[News] Jays add two in the Rule 5 draft, look at Gathright
The Toronto Blue Jays hope they had the right inside information to unearth
some Nationals treasure.
Earlier this year, Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos hired Washington’
s former director of amateur scouting Dana Brown away from the Nationals to
be his special assistant.
And it was Brown who was the driving force behind Toronto selecting pitchers
Zech Zinicola and Ruben de la Rosa from Washington’s farm system in
Thursday's Rule 5 draft. Zinicola was taken in the major-league phase of the
draft; de la Rosa went in the Triple-A phase.
“I'm very familiar with both players,” said Brown. “I had a chance to see
them for a few years — in particular, Zinicola, who we've seen [throw] from
90-96 [mph] with a plus slider. He was a really good guy to take a shot at to
see if we can get a back-end piece for the major-league bullpen.”
Zinicola, 24, must remain on Toronto’s 25-man roster for the entire 2010
season or be offered back to Washington for half of the US$50,000 claim fee.
Brown said he thinks Zinicola has the talent to stick around despite
struggling to an 0-1 record and 7.56 ERA in 27 Triple-A appearances. He went
1-1 with a 1.74 ERA in 16 games in Double-A.
“He had inconsistent command mixed in with a little bad luck,” Brown said.
“But, stuff-wise, he's up to 96 with a plus slider. I think once he can get
the command, get the ball down a little bit, I think he's going to have a
chance to take off.”
De la Rosa, who was 4-1 with a 0.96 ERA in 15 games for Washington’s rookie
league team, was assigned to Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.
“His numbers are really good,” Brown said. “He pitched at a lower level,
but he's up to 93 and once again he's a very competitive kid, too.”
In other news Thursday morning, assistant general manager Tony LaCava said
that contrary to published reports, there was no deal for outfielder Joey
Gathright.
The speedy Gathright owns a career on-base percentage of just .327 but has
stolen more than 20 bases three times and could be the leadoff hitter Toronto
does not currently have on its roster.
“We're talking to him and he's obviously a guy with speed and that's
something that would be attractive to us,” LaCava said. “But we haven't
finished anything. We're talking to him and his agents, as are other teams.”
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