TORONTO (AP) - The Toronto Blue Jays demoted pitcher Kyle Drabek on Tuesday, sending the right-hander down to Triple-A Las Vegas after his latest rough outing.
The Blue Jays recalled righty Zach Stewart from Double-A New Hampshire.
Drabek was tagged for three homers and eight earned runs in four innings Sunday during a 14-1 loss to Boston.
The 23-year-old son of former NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek is 4-5 with a 5.70 ERA in 14 starts this season. He also leads the AL with 52 walks, something general manager Alex Anthopoulos said gives Drabek a clear mission to fix in the minors.
“The first thing is getting able to get back to throwing strikes,” Anthopoulos said.
“We started talking about maybe this isn’t the worst time in the world to send him down, give him a little bit of a breather and give him a chance to regroup,” Anthopoulos said.
After the rocky loss Sunday, Drabek said he couldn’t remember his last good game. Manager John Farrell said those comments caught his attention.
“You could sense the confidence was becoming a little bit of an issue,” Farrell said. “This is part of his development.”
Toronto acquired Drabek from Philadelphia in December 2009 as part of a package for Roy Halladay.
The 24-year-old Stewart is 4-3 with a 4.39 ERA in Double-A. He is scheduled to make his major league debut against Baltimore on Thursday.
Anthopoulos said the team opted to call up Stewart over more experienced pitchers Brett Cecil and Brad Mills.
“Really his last three outings have been very, very strong and we think it’s a good time to call him up,” Anthopoulos said.
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