Yearly, the Toronto Blue Jays, like all main league groups, signal dozens of younger, largely teenage prospects from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, amongst different nations. All of those younger gamers enter professional baseball with huge goals and hopes to raised their lives utilizing their baseball abilities.
Sadly, most of them by no means see these hopes and goals fulfilled. On Friday, the Blue Jays needed to give a Venezuelan pitcher that they had signed simply final 12 months at age 19 the unhealthy information.
The Blue Jays launched right-hander Freigher Barco on Friday, parting methods with the 20-year-old Venezuelan reliever who by no means pitched above Rookie ball.
Barco got here off the Florida Advanced League roster, which makes him a minor league free agent eligible to signal with any MLB membership. The reduce arrived throughout a wider offseason cleanup of Toronto’s farm system, and it adopted a season through which his walks and residential runs allowed each climbed sharply.
Freigher Barco’s Profession Numbers and Signing Bonus
Born Jan. 13, 2006, in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Freigher Ali Barco stands 6 toes tall and weighs 190 kilos, and he bats and throws right-handed. He made 26 reduction appearances throughout two seasons and not using a begin, cut up between the Dominican Summer season League in 2025 and the Florida Advanced League in 2026, posting a mixed 8.04 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 29 walks over 43 2/3 innings. Throughout these seasons he went 2-1 and not using a save, giving up 55 hits and 47 runs, 39 of them earned, together with six residence runs.
Toronto signed Barco as a global free agent on March 13, 2025, when he was 19. That timing got here two months into the 2025 worldwide signing interval quite than through the Jan. 15 window that produces the headline signings. Barco joined the Dominican Summer season League roster as a depth arm, and his bonus was by no means publicly disclosed in MLB or MiLB transaction logs or prospect databases. However the Blue Jays apparently thought nicely sufficient of him to convey him stateside to the FCL, a transfer many younger worldwide gamers by no means get to make.
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Sadly for Barco, his promotion was short-lived.
Barco’s outcomes declined in his second professional season. In 2025, he went 2-1 with a 6.49 ERA and 1.78 WHIP in 13 reduction appearances for the Dominican Summer season League’s Blue Jays Blue membership, putting out 21 and strolling 11 in 26 1/3 innings. He then moved to the FCL in 2026 and, in 13 extra appearances, completed with a ten.38 ERA and a pair of.13 WHIP, putting out 17 whereas strolling 18 over 17 1/3 innings. His walks per 9 innings rose from 3.8 to 9.3, and his residence runs allowed went from one to 5.
Toronto launched 11 minor leaguers throughout two days, Nov. 12 and 13, to open home Rookie-league roster spots forward of 2027 spring coaching and the incoming worldwide and draft courses. 4 others had been complex-level pitchers. They had been Ramon Suarez, Luis Torres, Michael De La Cruz and Emminem Flores, all of whom additionally left the group.
As a result of Barco by no means superior past Rookie ball, his departure has no direct influence on Toronto’s pitching outlook on the main league or upper-minors ranges.
Slicing older, underperforming complex-level arms frees up Florida Advanced League innings and improvement time for newer additions, together with 2026 draftees equivalent to first-round pitcher Cole Carlon and worldwide signing Woo-jin Cho, a right-hander assigned to the Dominican Summer season League’s Blue Jays Blue roster on Nov. 11.
On the main league stage, common supervisor Ross Atkins and the entrance workplace are working to strengthen beginning rotation depth for 2027, with Cody Ponce, Bowden Francis and José Berríos all rehabbing. The membership is exploring prime free-agent starters together with Tarik Skubal, Freddy Peralta, Michael King and even a reunion with Kevin Gausman, together with left-handed bullpen additions, forward of a possible Dec. 1 lockout.
Barco turns 21 on Jan. 13, and as a minor league free agent he can signal with any group earlier than the 2027 season begins.
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