No More Ryan's Hope!

Wednesday, July 08 2009 @ 05:32 PM EDT

Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com reports that former closer B.J. Ryan has been released.  His replacement, Scott Downs, has been activated from the disabled list after suffering a toe injury trying to run out of the batter's box in Philadelphia.

Ryan evoked memories of Tom Henke when he first arrived in Toronto after signing as a free agent from Baltimore in 2006.  He saved 38 games, struck out 86 batters in 72 1/3 innings and recorded an ERA of 1.37.  He racked up three more saves in 2007 but was 0-2 with an ERA north of 12 as he went underwent Tommy John surgery for a sore left elbow.  Though he wasn't his same dominant self last season, Ryan still managed to rack up 32 saves and 52 K's in the same number of innings.  The big difference was his WHIP as it went up from 0.86 in 2006 to 1.28 in 2008.  

It was hoped that more recovery time from his surgery would lead to a bounce back season in 2009.  That wasn't the case as the velocity on his fastball was barely breaking the mid-80's, a far cry from the low 90's heater he had in 2006. His WHIP was 1.89 this season and his K/BB mark was 13/17.  He was 1-1 with a 6.53 ERA and the loss came in his final appearance as a Jay this past Sunday.  That's when he gave up three runs in 2/3 of an inning in that horrid 10-8 loss to the Yankees.  His lone victory of the season resulted from a blown save against the Tigers in Game 2 of the season but he was bailed out thanks to a Rod Barajas sac fly.  The game that knocked Ryan out of the closer's role was April 22 when he gave up three runs to Texas in the ninth but Kevin Millar's walk off single in the 11th off Kason Gabbard impersonator Darren O'Day gave the Jays an 8-7 win.  The final insult was May 27th against his former club, the Orioles.  After an Aaron Hill homer put the Jays ahead in the 11th, Ryan only faced two batters before being lifted for Brian Wolfe and he eventually gave up a walk-off grand slam to Nolan Reimold.

His last save came on April 19th when he locked down a 1-0 win for Ricky Romero against Oakland at the Rogers Centre and I'm glad I was there for it.  I was hoping he would come around after that game but he never did.  At the time Ryan signed his five year, $47-million dollar deal, I was in favour of it because I didn't want to see Miguel Batista-type performances in the ninth.  Now, the Jays are on the hook for one more season worth $10-million dollars.  

Despite a rough end to his Blue Jays tenure, I choose to remember 2006 when he came charging out of the bullpen with his name in flames on the outfield scoreboard and his famous fist pump after the game.  Slipknot's "Duality" will never sound the same to me again. 

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