I mean granted, the upside was that he could return to some kind of use, in which case, great, potential starter or middle reliever on the cheap. But the downside was always that AA was fine rolling these particular dice because, even if comes up snake eyes, you’ve still bought something – namely, AA sending a message throughout the system that the Blue Jays are a good organization to work for and if you put in your time, loyalty, and work, you won’t just be axed for stuff relatively beyond your control (see also: his almost blowing the Marlins deal because of a promise he made to Jeff Mathis).

A lot of us, at the time, saw it as AA buying some goodwill even in the worst case scenario. People in the franchise and players pretty much through every level of the system have always liked McGowan, saw how hard he worked, and felt bad for his struggles. It wasn’t charity of course – again, the upside was good – but at the same time it was not only a show of good faith to McGowan, but to all McGowan-like or potential McGowanish players out there. Pay your dues, kid. We take care of our own. And from what I heard, that’s how players throughout the Jays system took it.

So make no mistake, even if McGowan never throws another pitch, AA still bought something here.