Blue Jays News: Varsho injury, Yerry Rodriguez, wild and wacky waiver wire

The Toronto Blue Jays are continuing to falter in the standings and at this point seem destined to finish in last place in the AL East this year. With a 16-game deficit in the division standings and an eight-game gap in the Wild Card race, things are looking pretty bleak.

Yet, the roster continues to shift around, especially when it comes to the 40-man. The Jays have remained active in both adding and subtracting players, mostly in the high-minors. Tuesday was news-filled day consisting of multiple different transactions, let's recap what's going on in Toronto.

Blue Jays News Recap: Varsho, Rodriguez, Waivers

Daulton Varsho injury

When Daulton Varsho was placed on the 10-day injured list with a shoulder strain, the Blue Jays announced that the move was retroactive to Sept. 14, meaning he'd be back around the 24th. While infielder Will Wagner was placed on the 60-day IL, Varsho's placement on the 10-day made it initially sound like he could return this year.

Turns out, that is not the case. The outfielder told Hazel Mae on Tuesday that he's going to have surgery to repair a rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder. Blue Jays manager John Schneider confirmed that Varsho's season is over and that his rehab could continue into spring training of 2025.

Varsho upped his game in nearly every way throughout this season, improving on what was a decent-but-not-great Blue Jays debut in 2023. He'll end his year with 18 home runs, 58 RBI, an OPS right at .700 and an OPS+ of 98. He is still arguably the best defensive outfielder in baseball and should enter next year with the starting center field gig once again.

Yerry Rodriguez

According to the Blue Jays' transaction logs on MLB.com, right-hander Yerry Rodriguez made it through waivers unclaimed and was sent to Triple-A Buffalo, where he'll remain on the Bisons, just without a spot on the 40-man roster. He was DFA'd by the Blue Jays on Sept. 12 to make room for Brett de Geus, another waiver-wire addition.

This was the expected move, as Rodriguez has looked unimpressive in the major and minor leagues. He has four big league appearances under his belt with the Blue Jays that resulted in a 15.43 ERA across 4.2 innings of work. That number is largely inflated by two rough outings, but his numbers in Triple-A (1.80 ERA but nine walks versus eight strikeouts) don't offer much more encouragement.

Rodriguez will remain with the organization as depth in the high minors, but we've likely seen the last of him on a big league mound for the Jays.

Wacky, Wild Waiver Wire

GM Ross Atkins has been uber-aggressive on the waiver wire lately, and that trend continued on Tuesday. The Blue Jays snagged right-hander Nick Robertson off of waivers from the Angels and sent him to Triple-A.

This move is the latest in a string of strange moves made by the Jays. There's always going to be a need for additional reinforcements in the minor leagues and back-end of the big league bullpen, but it's unclear what the Blue Jays' game is here.

Over the course of the season, the club has claimed each of the following pitchers off of waivers, with none sticking out above the rest as the year winds down:

• Nick Robertson
• Dillon Tate
• Emmanuel Ramirez
• Brett de Geus
• Luis Frias
• Easton Lucas