Blue Jays News: Ex-Jays reliever retires, Rowdy Tellez screwed by Pirates

Over the course of the past few years, the Toronto Blue Jays have experienced as much roster turnover as any other club in the league. This was certainly highlighted by their activity at this season's trade deadline, when they moved every rental and even a few controllable pieces before the clock ran out.

Dialing back the clock a bit further than this year, there have been some happenings surrounding a pair of former Blue Jays that deserve the spotlight. As some march towards the postseason on their new clubs (looking at you, Teoscar Hernandez and Tim Mayza!), others are making headlines in different ways.

Adam Cimber announces his retirement

These past few years may not properly show it, but Adam Cimber was, at one point, a dominant force out of the Blue Jays' bullpen. The quirky right-hander posted a 1.69 ERA in 39 post-trade outings back in 2021 when he first came up to Toronto, then followed that up with an AL-leading 77 appearances in 2022 with a 2.80 ERA.

Armed with a strange but fun to look at windup, Cimber did an excellent job of throwing off opposing hitters until he began to deal with injuries and suddenly became much more hittable.

He spent this year in the Angels system, even making 28 big league appearances but surrendering 19 earned runs in 24.1 innings, which led to a 7.03 ERA. Somehow, that's even lower than the 7.40 mark he had on last year's Blue Jays.

According to Carter Williams of KSL, a Utah-based news outlet, Cimber told him after his latest outing for the Salt Lake Bees (Angels' Triple-A affiliate) that he planned to retire after his outing on Sunday. He did not end up making it into the game, but his playing career has officially come to a close.

We wish Cimber the best of luck in his retirement and wherever life takes him now that his playing days are over.

Rowdy Tellez gets screwed over by the Pirates

Cimber's last game on the Blue Jays came last year, so we'll have to dial it back a bit further for this one. Rowdy Tellez, a blocked first-base prospect who failed to capitalize on his big-league chances with the Blue Jays, is battling through his second straight year of underperformance.

The burly Tellez had a strong year-and-a-half in the Brewers system but began to struggle last year. He spent the majority of this season on the Pirates, but his tenure in Pittsburgh came to an end on Tuesday at a tragic time.

Tellez, 29, was just four plate appearances away from earning a $200K bonus that was worked into the contract he signed with the Pirates this past offseason. Instead of allowing him to reach that bonus since the season is so close to ending, the team designated him for assignment, effectively ending his bid for some extra dough.

For a non-playoff team to do that so close to the end of the season, that's not cool at all and is a major slap in the face to Tellez. His .691 OPS and 91 OPS+ through 131 games didn't exactly scream "All-Star", but this move by the Pirates' front office was an unnecessary "screw you" to a player that didn't deserve it.

Say what you will about the Blue Jays, but would they have done that?