Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com reports that reliever Jeremy Accardo wants to be in a different uniform in 2010. The right-hander is hoping the club will non-tender him and allow him to become a free agent.
Jeremy Accardo gets set to pitch against the Twins at the Rogers Centre September 10th. He allowed a walk in a third of an inning of relief but he was credited with his third hold of the season in the Jays eventual 3-2 win over Minnesota.
After battling a forearm injury that caused him to struggle in 2008, the 28 year-old native of Mesa, Arizona was hoping to get back on track with the Jays in 2009. Unfortunately, Accardo didn't get to spend as much time in the bigs as he would have liked. The trouble seemed to begin when manager Cito Gaston had opined in spring training that Accardo could be stretched out into a starter. Despite a decent spring training, Accardo began the season with AAA Las Vegas thanks to an option left in his contract. He was called up to the Jays after lefty Scott Downs sprained his toe while batting against the Phillies in June. Accardo picked up his one and only save in his first appearance of the season as he got the final two outs for a shaky B.J. Ryan to preserve an 8-7 win over Philadelphia June 18th.
Accardo was unscored upon in his first five appearances of the season and stayed with the big club throughout July. The man with the blue glove was going to be sent down to Las Vegas again at the beginning of August but another Downs toe injury gave him a reprieve. However, the arrival of fellow righty Josh Roenicke from Cincinnati in the Edward Encarnacion-Scott Rolen deal over a week later led to Accardo packing his bags once again for the state of Nevada. He was called up again after the minor league season ended in September and finished out the season with Toronto. Accardo was 0-0 with a 2.55 ERA in 26 appearances with the big club but his peripheral stats was not exactly stellar. He had a WHIP of 1.62, which is 0.31 points higher than his career norm, as his K-BB total was 18-17 in 24 2/3 innings.
Recently, Accardo's name has surfaced in trade rumours with the Jays reportedly interested in Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit. In any event, it certainly looks like the former 30-save man from 2007 has pitched his last game in a Jays uniform.
In other Jays related happenings and goings-on.......
Jordan Bastian has a piece on Vernon Wells as he talks about the trade speculation surrounding Roy Halladay. The money quote is this as "V-Dub" jokes.........
"If we had to face him once a year, that's fine. But if he's going to be with Boston or New York, that's going to be a problem."
Speaking of Doc, he's the topic of a song by Canadian country artist Gord Bamford called "Baseball Glove". Remember, we're just four months away from the Jays home opener April 12th against Alex Rios and the White Sox!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20091212044026614