Giants take Jimenez from Jays in Rule 5 Draft

December 16th, 2019

SAN DIEGO -- For the second straight year, the Giants dipped into the Blue Jays organization to land a reliever, selecting right-hander during the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft on Thursday.

Jimenez, who turns 26 later this month, recorded a 2.59 ERA over 45 relief appearances between Class A Advanced Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire in 2019. He struck out 93 and walked 21 over 59 innings.

"We're excited about him," general manager Scott Harris said. "We were hoping he would fall to us. He's a righty who touches the upper 90s with a downer slider, with huge performance on both pitches. As we've talked about all week, we're just trying to find talent wherever we can find it. This isn't the most creative way to find talent, but we got an arm we really like."

The Giants plucked left-hander Travis Bergen from the Blue Jays in last year's Rule 5 Draft, though he struggled to stay healthy and was returned to Toronto after logging a 5.49 ERA over 19 2/3 innings in 21 relief appearances in the Majors.

Teams pay $100,000 to select a player in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. If that player doesn't stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former club for $50,000.

Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins had a sense the organization would lose Jiménez, who became eligible for the Rule 5 Draft after Toronto opted to leave him off its 40-man roster in November.

"He throws hard," Atkins said. "He throws strikes, strikes guys out. He's got good stuff. The walks may be a little high, but he was definitely a guy we debated protecting. Every year you have a couple of guys where you're not sure which way they go, and he was one of the guys we were worried about."

The addition of Jiménez will give the Giants another young reliever to evaluate during Spring Training. Tony Watson and Trevor Gott will return to help anchor the back end of the bullpen, but the Giants will be counting on several young arms to round out the relief corps after losing All-Star closer Will Smith to the Braves. Jandel Gustave, Wandy Peralta, Sam Coonrod, Tyler Rogers, Shaun Anderson and Melvin Adon will also be in the mix for relief jobs.

The Giants did not lose any players during the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft, but they lost three in the Minor League phase. Right-handers Adam Oller and Miguel Figueroa were taken by the Mets and Reds, respectively, and infielder Manuel Geraldo was selected by the Nationals.

The Giants added catcher Bryan Torres from the Brewers in the first round of the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Torres, 22, batted .283 with a .729 OPS over 67 games in the Rookie-level Pioneer League in 2019.