The Blue Jays have designated 3B/OF Danny Valencia and outfielder Ezequiel Carrera for assignment, Scott MacArthur of TSN tweets. The Jays also recalled middle infielder Munenori Kawasaki and optioned righty Ryan Tepera. The moves were likely made so that the team could add newcomers Ben Revere and Mark Lowe to their active roster, although those moves haven’t yet been announced.
Valencia, 30, is in the midst of a strong offensive season, hitting .296/.331/.506 in 173 plate appearances. With Devon Travis on the DL, though, the Jays were short in the middle infield, so Kawasaki will join the team instead. It’s still a bit surprising that the Jays would designate Valencia, however, given that the addition of Lowe will leave them with 13 pitchers on their staff. Valencia is making just $1.68MM this year, and he could become an attractive target in a trade or on the waiver wire, given his strong hitting this season (even if it’s somewhat out of character) and his ability to hit lefties and play third base, first base and outfield. He has also appeared in three games at second for the Jays this year. Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos says he expects Valencia will be claimed, as Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets.
Carerra, 28, was batting .279/.327/.374 in 164 plate appearances this year. He became somewhat superfluous, however, with the Jays’ trade for fellow lefty hitter Revere. Carrera is a career .259/.311/.349 hitter in parts of five seasons also spent with the Indians, Phillies and Tigers.
Valencia being DFA’d is a shocker
Both would have been good choices for the Pirates.
Both would have been good choices for the Pirates.
I doubt either one of these guys can pass through waivers. They’re both putting up pretty solid numbers for some team looking for a bat off the bench for the playoff push. Do the Jays have any options to keep these guys as I’m guessing an outright assignment to the minors may not be possible?
gotta make room for the new guys
Giants claim Valencia! Would be a huge improvement over Adrianza.
If he can’t play the middle infield, then the Giants won’t go for him
Padres could use him
Anthopoulos says he expects Valencia will be claimed, he most certainly will be and hopefully, it is the Orioles. I do not like any of the options if Machado gets hurt.
That is why I thought the O’s would have scooped up Matt Dominguez, but they did not.
However, they better be all over this.
Where’s the roster spot? Pearce has to come off the DL and I don’t see them letting him go even though you could make a argument but he was starting to come around in June. Like I said you could make a argument anyway of Pearce and Valencia. Now, Valencia isn’t nothing special with a glove if Machado were to get hurt. Matt Dominquez was nothing special, his OBP numbers were terrible. Yes he decent with a glove, but another low OBP player is not what we needed who also little positional flexibility either
Valencia is better than Flaherty.
That is the basis of my viewpoint.
I saw the Falherty plan unfold last year and I did not like it.
Ezequiel was instrumental in their win last night.
He may have been, but having seen him play, I can say he is probably one player that Revere is better than. There are not too many of those.
I was curious about that. Their triple slashes are pretty comparable. Revere of course has speed and is probably a better defender. It’s a modest upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless.
Should have sent Colabello out instead of Valencia.
Valencia to the Rangers.
Interesting moves but when you start stacking up the talent, the fringe guys need to go somewhere. Could nab a couple prospects for him though in a waiver move.
If we didn’t have Pearce, Valencia make good sense for the Orioles. He has good pop against LHPs and even is hitting righties well. Can play numerous positions. Though with Pearce getting closer I don’t see it as Snider will be DFA’ed for Pearce and well they can’t really afford to send down a bullpen arm such as Givens or whoever will come up in Wright’s place after yesterday’s calf injury.
Though Danny makes sense for many teams and I’m confident someone will add him. Someone will also add Cabrera as a extra outfielder, if I had to guess it will be a NL team. Just my two cents.
Brewers please. Valencia is the same age as Elian Herrera, except better. Carrera is the same age as Logan Schafer, except better. It makes sense to at least claim one of these guys as someone to have around as a stop-gap for a couple years during the rebuild.
Danny Valencia has a .826 OPS vs LHP, does currently not have a job.
Sam Fuld has a .489 OPS vs LHP, is playing every day.
A’s are tanking on purpose.
my assumption is they r going to trade him or do they have t put him on different waivers
I don’t understand this. Valencia is much better than Kawasaki in the first place and hes also been a big contributor off the bench and even as an everyday player for most of the season and his reward is a DFA. A simple roster fix could’ve been DFA Carrera and Option both Loup and Tepera so we could keep Danny
I suspect the Tigers will claim Valencia to try to replace Cespedes in LF and keep Castellanos focused.