Blue Jays release Julian Fernández

Per his transaction log, it appears the Toronto Blue Jays have released flamethrower Julian Fernández from his minor league contract. The right-hander signed on with the Blue Jays back in January of 2023.

Fernández, 27, had a rough go of it during his brief and uninspring tenure in the organization. During Spring Training, he made five appearances and threw as many innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits, including two home runs. He managed to strike out seven while walking just one, but he did not perform well enough to warrant a selection to the 40-man roster.

After spring, he was assigned to Triple-A as a reliever for the Buffalo Bisons. During his time in Buffalo, things did not go according to plan. In seven outings, Fernández had a ghastly 10.61 ERA thanks to 11 earned runs in 9.1 innings of work. He appeared to undergo a complete loss of control, as his strikeouts dipped and his walks rose. Things like this tend to happen with players who are all heat, no control on their triple-digit fastballs.

To date, the 6-foot-6 righty has just six big league appearances under his belt, all coming back in 2021 as a member of the Colorado Rockies. In that time, he walked four batters (with as many strikeouts) and surrendered eight earned runs in 6.2 innings of work.

While some in the Blue Jays media circle believed that Fernández had what it took to turn into something special for the team, the results just were not there to back that up and his tenure ends with a whimper rather than any semblance of a bang. He will now test the open market and could latch on with a new organization soon, as every team likes the challenge of being the one that can harness 100mph heat.