The Blue Jays announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Javy Guerra for assignment in order to open a spot on the active roster for righty Ryan Tepera, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.
Guerra, 33, appeared in 10 games for Toronto early in the season but was tagged for six runs on nine hits, four walks and a hit batter. He did manage 12 strikeouts in his brief stint with the Jays, although a well-below-average 6.7 percent swinging-strike rate and 25.7 percent opponents’ chase rate suggest he wouldn’t be likely to maintain that strikeout rate. In 223 1/3 innings at the MLB level dating back to 2011, Guerra has a 3.51 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9 and a 44.5 percent ground-ball rate, but he hasn’t had much success at the MLB level since 2014.
The well-traveled Guerra is hardly a stranger to the DFA process; this is the sixth time in his career he’s been designated for assignment. The Jays will have a week to trade him or run him through outright waivers, with the latter of those two outcomes seeming the more likely route. If Guerra clears, he’d be able to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency.
In Tepera, the Blue Jays will be getting one of their top late-inning arms back after a three-week absence due to what looks to have been a minor elbow injury. Dating back to the 2016 season, Tepera has turned in 160 2/3 frames of 3.53 ERA ball with 9.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. He’s earning $1.525MM as a first-time arbitration player in 2019. Assuming Tepera can demonstrate that he’s fully healthy over the next couple of months, he’ll likely be an oft-asked-about trade candidate for a rebuilding Jays club this summer.
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