Blue Jays select RHP Chad Dallas, outright Tanner Andrews to Triple-A Buffalo

What happened

The Toronto Blue Jays selected the contract of right-hander Chad Dallas on June 4, per a club announcement, adding him to the active roster. To make room on the 26-man active roster, righty Hayden Juenger was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. To open a 40-man spot, righty Tanner Andrews was designated for assignment.

The Andrews chapter has since moved to its next page. Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, Andrews cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Buffalo. Because Andrews does not have the requisite service time to reject the assignment and has not previously been outrighted, he will remain in the organization rather than becoming a free agent.

Why it matters

Dallas is not a name that arrived without a paper trail. Toronto drafted him in the fourth round in 2021, and he put himself on the prospect radar with a strong 2023 campaign that stretched across High-A and Double-A. In 23 starts that year, he logged 123 1/3 innings and posted 3.65 earned runs per nine, per MLB Trade Rumors. The strikeout rate — 27.9% of batters faced — was the kind of number that earns a prospect a ranking. The walk rate, 9.5%, was the kind of number that earns a prospect a footnote. The groundball rate of 44.3% on balls in play rounded out a profile that Baseball America found interesting enough to place him 14th among Blue Jays prospects heading into 2024.

The path from a fourth-round pick to a big-league contract selection is rarely a straight line, and Dallas's has had its bends. But the club announcement on June 4 represents the formal arrival of a pitcher Toronto has been developing for the better part of five years.

The Juenger option is the standard corresponding move — a 40-man roster operates like a fixed-size container, and adding Dallas required moving someone out of the active 26. Juenger heads to Buffalo; Dallas takes his spot. The Andrews designation, and the subsequent outright assignment, is the 40-man arithmetic that makes the whole transaction possible. Under general league roster rules, a player designated for assignment must be traded, released, or placed on waivers within seven days; outright waivers run 48 hours. Andrews cleared those 48 hours without a claim, per Nicholson-Smith, and because he lacked the service time to refuse the assignment and had no prior outright on his record, he stays in the system.

The numbers

Dallas's 2023 season line is the most detailed picture the material provides: 123 1/3 innings across 23 starts, 3.65 earned runs per nine, a 27.9% strikeout rate, a 9.5% walk rate, and a 44.3% groundball rate on balls in play. Baseball America's ranking of 14th among Blue Jays prospects heading into 2024 is the external validation attached to those numbers.

The strikeout-to-walk relationship — roughly three strikeouts for every walk — is the figure a pitching evaluator would circle first. The groundball rate sits in a range that suggests some ability to generate weak contact, though 44.3% is not an extreme number in either direction. The 3.65 earned runs per nine across two levels in the same season is the kind of performance that moves a pitcher from organizational depth to someone the club is willing to protect on the 40-man and eventually call upon.

Where the club stands

Toronto enters this stretch at 79-83 (.488), sitting fifth in the AL East, 19 games back in the division, and ranked sixth in the Wild Card picture at 5.0 relative to the cut line. Per the club's standing, the Blue Jays have been eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race. They arrive at this roster move on a one-game winning streak.

The schedule ahead at Rogers Centre does not ease up. On Sunday, June 7, Kevin Gausman is the probable starter against Baltimore's Shane Baz. Monday brings the Philadelphia Phillies to town, with Patrick Corbin lined up against Cristopher Sánchez. Tuesday's probable matchup features Dylan Cease against Zack Wheeler — a pairing that will draw more attention than most mid-week games in June tend to.

Where Dallas fits into that rotation picture is not specified in the club announcement or the MLB Trade Rumors report. What is clear is that Toronto has added him to the active roster, which means he is available. The specifics of when and how he is deployed remain to be seen.

What we don't know yet

The club announcement does not specify Dallas's role — starter, bulk option, or bullpen arm. His 2023 track record is built entirely on starting work, but a contract selection does not come with a job description attached.

The material also does not detail what Dallas has done between his 2023 prospect season and this June call-up. The gap between Baseball America's 2024 ranking and the June 4 announcement is not filled in by MLB Trade Rumors, so the shape of his development in the intervening period remains unaddressed here.

Juenger's timeline in Buffalo is similarly unspecified. An option is not a verdict, but the report does not indicate when or under what circumstances he might return.

What to watch

The most immediate question is whether Dallas appears in one of Toronto's next several home games and in what capacity. A club that has been eliminated from both the division and Wild Card races is, by definition, in a phase of the season where development and evaluation carry more weight than they might in a pennant chase. Selecting a 2021 fourth-round pick with a notable strikeout rate and a Baseball America pedigree fits that frame, even if the club announcement does not say so explicitly.

Andrews's situation is worth a quiet follow. He cleared waivers, he is in Buffalo, and he remains in the organization. The outright assignment is not the end of a story so much as a change of address — one that, per Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, he had no contractual mechanism to refuse.

The Gausman-Baz matchup on Sunday and the Cease-Wheeler game on Tuesday will draw the headlines this week at Rogers Centre. But somewhere in the bullpen or the rotation, Chad Dallas is now on the active roster and available — a fact that was not true before June 4.