The Blue Jays announced that star outfielder George Springer has been reinstated from the injured list before tonight’s game against the Marlins. He’ll get the start in center field, hitting fifth in the order. The team also activated recently-acquired righty Jacob Barnes and optioned first baseman Rowdy Tellez and outfielder Jonathan Davis to Triple-A Buffalo. Additionally, outfielder Jared Hoying has passed through waivers and been sent outright to Buffalo.
Springer returns for the first time since May 2. Toronto’s prized offseason signee missed the first month of the year with a right quad strain. He made his team debut on April 28, appeared in four games, and then reinjured that quad. His second quad strain of the season knocked him out of action for almost seven weeks.
Surely, the Jays and their fans are hoping that today marks a new beginning for Springer. The 31-year-old was one of the sport’s top performers on both sides of the ball throughout his tenure in Houston, inspiring the Jays to hand him a six-year deal over the offseason. He’ll further deepen a Jays lineup that has been one of the league’s best even in spite of his absence. Toronto hitters have a .262/.326/.447 cumulative slash line, the fourth-best mark in the league.
The Jays just selected Hoying to the roster last week. He only appeared in two games, logging three hitless plate appearances, before being removed. Hoying, who played for the Rangers from 2016-17 and had spent the past three seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization, has the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency.
rip Hoying
It’s hilarious jays fans were happy the jays signed a RF to CF money. Quick everyone guess what’s the most games Springer has played in CF in a single season. Don’t look it up. Just guess.
bro ur delusional Springer has one of the best slash lines in the MLB over his past 162 ish games… i think u need to drink some water from the saltiness of ur team not signing him
You changed the subject. Springer is not going to play much CF for the Jays.
I’m not a fan of any team but I was it would be the jays Toronto is less than 2 hrs from me so… just be quiet unless you know something about anything.
I will always appreciate everything he did for the Astros, but even though his hitting was fantastic in 2019 the rest of his career he barely hit .265 most of the time. His slash lines over the past 162 games aren’t even close to being among the best in MLB.
@terrymesmer
The jays didn’t sign springer to 6 years expecting him to play all of them in centre. They expect him to be their primary centre fielder for the next 2 and then either someone else comes up (like Austin Martin) or they find someone else. They also still have grichuk who’s played centre everyday, even this year, who can backup springer. They don’t need to care necessarily about springers ability to play centre rn even – its going to be a rotation in different outfield/DH spots with their 4 outfielders anyway.
I am looking forward to seeing Springer play. Rowdy needs to learn how to be a big leaguer and hopefully he can excel in AAA.
Good luck, Spring!
A healthy Springer nets you a whole buncha wins you don’t get without him, cuz he knows what winning is about, and how to get it done.
Best move the Jays could have made was signing him
> Springer…knows what winning is about
cheating == winning?
no, winning == winning. 2015 through 2020, dude is a winner. 2015 through 2021, team is a winner. Same offense, year after year after year after year; Most runs scored in MLB, or close to it, every year; fewest batter ks, EVERY year; highest BA, most every year, or close to it. Best W/L of any team in MLB, BY FAR, in that period, except the Dodgers, and we’re just 16 back of them, as of this minute.
Chew on that.
Good timing because Grichuk has been turning back in to a pumpkin.
Hopefully the weak CF market means the Jays could still get some good value for him. Davis is a more useful 4th OF anyways
He has hit safely 6/17 AB’s and three of those hits are home runs. His rate stats really aren’t so different than what they have been in his last three completed seasons. Seems to me you are overreacting to a slow start.
He’s batting. .200 .214 .273 the last 2 weeks
I bet the White Sox would love Grichuk right now.
Randal Grichuk has played all 71 games and is on pace for 30 HR, 107 RBI.
“On pace” doesn’t make much sense when he regresses back to who he is at bat.
He’s the teams 4th best outfielder
About damn time! I was beginning to think he’d never reach his ceiling
Right call on Tellez. Give him some at bats in AAA and hope someone wakes him up.
Meanwhile, Michael Brantley leads the MLB in batting (.350) and the AL in doubles (21) despite having missed 19 games. Though Brantley’s not a CF, it appears Houston chose the right outfielder to keep. An underappreciated player by many fans. Love ’em or hate ’em, the Astros are a great offensive team, with Brantley being a huge reason why.
As a general rule, every personnel decision the astros have made since 2017 has had net positive results.
Completely agree about Brantley (tho wish we could have kept Springer too)
I’ll tell you who else is pro & clutch : Yuli Gurriel. LOVE that guy – even slumping (rarely) I’d rather see him or Brantley up in the clutch than anybody else I can think of in all of baseball
Agreed regarding Gurriel. Another off-season decision that’s working out. Correa is also having a stellar season at the plate, which many people will refuse to acknowledge. If not for Ohtani and Guerrero, he would have an excellent case for MVP so far.
I underestimated the Astros at the outset, thinking Alvarez would have a difficult time making it all the way back. As a unit, they do a great job putting the ball in play and passing the baton. Five of the AL’s top 14 in OPS with Tucker (#22) making a rush to join them. Team numbers of a .277 BA and .802 OPS in a season like this are beyond impressive.
