Mitch White’s minor league dominance gives the Blue Jays a tough decision in the offseason

As followers of the Toronto Blue Jays may recall, right-hander Mitch White was designated for assignment back on July 30th when the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Jordan Hicks from the St. Louis Cardinals at the trade deadline. White would end up clearing waivers, and was subsequently outrighted to Triple-A Buffalo for the rest of the season, thus retaining White within the organization for now.

In his first few starts after being sent back to Buffalo, he was his usual self as many had witnessed during his time in Toronto, as he went 0-1 with a 7.45 ERA, 2.25 WHIP, .375 opponents batting average, giving up eight earned runs including four home runs, six walks and 11 strikeouts in just 9.2 innings of work. With a performance like that, his days with the Jays’ organization were pretty much numbered, if it hadn’t been already.

However, he had suddenly found an unexpected gear in his last three starts. In those three games, White appeared to have rediscovered some of his form seen back in his successful days with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as he only gave up three earned runs in total, pitching to a sparkling 1.59 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, with 16 strikeouts over 17 innings. More importantly, he held his opponents to just a measly .167 batting average in the process. Among the three impressive starts included this masterpiece from this past Saturday.

In doing so, it has started to create a dilemma for the Jays entering the 2023 offseason. Remember that they had given up two promising prospects in Nick Frasso and Moises Brito at the trade deadline last year to acquire the services of White. With White no longer on the Jays 40-man roster, he will become eligible in the Rule 5 Draft this coming offseason.

If the Jays still believe he has the potential to be a key contributor to the ballclub, or they don’t want to lose him for close to nothing, they will need to add him back to their 40-man roster prior to the draft. But if they believe it is about time to move on for both parties, they can leave him exposed and see what happens from there. The more he keeps up with this kind of performance, the more the Jays may be forced at their hand to do the former than the latter.

There has certainly never been a dull moment in the adventures of Mitch White with the Jays. Nevertheless, we hope that both the Jays and White will end up having continued success in the near future, regardless of whether or not he ends up staying with the organization.