Jacob Waguespack

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Jacob Daniel Waguespack

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Jacob Waguespack was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 37th round of the 2012 amateur draft, out of a high school in Louisiana, but decided to attend college instead. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 2015, he was undrafted and signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies on June 22nd.

Jacob spent four season in the Phillies organization, rising steadily to reach AAA with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in 2018. He was used strictly as a reliever his first two years, then began starting in 2017 when he was 9-7, 3.42 between the Class A Clearwater Threshers and AA Reading Fightin Phils. On July 31, 2018, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in return for major league reliever Aaron Loup. He finished the season with the Buffalo Bisons. Between three teams in 2018, he was 6-10, 4.80.

He began the 2019 season at Buffalo. After 9 starts, he was 2-6, 5.86 when he was called up to Toronto on May 26th as reliever Tim Mayza was placed on the injured list. While he had been pitching far from lights out, the Jays were desperate for some bullpen arms at that point, after a series of abbreviated starts had placed a huge toll on the bullpen. He made his debut on May 27th, pitching 4 innings in relief of Aaron Sanchez in an 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. He went back to the minors after that one appearance, but after he was called back to stay on July 3rd, he ended up being one of the busiest starting pitchers for the Jays that year, as he made 13 starts in 16 appearances, pitched 78 innings and ended up at 5-5, 4.38. The Jays' pitching was in such a state of flux all season that his 5 wins were only one off the team lead, shared by three pitchers, and he was 5th on the team in both innings pitched and games started. At Buffalo, he was 2-6, 5.30 in 12 games.

He made the Blue Jays' opening day roster as a long reliever at the (delayed) start of the 2020 season. When rosters needed to be trimmed from 30 players to 28 on August 6th, he was originally one of two players transferred to the taxi squad, but when Trent Thornton was placed on the injured list later that day, he was reinstated to the active roster. However, when manager Charlie Montoyo sent him in to pitch the 6th inning of that night's game against the Atlanta Braves, home plate umpire Alan Porter intervened and had him leave the mound after a couple of warm-up tosses. His name was apparently on the Jays' updated line-up card, but now that these were exchanged digitally and not physically at home plate before the game, it was a previous version that had been communicated to the umpires, while the Braves had received the corrected card. But since his name was not on the officials' list, he was ineligible to play. Normally, a pitcher who makes warm-up tosses but is removed before facing a batter is considered to have made an appearance in the game (e.g. the famous case of Larry Yount), but in this case, Waguespack was not credited with a game played in the official boxscore.

He is very tall and uses his height to hide the ball well until he releases it, making it hard for batters to pick it up. His fastball is just average, but his deceptive motion makes it appear much faster than it really is.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Keegan Matheson: "Left off lineup card, Waguespack ineligible", mlb.com, August 6, 2020. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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