglio signed a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week, including an invite to Spring Training. The news was first reported by MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams.

Blue Jays fans who have been following the team for at least a few years will remember the right-hander from a stint in Toronto from 2018-2020. He worked as both a starting pitcher and a reliever, making 24 starts and 82 appearances overall. Over the course of that time he was 7-13 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.318 WHIP. He also managed to strike out 194 over 222.1 innings pitched, and at times was a reliable arm for the Blue Jays, despite the rough looking overall numbers.

Arguably his best season came in 2018 when the Blue Jays had no choice but to rely on him for 24 starts that season. He was actually pretty serviceable as a starter in the first half before starting to fall off a bit before the All-Star break, and things got worse from there, which really tanked his overall numbers. The following year he shifted to a bullpen role where he made 52 appearances and was a fairly important contributor, and he also finished with an underrated 1.118 WHIP that season as well.

Unfortunately he only threw 3.0 innings in the big leagues last season, and after the Blue Jays let him go he didn’t perform a whole lot better in the Rangers’ organization. He spent the 2021 campaign in Triple-A where he pitched to a 5.13 ERA and a 1.405 WHIP across 26.1 innings, never pushing Texas to bring him up to join their big league pitching staff.

Because the MLB lockout is still ongoing, teams are not yet able to sign big league free agents to contracts. That same rule doesn’t apply to players inking MiLB deals though, which is why Gaviglio was able to join the Dodgers organization now rather than having to wait. Hopefully that will change sooner than later, but for now this is the kind of hot news we have to bring you in free agency.