Judy Awaits His Roster Fate

Will he or won't he be rostered? Judy
finds out Friday. (Photo: Tony Lastoria)

Teams all throughout Major League Baseball are having meetings to finalize their plans on who to add (or remove) from the 40-man roster by the deadline this Friday night. Decisions are up in the air for several players, and with that the careers of many lie in the hands of front office executives around the league.

Not being rostered in November is hardly a death blow to a career as players get added all the time during the season. But the majority of players deemed to have immediate value and importance to an organization are often rostered in November because a team does not want to lose any player of value potentially to the Rule 5 Draft.

One such player who is anxiously awaiting his November roster fate is right-handed reliever Josh Judy.

Judy, 24, has been one of the Indians best relief prospects since being drafted in the 34th round of the 2007 Draft out of the Indiana Institute of Technology. Since being drafted in June of 2007, he has been an exceptional performer at every level all the way from rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2007 to Triple-A Columbus in 2010 where in 136 career appearances he is 20-6 with a 2.74 ERA and 18 saves (216.2 IP, 183 H, 13 HR, 69 BB, 245 K).

Judy has even performed well in winter ball. Last year in the Arizona Fall League he went 2-2 with a 1.59 ERA in 11 appearances (17.0 IP, 13 H, 8 BB, 20 K), and so far this offseason in nine appearances in the Dominican Winter League he is 0-1 with 4 saves and a 2.00 ERA (9.0 IP, 10 H, 0 BB, 6 K).

But Judy is not just a performer. He is also a pretty talented and projectable relief pitcher armed with two plus pitches, a fastball that sits 91-93 MPH and touches 96 MPH and a wicked slider. He has all the makings of a big league bullpen arm, potentially in the backend because of his aggressiveness and bulldog mentality.

Judy certainly has the resume to be added to a big league roster this winter, whether it be the Indians doing it or another team via the Rule 5 Draft. In any case he is just trying to take it in stride and see how things go.

"I am going to let it play out," Judy said in a recent interview. "I think at this point it is kind of whatever happens, happens, but my goal is to get to Cleveland."

Back in March it was expected that this would be a moot discussion as by this time Judy was expected to already be on the 40-man roster. He was invited to big league spring training, performed well, and by the time he was sent to minor league camp in mid-March he had left an impression on the major league coaching staff and front office.

The thought was that Judy would be one of the first non-rostered relievers – if not the first - to be called up during the season. Unfortunately for him, an injury at the end of spring training where he pulled a muscle in his arm and strained his UCL in his right elbow ended up shelving him the first month and a half of the season.

As a result, the injury set Judy back and opportunity knocked for other non-rostered relievers such as Frank Herrmann who got the call in mid-June to the big leagues, and later Vinnie Pestano in September.

"It was my last outing of spring training," Judy recalled about the injury. "I got through the first inning no problem and got two outs in the second inning but the last guy I threw a slider and I just felt something tighten up and a pull feeling. I ended up finishing the inning and then got shutdown from there. It was probably bound to happen eventually as it was only a matter of time. I had been on a high up to that point and that kind of slowed everything down."

Anytime you are dealing with a UCL injury it is scary business as a tear leads to Tommy John surgery; however, team doctors examined Judy and determined it was just a strain and they never even bothered to have him undergo an MRI.

Judy reviewed some recent video from the spring to see if he was to blame by doing something different, but his mechanics and delivery looked the same. It was just a freak thing, and something that in the end he was very fortunate to only sideline him for about six weeks.

Those six weeks ended up being the longest of Judy's life as he had to stick around in Goodyear, Arizona at the end of March while players broke camp for Cleveland or to their minor league destinations in Columbus, Akron, Eastlake, and Kinston. That meant he had to stick around for extended spring training, which is something every player who has been a professional for awhile likes to avoid at all costs.

"[Extended] was definitely rough," Judy said. "It was a big strain as I didn't get to see anybody or my family, and I had to watch the Gametracker to see how everybody was doing. It is like you are on a secluded island and everybody forgets about you. It is a ghost town as there is nobody in the clubhouse. When I walked off the field [in my last extended outing] and they said 'get ready you are leaving tomorrow for Akron' I was like 'thank God I am getting out of here and getting back to society'."

