Guardians acquire veteran pitcher from Blue Jays

The Blue Jays have traded right-hander Wes Parsons to the Guardians for $250K of international bonus pool space, per announcements from both clubs. Parsons was designated for assignment by the Jays last week and has now been optioned to Triple-A Columbus. Righty Shane Bieber was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Parsons. It was reported over the weekend that Bieber will undergo Tommy John surgery, thus missing the remainder of the 2024 season.

Parsons, 31, pitched in the majors in 2018 and 2019 but then didn’t make it to the show in 2020 and headed to Korea for a couple of years. Over 2021 and 2022, he threw 176 innings for the NC Dinos of the KBO League with a combined earned run average of 3.68.

He returned to North America by signing a minor league deal with the Jays in 2023, then went on to make 17 starts for Triple-A Buffalo with an ERA of 4.52. He struck out 27.5% of batters faced in that time with a 44.2% ground ball rate but also issued walks at a 12.6% clip. He was added to the big league roster on the last day of the regular season after the Jays clinched a playoff spot the day before, allowing nine earned runs in four innings that day.

He lasted on the club’s 40-man through the winter and cracked the Opening Day roster after the Jays’ pitching staff suffering spring injuries to Alek Manoah, Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson. Parsons tossed five innings over two appearances in the early going but allowed six earned runs and got bumped off the roster in favor of Paolo Espino.

The results have not been pretty over the last three MLB outings for Parsons, but that’s obviously a tiny sample of work. He was in decent form in Triple-A last year and had good results in the KBO over the two years prior to that. The Guardians had a roster spot to burn with the recent news of Bieber’s surgery and will use that, along with that international money, to add some optionable pitching depth to their system.

For the Jays, Parsons got squeezed off their roster but it seems there was enough interest around the league that they were able to get something in return before his DFA window was up. They will now presumably use that extra pool space to sign a young player, or perhaps multiple young players, to add to their farm system.