The Blue Jays have placed utility player Breyvic Valera on the restricted list, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to report. Valera has had difficulty getting out of his native Venezuela, Nicholson-Smith adds.
The 28-year-old Valera just joined the Blue Jays on July 2 as a waiver pickup from San Diego, though he did see a bit of action with Toronto last season in a previous stint. Valera has been quite popular around the league, in fact, having played for four other MLB teams besides the Blue Jays. The switch-hitter has only totaled 138 plate appearances in the majors, though, and has mustered a mere .223/.294/.298 line with one home run. Valera has been much better at the Triple-A level, where he owns a .302/.374/.442 mark with 31 homers in 1,550 PA.
Between his success in the minors and his ability to line up all over the field, it’s not hard to see why so many teams have taken a chance on Valera. The hope for the Blue Jays is that Valera will turn into a valuable major leaguer in their uniform, but it’s up in the air whether he’ll play for the club again.
Really liked him in his limited time with NYY. His versatility is great!
The guy is a good ballplayer. Liked him during his time with the Cardinals. He was blocked by Kolton Wong.
He seems like a good candidate to go play in Korea or Japan… I just feel like he could be a “star” over there and presumably make more $ as well. Though I suppose (if he can get his travel/visa/etc) sorted out this season he also has a pretty good shot at being a UT guy in the majors so I guess it’s really just a matter of which he prefers.
He’s hit one more homer in the majors than I have…
This probably means Espinal is going to be the backup INF. With no minors this move makes sense.