Judy's time at Double-A Akron was short as upon joining the team on May 12th he made just two appearances before quickly moving up to Triple-A Columbus, the destination he would have opened at to start the season had he not gotten hurt. He initially struggled as he had to shake off the rust from being out of any true game action since the end of March. As a result in nine combined May appearances between Akron and Columbus he had a 7.00 ERA (9.0 IP, 15 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 11 K).

Judy felt good coming out of extended spring training, but he found out his arm slot was a lot lower than it used to be, likely from him over-compensating for the arm injury. Once his arm slot crept back up to its normal position he took off. From June 1st until the end of the season he made 31 appearances going 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA (40.0 IP, 39 H, 12 BB, 44 K).

Judy's success from June 1st to the end of the season was really just him just getting back to his old self and not him making any significant mechanical adjustments.

"It was really tough trying to spin my slider for the first time after I hurt myself," Judy said. "That's my go to pitch. [By midseason] I felt like it was coming around. It was more just going out there and making my pitches. I know I have two solid pitches right now. In flat grounds I have been working on a changeup and two-seam sinkerball, but those are kind of in the works and could be a possible thing I could develop. But for now it is just those two pitches."

If Judy is added to the 40-man roster and gets his first big league opportunity this coming year, he will already have a good idea of the environment with the big league team. Some of this is due to his participation in big league spring training this past season, but also because of his experience in the Winter Development program in January.

Winter Development is a program the Indians conduct every January where they take 10-15 players from their minor league system or who have recently been acquired in trades and bring them to Cleveland to get to know the facilities, organizational philosophy, and the city itself. The reason is to hopefully have these players better prepared for that first big league callup if they get it so that things are not so new to them.

The Winter Development election typically only goes to the Indians’ top players and those deemed possible big league options in the near future, so with Judy being invited to it last year chalk that up as yet another item in his favor of being rostered this offseason.

"I really had no expectations going in," Judy said. "When we went to Cleveland it was more just meetings and getting acclimated with the city and front office. It wasn't that bad because I live in Akron in the offseason, but still being in Cleveland in January is nothing fun (laughs). We spent the last week in Arizona which was okay. I've been to Cleveland quite a few times, but knowing where to park and how to get to the clubhouse, I have never been a part of that, so getting introduced to that was pretty cool."

Judy's time in Winter Development and big league spring training served as a tasty appetizer for the main course which is making the 25-man roster and pitching for the big league club during the season. He admits it was pretty intimidating at first to go to the big league locker room with the other big leaguers, but because of the youth of the team and knowing so many players already from playing with them he quickly fit in.

"I found out like a week and half before spring training started [that I was going to big league camp]," Judy said. "It was like 'hey by the way we are going to invite you to big league spring training' and I was just like 'this is great and a big step in my career' and then 'oh my God! I don't know what to expect'. It was definitely like the first day at a new school. I walk in and my number was like 80. It was nice though as I had played with and knew some of those guys so it made it a little easier, but it was definitely a surreal experience."

Things may become even more surreal this offseason with that long awaited addition to the 40-man roster. Being added is by no means a guarantee he will ever get to the big leagues, but you can't get to the big leagues unless you are rostered. So this is the final step needed in the minors before potentially getting that big league opportunity.

As Judy gets ready to try and clear another big hurdle in his pro career, even he is forced to shake his head with how he never really understood how hard it is to make it when he was drafted and signed three and a half years ago. At the time he was drafted and signed he had no real idea of all the levels a player has to move up through, all the injuries and other setbacks that affect a career, and all the politics involved with moving players up and down in a farm system.

"That's very true," Judy said. "When you get drafted you are like 'oh yeah pro ball!', but you don't realize that there is rookie ball, short-season, Low-A and High-A, and you are like 'man what did I get myself into as wow there are so many levels'. I think once you get to Double-A and Triple-A level things start to become more real and you kind of put yourself on the radar."

Judy is definitely on the radar. Now he just needs to sit back and await his roster fate.

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIPI.  His latest book the 2010 Cleveland Indians Top 100 Prospects & More is also available for purchase on his site for a special year end closeout sale of $10.00 (including shipping and handling stateside).

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