Discuss having a robust farm system.
Proper-handed pitcher Phillippe Aumont, who left baseball after the 2020 season to grow to be a farmer, has come out of retirement to signal a minor-league cope with the Blue Jays, in keeping with the group’s transactions log.
A local of Gatineau, Quebec, Aumont, 37, will try and resurrect his profession with the defending American League champions — 11 years after he final threw a pitch within the majors.
He may even swimsuit up for Workforce Canada on this 12 months’s World Baseball Traditional, his fourth time showing within the event.
After COVID-19 worn out your complete minor league season, Aumont stepped away from baseball to, as he put it, “return to nature.”
“There’s a which means to it. I wish to contact nature. I wish to find out about animals, and rising greens and fruit crops,” Aumont instructed CBC’s “Ottawa Morning” about his choice to retire six years in the past. “Simply the limitless prospects for me on a farm are priceless.
“Baseball has been nice. Baseball allowed me to do lots of issues in life, and I’m very grateful. However when the pandemic hit you noticed what it brought about in our cities. I simply felt a necessity to start out one thing, to simply return to nature and get away from detrimental stuff.”
Aumont briefly returned to the mound through the 2023 WBC with Canada — reaching 92 mph together with his fastball — however insisted on the time that he had no real interest in a full-time comeback.
As soon as a extremely touted prospect, the 6-foot-7, 265-pound right-hander was chosen eleventh total by the Mariners within the 2007 MLB Draft.
Seattle traded him to the Phillies two years later as a part of the blockbuster swap that despatched ace Cliff Lee to the Mariners.
Aumont made his MLB debut in August 2012 and appeared in elements of 4 seasons with the Phillies.
In 46 main league appearances, Aumont owns a 6.80 ERA with 42 strikeouts throughout 43 2/3 innings.
The journeyman then inked minor league pacts with the White Sox, Tigers and Blue Jays whereas additionally showing within the Canadian American Affiliation of Skilled Baseball.
Whereas a return to the majors after greater than a decade away stays a protracted shot, Aumont supplies skilled depth for a Blue Jays pitching workers already coping with a number of accidents on the outset of spring coaching.
Starter Bowden Francis will miss all of 2026 after ulnar collateral ligament surgical procedure, whereas fellow right-hander Shane Bieber is anticipated to be sidelined with proper forearm fatigue to start out the season.
