Brandon Eisert, a left-handed pitcher who turned 27 yesterday, was picked by the Jays in the 18th round of the 2019 draft.
Eisert made it to the majors for 6.2 innings last year, giving up 3 earned, 5 hits, 4 walks and 2 strikeouts.
In Buffalo, he pitched in 42 games with a 3.86 ERA. In 53.2 innings, he allowed 51 hits, 7 home runs, 21 walks, and 66 strikeouts.
He was on our 2023 Top 40 Prospects list in 2023, in the #38 spot (in 2022, he was #34). Matt wrote:
Eisert pitches with a crossfire drop-and-drive delivery, making his pitches hard to pick up especially for left-handed batters. That allows his low-90s fastball to play up from its fringe velocity. His main secondary is a sweeping slider from which he’ll add and subtract a bit, and he’s shown a decent change-up but his arsenal has been increasingly pared back.
Eisert is now on the cusp of the majors, a non-roster invitee to Spring Training with the Jays looking for left handed help in the bullpen. The final developmental step is ironing out his command, as the one blemish has been a tendency to leave balls over the plate and he thus be too hittable (8 HR in Buffalo, more than a hit an inning in Vancouver).
At this point only injury or major regression would keep him from pitching in the big leagues, while the command refinement will dictate whether it’s a cup of coffee or marginal/specialist role, or if he carves out a regular bullpen role as a solid (role 35) or above average (role 40) reliever.
He’s made the ‘cup of coffee’ level.
Currently, he is one of five lefty pitchers on our 40-man roster. Brendon Little, Easton Lucas, Adam Macko and Josh Walker are the others (and if you said ‘who’ to one or more of those four, you aren’t alone). So there is a good chance that, if Brendon makes it through spring training on the 40-man, he’ll make the Jays roster at some point.
In his limited time with the Jays, his fastball averaged 91.2 mph, and he also threw a slider and a changeup.
Basically, he’s a guy who could be in the Jays bullpen and wouldn’t move the needle in either direction all that much. He could be the second lefty in the pen; we’d be okay with that. The odds of him moving to a more prominent role are slim.
Steamer figures he will get into 33 games and 33 innings with a 3.76 ERA.