Deck McGuire Blue Jays

Blue Jays Sign Former First Round Pick Deck McGuire to MiLB Deal

The Blue Jays announced today that they have signed RHP Deck McGuire to a minor league deal with an invite to MLB Spring Training.

You may remember McGuire as the guy the Blue Jays selected with their first pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, 11th overall and just two picks before the White Sox selected some guy named Chris Sale. The Blue Jays would go on to have a historic draft, selecting a total of 10 additional players that would go on to appear in major leagues for various teams, including current Blue Jays Aaron Sanchez and Dalton Pompey. McGuire, however, could never put it all together in the Toronto minor league system and was traded in 2014 to Oakland for cash considerations.

He then bounced around between the A’s, Dodgers, Cardinals, and Reds before finally making his big league debut with Cincinnati this past season. He spent the majority of the season with Cincinnati’s AA team, putting up solid numbers with a 2.79 ERA and 170 strikeout in 168 innings before appearing in six games with the big league team in September. He numbers were also pretty great in his cup of coffee, pitching to a 2.63 ERA in 13 2/3 innings pitched, with 11 strikeouts and just two walks.

More interesting than his numbers though is his stuff, which we can get a small look at through the numbers at Brooks Baseball. The 28-year-old’s fastball touched 96 MPH for the Reds, though it averaged 93 MPH. He also features a sinker, changeup (with 8 MPH of separation from his fastball), slider, and curveball. His mix of pitches does make him more suited for a rotation spot, but as we have seen many times before, if his stuff does play up to solid levels out of the pen, he may be worth a look in that spot.

As always, there is never such thing as a bad minor league deal. It’s no risk, all reward, and the Blue Jays need to have pitchers in AAA just as much as they need pitchers in Toronto. If he can keep on having success and help out at the big league level, that’s great. If he’s just going to be minor league filler, that also works. He’ll never be Chris Sale, but at this point, that doesn’t really matter.

Welcome back, Deck. Let’s hope round two features a lot more success than round one did.

Lead Photo: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

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