Jason

Frasor

It is the longest scorelss streak by a Blue Jay pitcher this season. Frasor, who has been a pleasant surprise for Toronto, will continue to receive plenty of save opportunities.

It’s ridiculous that Frasor hasn’t been in the majors all along. Maybe there was a case for sending him down at the end of April, but there wasn’t one for returning him to Triple-A in June after he posted a 3.09 ERA in 23 1/3 IP in seven weeks with the club. He’ll probably spend the rest of the season in the majors this time, but it looks like he’s a candidate to be traded in the offseason.

Frasor hasn’t allowed a run in 5 2/3 innings over his last five appearances. He had a bunch of bad outings during the second half of August and the first half of this month, but it looks like he’s going to end the season 17-for-19 in save opportunities. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

He has allowed 13 earned runs over his last seven and two-thirds innings, and looks tired. Frasor, who is 17-for-19 in save opportunities, has been displaced by Justin Speier as the Blue Jay closer. The Jays will be looking to upgrade their bullpen prior to next season and Frasor’s role going forward has yet to be determined.

Perfectly understandable, as Cordero blew his third save of the season on Tuesday night and now has an ugly 9.53 ERA over 11 1/3 innings. We’re a bit surprised to see Janssen get the nod, but the Jays probably prefer to keep Jason Frasor and Darren Oliver in their traditional roles, especially with Sergio Santos (shoulder) likely only a couple of weeks away from returning. Still, with a a 3.21 ERA since the start of the 2010 season, Janssen should be a pretty reliable bridge. Feel free to pick him up in all fantasy formats.

Frasor, 34, posted an ugly 5.09 ERA in 17 2/3 innings after joining the Sox in the three-team deal with the Blue Jays and Cardinals prior to the deadline, but he’s an established setup man with a career 3.74 ERA over eight major league seasons. With Chris Sale moving to the rotation, Frasor and Matt Thornton should form a nice bridge to closer Sergio Santos in 2012.

Frasor hasn’t blown a save this month, but he had had a rough time lately, allowing nine runs in his last 6 2/3 innings of work. The Jays will keep him in the closer’s role, probably for the rest of the season.

Maybe we’ll see some two-inning saves from Frasor. “He’s still the closer, but don’t be surprised to see him earlier,” interim manager John Gibbons said. “It will give him some breathing room to iron some things out.”

Frasor hadn’t been pitching well of late. His 9.26 ERA in August certainly wasn’t winning him any favors, but he didn’t blow a save and only lost one game during that span. Given that Frasor is 17-for-18 in save opportunities, this seems a little harsh. He should still be expected to get the majority of save chances for the Blue Jays, but it’s clear that manager John Gibbons no longer sees him as the sole option in the ninth inning.

It looked like Frasor would get a chance to go for a two-inning save last night before he gave up a leadoff double to start the ninth. Tonight, there was probably no thought given to letting him work the second inning, if for no other reason than that he did pitch Wednesday. We expect that Frasor will get more save chances, even if interim manager John Gibbons opts to use Justin Speier to close for another week or two. Frasor doesn’t deserve to lose his job because he struggled against the Yankees.