By Geoff Smith

Albers hopes to prove himself to Blue Jays

Dec 23, 2014 | 11:53 AM

Andrew Albers says he’ll be hoping to prove that a rough season in South Korea was a fluke, and he’s still ready for the major leagues.

The pitcher from the Battlefords is back in the province after a vacation, during which news was leaked out that he was to sign a minor-league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. He still has some papers to sign to make it official.

“Pretty much, I think, everyone in Canada was a Blue Jays fan,” Albers recalled in an interview Tuesday, remembering Toronto’s back-to-back World Series victories in 1992 and 1993. “I was certainly part of that, and one of the big Blue Jays fans, and stuck with them.”

Albers says there were a few teams interested, and Toronto offered a “pretty good deal.”

“They were going to be a good fit. It was going to be a team where I felt like I’d have a chance to go into spring training and compete for a spot.

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“And so that’s what we were looking for out of this off-season, and they provided that.”

Albers could end up with the team’s AAA affiliate in Buffalo if he doesn’t make either the starting rotation or the bullpen. In that case he’ll be hoping for a call up.

“It’s pretty rare that the same five guys make 162 starts. So it’ll be about going there and performing well and proving that I can still perform in North America.

“Right now it looks like they’re also looking for some bullpen help. There’s obviously still a couple months left before spring training starts, so there might be some moves made there as well. So we’ll see what happens with that. But yeah, Buffalo will certainly be an option going forward.”

In the meantime, Albers will be spending this off-season getting back in shape.

“Coming back from Korea, I wasn’t able to (substitute teach) unfortunately this year. It’s a weird deal with some tax stuff and some things like that.

“So, just kind of being in Saskatoon, and looking at helping out, you know they have the new indoor academy here and I’ll probably start helping out with that in the new year.”

Albers was 2-5 in 10 starts with the Minnesota Twins after he was called up from the minors in 2013. This year in the Korean league he was 6-13 with the Hanwha Eagles, with a 5.89 earned run average.

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