Ryan Borucki promoted to triple-A

The Blue Jays promoted pitcher Ryan Borucki to triple-A yesterday in yet another progression of his meteoric season. Borucki, in 46.1 innings with the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, gave up just 10 earned runs and posted an ERA of 1.94. His WHIP of 0.842 was aided by a strikeout-to-walk ratio above five and less than half a home run every nine innings.

Borucki will make his first start for the Bisons on Thursday,

Borucki isn’t the only pitcher performing in Toronto’s system. Carlos Ramirez, in New Hampshire and Buffalo, hasn’t allowed an earned run in 37.2 innings out of the bullpen, 14 of which were in triple-A. Ramirez has held batters to a .125 batting average this season and has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.5.

Teoscar Hernandez, in Buffalo’s outfield, has homered five times in his last 14 games and is currently hitting .252 with an OBP of .351 in triple-A (both Houston’s and Toronto’s system).

Despite some speculation from fans and analysts, Hernandez (or Anthony Alford, for that matter) won’t be taking playing time from under-performing veteran Jose Bautista. John Gibbons told Mike Wilner that Bautista will still be playing a lot even when rosters expand.

Ignore yesterday’s post about Nori Aoki. The Blue Jays granted the outfielder his unconditional release today just more than a day after designating him for assignment.

Aoki can now join any team (likely a contender, judging by his disappointment in being traded to Toronto) and be eligible for the postseason should he sign by the end of August.

Aoki was acquired from the Houston Astros along with Hernandez for Francisco Liriano.

Eight Blue Jay prospects are headed to the Arizona Fall League this offseason, including Toronto’s top pick in 2016, T.J. Zeuch. Canadian pitcher Andrew Case and international infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. headline the group heading to Arizona.

Here’s the full list:

• RHP Andrew Case
• RHP Jackson McClelland
• LHP Daniel Young
• RHP T.J. Zeuch
• C Javier Hernandez
• C Max Pentecost
• IF Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
• OF Jonathan Davis

You can read more about the prospects in Tom’s much-more-in-depth-and-knowledgeable post here.

Ahead of Brett Anderson’s start last night, Leonel Campos was optioned to triple-A Buffalo and Anderson’s contract was selected.

Anderson performed much better than most people (including myself) expected, pitching 5.2 innings and allowing just one earned run against the first-place Boston Red Sox. With Chris Sale starting for Boston, the Blue Jays lost 3-0 (Sale struck out 11 and didn’t walk a batter in seven innings).

Today, the Blue Jays will play their series finale against the Red Sox at 7:07 ET. J.A. Happ is starting for the Blue Jays while Rick Porcello, coming off of an outing in which he gave up 11 earned runs, is on the mound for Boston.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkColley.