Alejandro Kirk, Trent Thornton, Tim Mayza, and Rowdy Tellez were given good news today. The quartet made the Blue Jays opening day roster, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter).
With the increasingly-popular Kirk earning his roster spot, the Blue Jays have a decision looming on Reese McGuire. If the Blue Jays decide against carrying three catchers, they will have to expose McGuire to the waiver process. There is a possibility that Toronto keeps him on the roster, however, especially if George Springer starts the year on the injured list. With Joe Panik and Jonathan Davis also announced as members of the bench, there’s probably not room for McGuire if Springer is healthy enough to play. Infielder Breyvic Valera will also have to be designated for assignment should he not make the roster, as seems likely.
In terms of the bullpen, the final roster spot will go to either Julian Merryweather, Francisco Liriano, or Anthony Castro, notes Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star (via Twitter). A.J. Cole was in the running as well, but he is less likely to start the season with the big-league club. Merrweather has some multi-inning potential as a power arm, and he is slated to pitch once more before a final decision is made. He’s also the one of the four who is already on the 40-man roster.
Speaking of which, Panik needs to be added to the 40-man roster, as does Mayza. The 40-man roster is currently full, though since McGuire and Valera are both out of options, they could be DFA’ed to open the space needed. Ben Nicholson-Smith of sportsnet.ca provides a visual representation of the decisions ahead for Toronto.
Valera is terrible at the plate, DFA him. As for McGuire I hope they can trade him for a piece rather than lose him for nothing. Atkins isn’t great at doing that though. Merryweather And Cole belong on the team, as does Mayza. Liriano does not. That leaves Castro who has done well.
Well Liriano had really good numbers
Agree.
As Par Gillick said, “there are two times where you don’t evaluate a player, September and Spring Training”.
I love when the armchairs come out early in spring lol
September expanded rosters have been abolished, so it’s down to just spring training now.
Wouldn’t mind tapping into that middle infield depth Toronto has for Haniger at the deadline.
Austin Martin?!
Jays have too many OF and it’s debatable if Haniger could start on the Jays. You are dreaming if Martin is traded for Haniger.
Didn’t realize Tellez was fighting for a spot. Figured he was already a lock to make the roster.
His spring numbers were horrid. I would guess theres prob a minor trade coming for McGuire involving some pitching depth
But where does he play
Sure with Springer out for a bit he can get some games in a first and DH
But once Springer comes back, you have 4 outfields who you want ABs for. So one of them will be a DH most days.
And Vladdy Jr is playing 1st most days, so Tellez is a defensive replacement in the 6-7 inning?
If Tellez gets in some games at the start of the season here, and hits will, they’ll find him some ABs.
But they should get his left handed bat in the line up somehow
It’s 6 players for 5 positions (LF CF RF 1B DH). In the absurdly unlikely scenario where all 6 are healthy enough to play 162 games, they all get a day off a week to keep them fresh transitioning from a 60 game season to a 162 game season.
And in the real world, somebody else is always hurt. Admittedly Rowdy is the least positionally flexible of the 6 players, but he’s still important to give Vladdy breaks.
“Expose McGuire to the waiver process” – well put!
Lmao! In all seriousness, it’s time to move on from Reese. Jansen and Kirk will be more than enough catching depth for the Jays. Expect him to be DFA’d in a couple days. Gotta pray for Springer’s health. Need him in there opening day if they want any chance against Cole. Maybe they will DH him for a week to start.
Riley Adams is the one who really makes McGuire expendable. He showed enough this spring to be comfortable with him if one of the catchers gets hurt.
McGuire is a better catcher than Jansen or Kirk but he can’t hit and Kirk can. Jansen can’t hit nor can he call a game or block balls. He should have been traded in the off season and a vet brought in to work with the other catchers especially Kirk and Adams. McGuire is a typical backup catcher in that he is good defensively but lacks the bat.
IMO I would have Kirk as the starter and McGuire the backup at least to start the season. They can always see what the dumpster pile has as teams “dump their garbage before they make the jump to hyperspace”.
Happy Kirk made the team
Nice to have one catcher who can hit
Hi TC,
Can you fix the spelling error of ‘Merrweather’ in this sentence? it should be ‘Merryweather’.
‘”Merrweather” has some multi-inning potential as a power arm, and he is slated to pitch once more before a final decision is made”. Please & thank you.
IMO you should get a life and spend less time worrying about some posters typing/spelling or fat finger error. Really if you have that much time on your hands pick a hobby or something useful to spend your time on.
welcome to Baltimore Reese!
Save your lack of insight. Reese is still a Blue Jay as of today. Also, doubtful he goes to Baltimore.
