TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays signed hard-luck right-hander Dustin McGowan to a one-year deal worth US$450,000 Thursday ahead of a midnight deadline for tendering players 2011 contracts.
McGowan, a first-round pick in 2000, hasn't pitched in the majors since leaving a July 8, 2008 start against Baltimore after five innings due to shoulder pain.
Surgery followed it soon after and he was able to pitch last spring before more problems surfaced. The 28-year-old underwent a second shoulder surgery June 22 and recently began a throwing program, but there is no timetable for his return.
Had the Blue Jays not offered him a contract before the deadline McGowan would have become a free agent, but general manager Alex Anthopoulos is not ready to give up on the once-rising star.
Burned in the franchise's memory is the departure of Chris Carpenter after the 2002 season, and his subsequent emergence into a Cy Young Award winner with the St. Louis Cardinals.
McGowan made $500,000 during 2010 in his first year of arbitration eligibility.
The Blue Jays still have nine arbitration-eligible players remaining on the roster and one of them is a candidate to be non-tendered: reliever Jeremy Accardo.
Accardo made $1.08 million last year while spending most of the campaign with triple-A Las Vegas, and appears to have fallen out of favour with the organization.
Outfielder Fred Lewis, who earned $455,000 in 2010, may also be on the bubble after the Blue Jays acquired speedy outfielder Rajai Davis from Oakland last month.
Davis, home-run king Jose Bautista, starters Shaun Marcum, Brandon Morrow, Jesse Litsch, relievers Shawn Camp, Casey Janssen, and shortstop Yunel Escobar are the other arbitration-eligible players.
