The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping they found a steal off the scrap heap from one of their division rivals.
Left-hander Brendan Cellucci struggled mightily in the Boston Red Sox organization last season, leading to his release in July. He went on to pitch for the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League to finish out the summer, then played winter ball in Puerto Rico.
Now, Cellucci is set to make his return to affiliated ball with a new American League East club. On Monday, the 27-year-old signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays, according to the transactions log on his official roster page.
Cellucci was the Red Sox’s 12th-round pick in the 2019 draft out of Tulane. The Philadelphia native was a strikeout machine for the entirety of his time in the Boston organization, but always walked a ton of batters too, and never came close to mastering the art of run prevention.
All told, Cellucci made 179 appearances for Boston’s farm teams, pitching to a 5.00 ERA in 259 innings. He struck out an impressive 350 batters, but walked 184 and threw 41 wild pitches.
Cellucci pitched for Criollos de Caguas in Puerto Rico this winter, the team managed by Red Sox bench coach Ramón Vázquez. Vázquez and the Red Sox were likely excited to see the southpaw get another opportunity in affiliated ball, but perhaps the day will come when they aren’t too thrilled about that chance coming with a division rival.
Though Cellucci has 33 1/3 innings under his belt at Triple-A, it’s hard to imagine he’d be a candidate to break camp with the major league roster for Toronto. He kept his WHIP down in independent ball and Puerto Rico, though, and if he can prove those changes were lasting ones, perhaps he’ll get his long-awaited shot at the majors at some point this year.
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