Jeremy Jeffress Passes Through Waivers, Remains in Blue Jays Organization

Jeremy Jeffress has passed through waivers, according to his agent Joshua Kusnick. He has likely been outrighted to the AAA Buffalo Bisons. Jeffress was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays back on April 6 in favour of adding Dave Bush and today was the tenth and final day for him to be outrighted.

Jeremy Jeffress remains a blue iay. Risky movie by Tor. I guess rolling the dice on jj clearing was worth more than anyone they were offered

— Joshua Kusnick (@JoshuaKusnick) April 16, 2013

Jeffress, a 25-year old righty from Virginia, was acquired from the Kansas City Royals this offseason for cash before the big acquisitions. He came over with baggage, having been suspended twice for marijuana usage and an arrest. He can throw heat, but his command of it was always the big problem. He even said it himself in Tom's interview with him, saying that although it is pretty cool to throw a ball at 100 mph, "it's even better when you know where it's going."

Despite a spring training record of a 7.62 ERA and 10 walks given up (along with 14 strike outs) over 13 innings--and this horrible game in which he gave up three homers--the Blue Jays decided to take him north to take a few more looks at him before making a decision on whether to keep the option-less reliever. However, the Blue Jays gave up on him after one bad outing against the Red Sox in which he gave up a leadoff homer to Will Middlebrooks then struggled to finish the inning giving up a couple of walks.

Even though I never really thought Jeffress would have stayed for long, I expected the team to have at least a couple more looks at him., but instead they DFAed him. I guess their feeling was that teams would be less inclined to place a claim on Jeffress while he was still wild. Now that he has been sent to the minors, he will have some time to work on spotting that fastball of his. Of course, with Alex Anthopoulos' recent history of rapidfire moves, who knows when he will be called up to Toronto again.

UPDATE

Shi Davidi reports that where Jeffress will end up is to be determined:

Jeremy Jeffress cleared waivers, #BlueJays outright him to he minors, team TBD.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 16, 2013