1
DUNEDIN — Rule 5 pick Randy Wells has earned a major-league roster spot with the Toronto Blue Jays out of spring training. That sometimes happens when you don't allow an earned run in six innings, regardless of the meaningless nature of Grapefruit League games.
But Brandon League also made the team and he had a tougher road, one that isn't over yet. Challenged by general manager J.P. Ricciardi last year, when he was told he had to win a spot on the club this spring, League first had to make everybody forget what happened in 2007 before he had a chance to impress them in 2008.
"I've just felt really good all spring and I felt I've done what I needed to do — impress these guys, show them that I deserve a spot," said League, whose 2007 season was effectively stillborn when different mechanics indicated during his first spring-training bullpen session that he had suffered a shoulder injury (later determined to be caused by overdeveloped muscles).
"But I didn't need J.P. to tell me that," League said. "I knew before then that it would be a challenge because of the years guys had, the way so many of them stepped up when everybody was hurt."
Related Articles
Related Information
- Houston Astros
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Armando Benitez
- Buck Coats
- Roy Halladay
- Casey Janssen
- Brandon League
- Scott Rolen
- B.J. Ryan
- Randy Wells
The Blue Jays will leave Florida tomorrow morning for a pair of exhibition games in Philadelphia leading up to Monday's season-opener at Yankee Stadium.
Today's game against the Houston Astros will wind up the Jays' Florida stay, but manager John Gibbons decided yesterday to tell Wells and outfielder Buck Coats that they too had made the 25-man roster.
Third baseman Scott Rolen (fractured finger), closer B.J. Ryan and pitcher Casey Janssen will start the year on the 15-day disabled list.
Ryan, whose rapid recovery from tendon-transplant surgery raised the possibility he might break camp with the team, will stay in the south and is expected back "sooner rather than later," Ricciardi said.
Wells, a converted catcher, was 5-6 with a 4.52 earned-run average in 40 games, including nine starts, with the Chicago Cubs' triple-A affiliate in Iowa. He has 449 strikeouts and 150 walks in his minor-league career, and this spring he struck out six and walked three in seven games.
As a Rule 5 pick, Wells cost the Blue Jays $50,000 (U.S.) and the team had to make a spot for him on its 25-man roster or return him for half that fee (barring a deal being made with the Cubs). But it never got to that point, according to Ricciardi.
The Blue Jays also liked the spring that side-arming left-hander Jesse Carlson had, but the club still had options on him.
Wells's performance in the spring matched his minor-league history, which is one way to convince a team its scouts have made the right call.
"The whole idea is to try and keep as many as you can," Ricciardi said. "It came down to Carlson and Wells. We know we control Carlson, that he can go to triple-A.
"Our scouts did a good job on Wells. He strikes out guys and he's aggressive."
"You know how baseball works," Gibbons said. "If it's a guy you want to see do great, like a kid, you like to see a good spring. But if it's a guy you're counting on and he has a bad spring, you say: 'It's only spring training.'ƒ|"
League gave up eight hits, struck out five and walked three in 82/3 innings. After spending the off-season working out with Jays ace Roy Halladay and the team's medical staff at the minor-league complex here, he believes he has resuscitated his career.
But with Ryan due back, more decisions are in the offing. The good news for League is he's healthy, his sinking fastball appears to be back, and he has been able to pitch in the mid-90-miles-an-hour range.
He's also been helped by the fact veteran reliever Armando Benitez is still awaiting his work visa and has not been able to pitch in games with charged admission. Benitez will start the year in the minors once he gets his papers and has an "out" clause in his minor-league deal he can exercise on May 1.
Ricciardi is measured in his assessment of League's spring.
"It gets a little tougher, because now you have to get big-league hitters out and be more consistent and pick up for Janssen," he said.
"We can't go backward now."
