Blue Jays sign A.J. Cole

Yeah, this isn’t the Cole you were looking for.

The Blue Jays have signed A.J. Cole to a minor league contract.

Cole is 27 (turns 28 in January). He’s pitched in the majors the last 5 seasons (well, up and down between the minors and the majors the last 5 seasons). He has a 4.86 ERA in 79 games, 19 starts. In 174 innings he’s allowed 188 hits, 35 homers, 72 walks and 181 strikeouts.

Last year he made 25 relief appearances with Cleveland, with a 3.81 ERA. In 26 innings he allowed 31 hits, 4 homers, 8 walks and 30 strikeouts.

FanGraphs says he averaged 94.7 MPH on his fastball and throws a slider, change and curve. But, last year, he was mostly fastball (45.0% of the time) and slider (42.3% of the time).

His fastball has ticked up the last couple of seasons.

It is an ok move, someone throwing 95 MPH is interesting.