The pitching has also been better than expected. At the start of the season, they had something like 10 legit big-league pitchers on the IL. Without fanfare, Dusty Baker is having a Manager of the Year caliber season. People like to bash the guy, but he has a knack for putting his team in a position to win. Even with all the talent on board, this wasn’t an easy job to take on for obvious reasons. Gotta give credit where it’s due.
Brantley at $16M/year is a much better deal than having Springer at $25M/year. Even though the latter is 3 years younger his durability has become a problem in recent years. While Brantley’s has been much better since leaving Cleveland and now that he’s playing a lot more DH at this point of his career it has improved his effectiveness as a hitter. I only wish the Astros had signed him to a longer deal.
True that, he got that inner Edgar Renteria
Jays were close to signing him too. Imagine him ibatting after Vladdy before Teo
Dusty, my jaw dropped when I saw the initial report that Brantley was headed to Toronto. As things stand now, Springer being activated kinda works as a deadline deal from heaven. They just got a whole lot better. Now go out and get a starting pitcher. Should the Nats become sellers, Scherzer and Ryu would be a lethal one-two.
I’m hopeful jays stay away from the rental market (unless it’s a cheap reliever) I’m hoping they target some arms with term beyond this year.
Dusty, In such a flukey season as this one with all the injuries, it wouldn’t shock me if a lot of teams did that. We might be in for an unusually low-key trade deadline. complicated even more my sticky-stuff uncertainty with pitchers. Which reliever numbers can buyers really trust?
One guy I would look at is Caleb Smith from the Dbacks. A serviceable lefty who can give some team an inexpensive lift. He started against the Dodgers over the weekend and was impressive over six innings, allowing no runs on one hit with five strikeouts. He walked four batters but wasn’t necessarily wild, and was able to induce three double plays. He would have had a fourth if not for an error by Escobar on a routine chance.
Smith seems healthy again: 53 innings over 23 appearances with his last four outings being starts. He also has nine relief appearances where he pitched two or more innings. I’ve liked him since his Marlins days. Just a hunch that whatever team gets him will be happy. As it is, the SP market will be thin due to all the injuries. Smith turns 30 on July 28 and won’t be a FA until after the 2023 season, so not a rental. The Dbacks need a lot, and the Jays have a good enough farm system to make a fair match.
Btw, it’s nice to see Stripling has been turning in some good starts.
Think they would trade Gallen? Diamonds have a lot to offer the jays and we have some good prospects I’m sure they’d love.
Oh man Stripling and Ray’s turnaround has been remarkable to watch, really unexpected but fun to watch. Who knows where the jays would be if it wasn’t for them.
Healthy springer will definitely make the jay’s lineup that much more potent. Now, if they can find some pitching lol
For now
Would rather have the 4-5 quality relievers his salary could pay for.
Unrealistic. The reliever market is always a crapshoot.
Objectively false (Rays, Braves, A’s, etc…) and recent free agent acquisitions aren’t the only players that draw a salary.
You’re telling us the Rays built their bullpen by spending big bucks? Ha.
The way to build a bullpen is to have a strong farm system and convert the good arms who you don’t need in the rotation, like Romano and Borucki. Jays have I think 7 relievers on the IL, it’s not legal to keep 15 bullpen guys on your roster to have bullpen depth — the only legal way to do it is for most of your relievers to be young guys who have options.
Let’s all hold our collective breath that Springer doesn’t strain the quad or suffer some other random injury that lands him back on the IL for another month plus. I hate to dwell on such things, but it is what it is.
Spring has sprung.
Will Toronto fans boo him for cheating though?
You mean Buffalo fans?
Hey it’s my buddy Le Grande Douche! You keep making that same lame joke about the Jays being in Buffalo on every Jays post here and someday your mom might see it and give you your first laugh. Hang in there kid! Maybe you’ll succeed in spite of your lack of wit.
Soooo it really pains me to say this, but I thinks the Cards should sell. The guys I feel the worst for are Yadi and Waino. The Cards and Jays have a solid trade history and I really like the Jays chances if they could add a couple pieces. I know they could use a pitcher so Waino fits. He has been solid all year and I think he could really help. I don’t know much about Danny Jensen, but posts on here give me the impression fans don’t care for him. Yadi could really help too. You can have Andrew Miller for free, just give our heroes another chance at October. Make an offer Jays fans…….
Jays need a 3B and starting pitching. Cards have two top 3B prospects and Arenado. A 2022 reset for the Cards would work. I think they have time to climb the Central.
Jansen can’t hit. He’s a backup somewhere or a starter on a rebuilding team.
Jansen is very good at blocking pitches. He would make a fine backup. But, yeah, his bat is awful. And Reese McGuire has turned it on lately. June 9, his OPS troughed at .509. In nine games since then: .27 PA, 423/.444/.769/1.214.
It’s a very small sample size, but he looks good at the plate.
Can’t complain about the catchers defensively.
What world do you live in that the Cardinals would trade away to legacy players? Neither of them will be getting traded and if they do they certainly ain’t going to Toronto lol
It isn’t really that hard to understand. The Cards trade them so they have chance to play for a winner in what could be their final big league season. In return the Cards maybe get a couple of pieces to help restore some depth to the organization. It’s a rental situation. Both players are on 1 yr contracts so they could return to St. Louis next season if they choose to continue playing. Toronto is a good fit because they have a chance to contend, could use both players, and have trade history with the Cards. Anything else?
@Don Osbourne
Anything else? 10 & 5 rights….