Ronald Belisario Signs with Tampa Bay Rays After Deal with Toronto Falls Through

A couple of days ago, various baseball media outlets reported that the Toronto Blue Jays had signed free agent reliever Ronald Belisario to a minor league deal after making a strong push for him. Jim Bowden of ESPN.com was the first reporter to break the story.

The deal made sense for the Blue Jays, as the team was looking to overhaul a bullpen that had badly struggled during the 2014 season and finished 25th in the majors in ERA.

Belisario, too, was coming off a poor 2014 season where he posted 5.56 ERA in 66.1 innings pitched while picking up eight saves in 12 chances. But analysis indicates that the right-hander could be a prime bounce-back candidate during this upcoming season. 

Unfortunately, it appears that the story of Belisario signing with the Blue Jays was released prematurely, while the two sides were still negotiating and had yet not finalized a contract.

According to Mike Wilner of Sportsnet.ca, the Blue Jays and Belisario were very close to reaching an agreement, but the deal fell through at the last minute.

Belisario remained a free agent until today, when he signed a minor league deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

With Belisario off the market, the Blue Jays continue their search for relievers heading into spring training. According to Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos stated that Toronto is still monitoring “a lot of the remaining free agents.”