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Blue Jays announce more September call-ups: Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Jeffress, Mike Nickeas, Luis Perez, and Ricky Romero promoted

Mike Nickeas wet with Gatorade after his walkoff home run.
Mike Nickeas wet with Gatorade after his walkoff home run.
Minor Leaguer photo

With the Buffalo Bisons' season over, the Blue Jays announced that Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Jeffress, Ricky Romero, Luis Perez, and Mike Nickeas will be added to the active roster as September callups. The Blue Jays will announce the corresponding moves tomorrow as Jeffress, Romero, Perez, and Nickeas all have to be added to the 40-man roster.

Two spots can be created by moving Melky Cabrera and Josh Johnson to the 60-day disabled list, and perhaps the club will say good bye to Mickey Storey and Thad Weber. Or perhaps Jose Bautista's injuries would prompt him to also be moved to the 60-day DL. It was revealed today that he paid a visit to an orthopedic surgeon to look at his hip. Bautista has been out since August 20 with a left hip bone bruise.

It was expected that Kyle Drabek and Luis Perez would be called up to complete their rehab process, but interestingly Drew Hutchison was left off of this round of callups.

Catcher Mike Nickeas was probably not going to be called up but A.J. Jimenez got hurt with nerve damage and the Jays wanted to carry three catchers this month. Nickeas hit just .166/.255/.251 with the Bisons with just one home run, but the one he hit was of the dramatic walk-off variety.

Jeremy Jeffress had one appearance with the Blue Jays back in April before he was designated for assignment and outrighted to Buffalo. Jeffress can light up the radar gun but had been battling his wildness the past couple of seasons. He has recently had a string of great outings for Buffalo. In 27 innings there, he recorded a 1.65 ERA and struck out 28. He had walked 13 but none in his last seven games. Those last few appearances probably got him his call-up.

Out of all the names, Ricky Romero is one that will cause the biggest debate. He has looked pedestrian-to-dreadful in his season with the Bisons, but I don't see what the club has to lose by bringing him back for a month. He hasn't really "earned" the promotion but the Blue Jays have to see how the guy who they owe $15.6 million to look against major league batters. If he sucks, they will drop him off the roster again hoping someone would take him. If he does well, then they keep him on the roster and leave him with something positive to go into next spring with.

One notable name that was not part of the bunch of callups was Bisons slugger and MVP Mauro Gomez. Gomez hit .249/.323/.521 with 29 homers in triple-A and I thought that would merit a trip to the majors. He doesn't really have a future with the Blue Jays as a poor-fielding first baseman, so perhaps the organization decided that his spot on the 40-man would be better suited if someone else occupied it. Another name on the 40-man roster not called up is Brad Lincoln.