DUNEDIN – The Blue Jays pitching situation is a little less crowded today.
Blue Jays PR head honcho Jay Stenhouse just let us know that Brian Burres, the No. 5 starter on the Baltimore Orioles squad last season, has been outrighted by the team.
It doesn't mean that Burres still can't make the team, but it's still not a very encouraging sign when you get pinched off the roster so early into spring training camp.
The Blue Jays also outrighted Reid Santos, a left-handed minor-league prospect who the Blue Jays claimed from the Cleveland Indians in September.
As we reported in an earlier dispatch, pitcher Mike Maroth – who was signed to a minor league contract and invited to spring training – has turned up with a mysterious sore left knee.
GM J.P. Ricciardi said this morning that an MRI on the knee has found some irregularities that could require surgery, but that Maroth has chosen to try to work through it here at the Jays spring training camp.
Maroth was being touted as a candidate for one of the several openings in the starting rotation, but now that is obviously not going to happen.
“He's not done yet,” Jays manager Cito Gaston said, trying to be as charitable as possible. “But certainly it's one of those things that we do need to be doing something in order to certainly be able to make this team.”
Maroth, who signed a minor-league contract with the Jays in December, hasn't played in the big leagues in two years.
