Toronto Blue Jays Must Send Down Struggling Starter Kyle Drabek

After getting blown out by Boston on Sunday at Rogers Centre, the Toronto Blue Jays need to make the difficult decision of sending down their struggling rookie hurler, Kyle Drabek.

The centerpiece of the Roy Halladay trade and the son of Doug, the former Pittsburgh Pirate and Cy Young recipient, Drabek has endured a rough first season to say the least.

After allowing eight earned runs in just four innings to the Sox this past weekend, Drabek’s ERA now rests at 5.70 (fourth in the majors and second only to Fausto Carmona’s 5.71 in the AL), and he has an MLB-high 1.79 WHIP.

Most alarming is his sky-high walk rate, as Drabek has allowed an MLB-worst 52 walks in 72.2 innings pitched compared to only 52 strikeouts. Compare this to Jonathan Sanchez, who has the second-most walks at 50, but has 83 K’s to go with it.

He also leads the majors with 10 wild pitches. Clearly, he has some serious control issues right now. Based on his numbers at present, he is not a major league caliber pitcher.

Unfortunately, it’s not just his numbers that are bad, his attitude is as well.

When he gets roughed up he tends to lose his composure. He yells, he swears, he throws the rosin bag on the ground. It’s nice to see a player showing emotion, but Drabek is just plain frustrated.

It’s time for the Blue Jays to send him down to work on his mechanics. The Jays have already demoted Brett Cecil—remember, he led the pitching staff in wins last season—which shows that general manager Alex Anthopoulos won’t hesitate to demote a struggling player, even if he says otherwise.

With a famous baseball father and a talented arm, Drabek will probably be a great pitcher one day. After all, he’s only 23-years old.

But right now, he shouldn’t be in the majors. He is only hurting the Blue Jays at this point, and with a cupboard chock-full of good pitching prospects, the Jays can afford to give his rotation spot to another deserving youngster.

Remember, Drabek never even pitched in Triple-A. It has become all too evident in recent weeks that he was rushed to the majors, and now the team is suffering for it.