Not enough Walmart’s?
McGuire is used to exposing himself so he’ll be ok.
I would have traded Jansen while he has some value. Catchers who hit .150 don’t belong in the big leagues.
Jays are winning nothing this year so might as well acquire good assets for the borderline players.
Or hear me out here, continue to let him develop. Guy put his offensive game aside (which was his bread and butter) in order to work on his defensive game. Now he’s a very good catcher behind the plate which will allow him to focus on the bat now. Guy still has potential to be a stud so why not keep him until you know more then the 24AB that Kirk has above A ball
But he is not a good catcher behind the plate. He has trouble blocking balls in the dirt and he can’t call a game as evident by the multiple times last year and in spring training he could not even get on the same page as the pitcher. He did do better in throwing out runners but considering how bad his bat is and he has multiple years experience now so little or no upside. Basically Jansen does not belong in the big leagues.
You should be in the jays management since you can see he’s such a bad player yet you think another team will trade for him in order to get a pitcher of similar baggage
There are other teams with worse.
I said in the off season (before spring training began) while he still had some hope of “maybe” rebounding but spring training shows little or no hope of that. He appears to have done nothing to improve either his overall catching ability or his bat.
Also I never said anything about what they could get in return and with the right package you can get almost anything.
Unless you can find a Pitcher who got “whacking in a man’s toolshed” it will be pretty hard to find a Pitcher with “similar baggage”
You just ruined your argument by citing spring training
that’s reese not jano
Daddy has a point, and Kirk still has two issues he could have dealt with the next month or two, shaving another few pounds and defense.
I won’t go as far as Darth on Jansen assessment. Jansen is good enough for the bigs but his ability to start is in doubt without question.
Good luck Reese! You could have hid after that mistake. But you will have organizations inquiring on a young controllable experienced back up catcher.
Not only did Alejandro Kirk make the opening day roster of the Blue Jays,
in a surprising turn of events, he was also named team captain,
making him…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
CAPTAIN KIRK !!!
He better keep an eye out for that Picard kid coming up right behind him
They can’t find a trade for McGuire? I don’t understand why this option is repeatedly left out as a possibility by MLBTR writers?? Organizations usually can always use backup catchers, particularly one’s with significant MLB experience. I mean, for gods sake, Eric Kratz has been traded how many times now?
I don’t think teams are too excited on Reece. Although exposing himself through waivers could be a hard and sticky situation. I think he should spend more time working on his bat on ball skills or other GMS will think he is junk. He should work on polishing his bat skills or beat it.
Nobody wants to own him because of what he did. He’s a pervert, and if he came to their team and represented them, and got caught again, they don’t want to be responsible for him.
Like Mr. Twotone said, “bat and ball skills”
It’s time to get over the incident. Players have done much worse that we do not know about and continue to play out their careers. If Reese could hit nobody would care what he did.
@Yankee Clipper- at least if the Jays let Reese continue to catch he won’t be dropping anything. lol
So German and Chapman are fine to keep on your roster, but McGuire harming nobody is worse? Riiiiight.
Send McGuire and a 40-40+ FV prospect or two for one of Chris Stratton or Richard Rodriguez. They need another RP after losing Yates and I’d much rather see the Bucs run McGuire as the 2nd catcher than Michael Perez or Tony Wolters.
Don’t forget… Springer deal was awful for the blue Jays. Atkins is way too dumb, lacks creativity. Guys a moron.
Phelps is terrible, Cole could easily be Phelps at a cheaper contract. Yates’ medicals were ignored. Didn’t go full tilt on starting pitching after landing Springer and Semien. Yet, I say Atkins should not be extended and it caused a meltdown.
It certainly did. This clown has put us on a road of dysfunction for this season. And I’m serious about that Springer deal, man. It’s a ridiculous contract I’ll be proven to be right.
Mario it just wasn’t that necessary. Grichuk was better in CF than I expected in 2020. Gurriel is not a good LF defender and only has a great arm. Teoscar is terrible in RF.
Oh, and Grichuk was handed an extension not too long ago. But let’s address the mound by signing Springer. Ok cool.
Hmmm.. Yeah, things aren’t looking good at all.
Teoscar is a DH. He can’t field but he can hit. That won’t change so let him just focus on hitting. Their best possible defensive outfield is Gurriel, Springer and Grichuk.
Great. Except Teoscar isn’t DH’ing full time thanks to 1B/DH being held by Vlad and Tellez. Unless your point is to drop Tellez not sure where you are going here.
I wonder what the market is for Tellez? I don’t suggest trades much because 99.9% are air, but the Yanks need catching and a 1B. Since the Jays are winning nothing this year how about Tellez and Jansen or McGuire for one of the yanks young non 25 man roster starters?
