Justin Shafer

In 2019, while pitching for Class AAA Buffalo was a mid-season International League All-Star...Made his Major League debut with a scoreless fifth inning in the 10-2 Blue Jays loss on 8/19/18 at NYY...faced 6 batters but left the bases loaded...recorded his first career strikeout (Gleyber Torres)...Earned his only Major League save in a 4-1 Blue Jays in on 7/31/19 at KC...Following the 2015 and 2016 seasons pitched in the prestigious Arizona Fall League. Attended Lake Wales (FL) High School...went to the University of Florida.

2019

At Class AAA Buffalo was a mid-season International League All-Star...Was a non-roster invitee to the Blue Jays' Major League spring training camp...Made 34 relief apps during 5 stints with the Blue Jays (5/28-6/2, 6/13-6/16, 6/18-6/20, 7/7-8/24, 9/5-remainder of the season)...Entered the season with 6 Major League apps, all in relief for the Blue Jays in 2018...Earned his first Major League save in a 4-1 Blue Jays win on 7/31 at KC...Produced scoreless streaks of 10.0 innings (8g, 6/16-7/22) and 8 games (7.2ip, 7/26-8/9), both career highs...On 11/20 was designated for assignment...5 days later was claimed off waivers by the Reds.

2018

Started the year with Double-A New Hampshire and posted a 0.52 ERA in 13 appearances (17.1 IP, 1ER, 1HR, 5BB, 17K)...Was promoted to Triple-A Buffalo in May and put up a 1.41 ERA over 34 games for the Bisons with 15 saves in 16 opportunities (38.1 IP, 27H, 6ER, 0HR, 16BB, 32K, .201 OBA).. Called up from Buffalo on Aug. 19 and Sept. 6... Pitched a scoreless inning in his MLB debut on Aug. 19 at NYY (H, BB, K) and fanned Gleyber Torres for his 1st strikeout... Tossed three full frames without allowing a hit on Aug. 26 vs. PHI (1BB, 1K)... Did not allow an earned run in his first four big-league outings (6.0 IP)... Kept opponents to a .194 AVG (6-for-31) across his six games with the Blue Jays... DId not pitch in the final two weeks of the season as he dealt with a right elbow flexor strain.

2017

Made his way through three levels of baseball, starting with Advanced-A Dunedin (5G) before moving on to Double-A New Hampshire (37G) and finishing with Triple-A Buffalo (2G) ... Began the year with five scoreless relief outings (9.1 IP, 2BB/13K) for Dunedin ... Earned a promotion to New Hampshire on April 19 and didn't allow a run in his first two appearances (1.2IP)...Limited righthanded batters to a .173 average in his time with the Fisher Cats ... Went 5-2 with a 3.41 ERA at the Double-A level ... Made his Triple-A debut on Aug. 20 vs. Gwinnett (2.0 IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 2K)...Struck out four batters over four innings of work with the Bisons.