Blue Jays: Chad Green placed on 60-day IL, Jay Jackson selected to 40-man roster

In a move that all Blue Jays fans saw coming, Chad Green, one of the club's newest signings, has been officially placed on the 60-day injured list. He is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is not expected to rejoin the big league club until around July, if not a bit later.

Jay Jackson, who was reported to have re-signed with the club on Tuesday, has been selected to the 40-man roster in Green's place. Jackson will be optioned to Triple-A, using the last of his minor league option years, but will remain on the 40-man roster after a strong showing in Spring Training.

Green, 31, should be an important piece to this Blue Jays bullpen once he returns from the injured list (assuming his recovery goes well). He spent the last seven years of his big league career on the division rival New York Yankees, where he turned himself into one of the better relievers in the American League.

While he doesn't have the shiny accolade of an All-Star Game selection to his name, Green was an oft-used weapon over the years in New York. In 272 appearances, he has a career 3.17 ERA with a 137 ERA+, a highly impressive number for such a pitcher with such a large sample size. He has the potential to be a trade deadline acquisition-like player for the Jays once he is healthy.

Jackson, 35, has been a hot topic of conversation around Blue Jays Nation over the past 72 hours or so. After emerging as one of the best pitchers in camp with the Jays during Spring Training, Jackson was surprisingly released when the club elected not to add him to its Opening Day roster.

A short while later, he was re-signed to a split contract that will pay him $1.4M if he is promoted to the big leagues. A short while later than that, and he's been added to the 40-man roster, a huge accomplishment for the well-traveled veteran.

Before re-joining the Blue Jays, sources have confirmed that Jackson "had interest from multiple clubs as soon as he hit the open market", but was "hellbent on staying in Toronto". The right-hander felt like Toronto presented the best shot at a World Series ring, so he made the not-so-difficult choice to return.

In eight spring outings, Jackson showed off an impressive fastball and an even more impressive hard slider that he used to make hitters look silly at the plate. He struck out 13 batters and walked only two in 9.1 innings of work.

The addition to the 40-man roster is only the beginning for Jackson. Next stop: the big leagues.