I feel like they should’ve traded Vladdy jr, that could’ve kept Rowdy at 1st, and moved Teoscar to DH like the other commentor said, which I agree with.
Me personally, I don’t think Vladdy jr will ever be a true middle of the order bat. Tellez to me is a better hitter.. and considering neither is much of an athlete or a defender, I’d keep Tellez.
If Vladdy jr didn’t have his dads last name, he’d be regarded somewhat a bust, definitely a let down as of now.. because he’s underperformed big time, he’s no Miguel Cabrera, and he’s certainly isn’t his father as of now, and he’ll most like never be. Possibly not even close ..
Yankees got a young Michael Pineda one time from the Mariners, for a future “hitting phenom” who ended up being a bust. Forget his name. Easy to search up the trade… point is, sell while the value is still there.
The more he plays the more he’ll be exposed that he’s not a middle of an order bat, and if that’s the case with Vladdy, they must look to deal sooner rather then later. But then again, Atkins doesn’t have the guts to make the tough decisions to put this team in the absolute best, healthiest position to win.
If I could get a young controllable pitcher for Vladdy, a real talent who’s major league ready, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
After watching spring it’s evident one of the corner OF needed to be traded for pitching.
I’m glad you’re not in charge of this organization.
You like 4th place better? Cool.
4th where? In the AL East? If you think they will finish 4th in the AL East give your head a shake.
Betting 3rd. I didn’t say they’d finish 4th. I said you like seeing them finish 4th after your bush league take there, unsavvy.
The “blue Jays were ready to make the push” so cough up god knows how much over 6 years for a 30 year old plus.
How about since you have such a young dynamic core, under control, how about going into the farm, and packaging prospects for a young outfielder under control, who you didn’t have to pay that much money to, who grows with the core.
Just because you feel you’re “ready”, doesn’t mean you start throwing money around carelessly.. as much young talent as they have, they should be that much more careful not giving out dumb contracts like the one they gave to Springer. Ridiculous.
Watching spring games it’s evident fans ragged too much on Grichuk’s play on CF yet neglected how bad Gurriel’s route running is and how scared of the fence he is. Then there is Teoscar…
The focus had to be SP and infield. The minute Springer was signed meant a deal needed to be made for SP with either Teoscar or Gurriel. Jays are leaning hard on hitting, bullpen and Ryu to bail them out.
As a Blue Jays fan, I am not convinced it’s enough. Ray and Matz will have to have career years and someone in the bullpen will have to surprise and be a star closer. No way they catch the Yankees.
If it wasn’t for Covid there would have potentially been more teams bidding for Springer and Jays probably would not have got him. 25 mil a year is not bad for Springer’s production and defensive value in free agency. He will eventually be moved over to right field in a couple of years where he will still be good value. The only thing teams did not want to do was pay full price for the 6th year . Springer has been able to accumulate 26 War in the last 6 years even with Covid. He should be able to produce the 15 to 18 War it would take to make this contract pay off for the Jays. The team is betting it will be more.
Reese is useful and should not be dropped. He can play once a week. He’s a strong defender.
If Kirk making the team is justified, make the same decision for Manoah to be in the bullpen. Otherwise let Kirk lose another 10-15 the next two months, give Jansen April and May to figure things out and if he doesn’t, start the Kirk train.
100% agree. They’d be a fool to drop Reese.
I too agree, besides a brief Cameo in 2020 at the MLB level Kirk hasn’t played above A ball. It would be a shame to lose a useful player for nothing.
Kirk has things to work on. Now, Jansen should not have a lock on the starting role either. Kirk could be taxi squad and Jansen put on a short leash. But to let McGuire go when he could be the stand-in as the backup to give Kirk a little more time is perfect.
I would also pull Riley Adams aside and let him know that no catcher has a hold on the starting role. Pump him up for the Bisons 2021 season.
I could see that going down . Back to Bucs ? Stupid trade when he went to jays !
The pirates are overrated
? Really how ?
Had high hopes for the visual representation. It did NOT disappoint.
I’m surprised Mayza made the team, as he had minor league options remaining. Kirk will unseat Jansen as the starting catcher at some point. Remember, Mike Piazza was a terrible defensive catcher but he made up for it with a high batting average and great power numbers.
Yeah, Mayza is the big surprise. Especially with how many lefties they have, and coming off the surgery with options. It’s not like his 1.41 WHIP pre-injury, before the three batter rule, was anything to write home about. I think it’s a mistake if they lose Liriano or Cole to put Mayza on the opening day roster.