{"id":583680,"date":"2026-04-05T11:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T11:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:27:13","slug":"al-east-notes-corbin-crawford-pepiot-uceta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583680\/","title":{"rendered":"AL East Notes: Corbin, Crawford, Pepiot, Uceta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Corbin<\/a> signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Blue Jays yesterday, and he made his organizational debut by tossing five scoreless innings and 74 pitches in a start for A-level Dunedin today.\u00a0 Prior to Corbin\u2019s outing, Toronto manager John Schneider told MLB.com\u2019s Keegan Matheson<\/a>, Sportsnet<\/a> and other media that the Jays would see how the start went before deciding on any further progression.\u00a0 While Corbin\u2019s unsigned status kept him from participating in a normal Spring Training, Sportsnet\u2019s Ben Nicholson-Smith wrote yesterday<\/a> that Corbin has gone beyond 80-pitch workloads in his personal workouts, and tossing 74 pitches today certainly indicates that the left-hander\u2019s arm seems pretty close to fully built up.<\/p>\n

The recovery periods for such injured starters as Trey Yesavage<\/a>, Jose Berrios<\/a>, and Shane Bieber<\/a> will naturally factor into how Corbin is used in Toronto, as Schneider left open the possibility that the veteran could be used in more of a long relief role.\u00a0 \u201cWe definitely view [Corbin] as a starter or a length option.\u00a0 Until the dominoes start to fall back into place with Trey, Jos\u00e9 and Bieber, you look for length and how we can use it,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n

If and when the Blue Jays get close to their full complement of starters healthy, Corbin is likely the odd man out of a rotation mix, so a bullpen role might eventually be in his future.\u00a0 Using Corbin in the bullpen would also add some needed southpaw depth to Toronto\u2019s relief corps, as left-handers Mason Fluharty<\/a> and Brendon Little<\/a> have both struggled badly in the early going in 2026.<\/p>\n

More from around the AL East\u2026<\/p>\n

Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MassLive.com\u2019s Christopher Smith<\/a> and other reporters that Kutter Crawford<\/a> is also slated to throw four simulated innings on Monday or Tuesday before beginning a minor league rehab assignment.\u00a0 Crawford didn\u2019t pitch in the majors or minors in 2025 due to both a lingering knee injury, and then wrist surgery.\u00a0 Between Crawford and Patrick Sandoval<\/a> (Tommy John surgery) both on the verge of rehab assignments, the Sox may soon have a good deal of rotation depth.\u00a0 Boston already has five healthy starters in Garret Crochett, Ranger Suarez<\/a>, Sonny Gray<\/a>, Brayan Bello<\/a>, and Connelly Early<\/a>, plus prospect Payton Tolle<\/a> as another depth option.\u00a0 As the cliche goes, however, a team can never have too much pitching, and Johan Oviedo<\/a> is now a question mark as he battles an elbow strain<\/a>.
\nRyan Pepiot<\/a> threw a bullpen session on Friday, and Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> writes that the right-hander is expected back after the Rays\u2019 April 6-12 homestand.\u00a0 Pepiot wasn\u2019t expected to miss too much time after he started the season on the 15-day IL with right hip inflammation, and he projects to be out for roughly a week beyond the minimum 15-day absence.\u00a0 The 28-year-old Pepiot has been a solid part of Tampa\u2019s rotation for two seasons, and the 2025 campaign saw him post a 3.86 ERA, a 24.6% strikeout rate, and a 9.0% walk rate over 167 2\/3 innings.
\nAlso from Topkin, Edwin Uceta<\/a> may be ready for a rehab assignment after tossing 22 pitches during an extended Spring Training game on Friday.\u00a0 Like Pepiot, Uceta also started the season on the 15-day IL, as the reliever was bothered by a right shoulder impingement that kept him from any game action during the Rays\u2018 big league spring camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Corbin signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Blue Jays yesterday, and he made his organizational debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,153117,188658,150350,30814,33108,82],"class_list":["post-583680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edwin-uceta","tag-kutter-crawford","tag-patrick-corbin","tag-patrick-sandoval","tag-ryan-pepiot","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}