Former Blue Jays reliever surprisingly DFA’d after less than two weeks with new club

Two weeks ago, the Toronto Blue Jays made their biggest splash this offseason when they signed slugging outfielder Anthony Santander to a five-year, $92.5 million contract in a move that resulted in pitcher Brandon Eisert being designated for assignment. Eisert wasn't on the market for long, however, as he earned a new opportunity when he was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays for cash considerations on Jan. 23.

However, déjà vu hit the promising 27-year-old reliever Monday when the Rays announced that he was being designated for assignment for the second time in less than two weeks. This time, he lost his spot on the Rays’ 40-man roster due to their addition of free agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim.

Former Blue Jays reliever surprisingly DFA’d just less than two weeks with new club

Eisert had previously spent his entire professional baseball career with the Blue Jays organization after they selected him in the 18th round out of Oregon State in the 2019 MLB Draft. Eisert spent four seasons in Toronto's minor league system, and put up solid numbers. He went 18-9 with a 3.76 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 301 strikeouts in just 246 2/3 innings of work over 178 games played, including 10 starts.

With all the hard work, the left-handed reliever finally made his MLB debut with Toronto last year. He ended up having three diffrent stints with the big league club and compiled a 4.05 ERA, 1.35 WHIP four walks and two strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings across three appearances.

Given his promising showing within their system in recent years, Esiert's DFA by the Blue Jays was a bit surprising, specially when you consider that Blue Jays' bullpen was coming off one of their worst seasons in recent memory. Instead, Eisert ended up becoming an unfortunate roster casualty to make room for Santander.

Had Eisert stayed with Tampa Bay, he likely would have would have had the opportunity to further improve on his game through his work with the Rays infamous "pitching factory," and could have challenged for a spot in Tampa's 'pen. But this newest DFA has made his route to the majors just a little bit tougher.

Eisert's MLB fate will be determined in the coming days. He'll sit be the waiver market for the next seven days, where other teams will be able to submit a claim on him (which is what the Rays' did when he was DFA'd by the Blue Jays). If no teams put a claim in, then he's free to sign any team.