Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Joel Payamps

Joel Payamps is a 26-year-old, right-handed pitcher who is looking for a spot in our bullpen, but who was optioned earlier today, he had the one option year left.

He’s had an interesting winter.

• November 25th he was claimed by the Red Sox from the Diamondbacks.
• February 10th he was claimed by the Blue Jays from the Red Sox.
• February 22nd he was claimed by the Red Sox from the Blue Jays.
• March 6th he was claimed by the Blue Jays from the Red Sox.

I really think we need a ‘guess the date Joel is claimed by the Red Sox again. I’ll admit I’ve done this sort of thing in OOTP Baseball, but I do think there should be some kind of rule about how many times a player can be claimed by one team in a single year. Joel, unfortunately, has been the 40th man on a 40-man roster a fair bit, and often the 40th man becomes the 41st man.

Joel has 7 innings of MLB experience. Beyond that, he’s been a middling prospect in the minors. He was an amateur free agent signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2011, so he’s been a case study in perseverance.

Az Snake Pit had this scouting report.

Sometimes described as wiry and lanky, standing at 6’2” and 200 lbs, Payamps throws a Fastball, Sinker, Slider and Change. If used as a reliever, he’ll mostly use the 4 Seamer and slider. His 4 Seamer averages 93 MPH, maxing out at 96. He may be able to add a little to that velocity working strictly as a reliever. His command has been inconsistent, but when he has it, he strikes out a lot of batters and can dominate.

Someone who can throw mid-90s will continue to get chances.

He has had a good spring (in very limited innings), 2 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 1 hit batter, no runs, in 4.1 innings.

Optioned to the minors now, but then the Jays will need to make room on the 40-roster at some point. Any pitcher who is on the 40-man roster is likely to get some time on the major league mound this year.

PECOTA figures Joel would have a 3.82 ERA (but they still have him playing for the Red Sox).

ZiPS sees him making 15 starts and 5 relief appearances (if he makes 15 starts for us, things went really badly) with a 4.82 ERA. It is kind of interesting that they see him exactly a run apart.