The Blue Jays have designated outfielders Bradley Zimmer and Raimel Tapia for assignment. Toronto also released left-hander Foster Griffin. In corresponding moves, the Jays selected the contracts of righty Yosver Zulueta and infielders Addison Barger, Spencer Horwitz and Orelvis Martinez.
Tapia landed in Toronto in the Spring Training deal that sent Randal Grichuk to the Rockies. The hope was to more adequately balance an outfield that skewed right-handed with a lefty-swinging contact bat, but Tapia didn’t have a great year. In 433 plate appearances, he hit .265/.292/.380 with seven home runs. He demonstrated his customarily solid bat-to-ball skills, but he rarely walked or hit for much power.
The 28-year-old was eligible for arbitration for a final time this winter, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a notable $5.2MM salary. That always looked likelier than the Jays were hoping to pay for a fourth/fifth outfield type, and today’s designation functions as akin to a non-tender. Toronto can technically trade Tapia in the next few days, but it looks likelier he’ll go unclaimed on waivers and be sent to the open market.
Zimmer also worked as a left-handed bench bat in the outfield. He got into 109 games between Toronto and Philadelphia but only picked up 117 plate appearances. He’s a solid defensive outfielder but has always been very strikeout-prone in the big leagues. That included a 38.5% strikeout rate this season, which featured just a .124/.207/.229 overall mark.
The 29-year-old (30 later this month) had been projected for a $1.3MM arbitration salary. As with Tapia, he’s effectively being non-tendered a few days in advance to clear the 40-man roster spot.
Griffin made just one two-inning relief appearance for the Jays after being acquired from the Royals midseason. The former first-round pick of Kansas City spent much of his tenure with Triple-A Buffalo, working 23 1/3 innings out of the bullpen there. He posted a 2.31 ERA with a solid 24.8% strikeout rate as a Bison.
Turning to the players joining the roster, Martinez and Zulueta were two of the easier calls to keep out of the Rule 5 draft around the league. The former was a high-profile signee out of the Dominican Republic during the 2018-19 international period. He’s appeared among Baseball America’s top 100 overall prospects in each of the past two years, garnering praise for his big power potential. He spent the entire 2022 campaign at Double-A New Hampshire as a 20-year-old but stumbled to a .203/.286/.446 line — albeit with a 30-homer showing that demonstrated his power upside.
Zulueta had a breakout year that saw him traverse four minor league levels. A native of Cuba, he combined for a 3.72 ERA with a huge 33.9% strikeout rate while topping out at Triple-A. Baseball America slotted him fifth in the Toronto organization midseason, praising his four-pitch mix. Zulueta, 25 in January, figures to start next season in Buffalo but could play his way onto the big league roster at some point during the year.
Barger, 23, was a sixth-round selection in the 2018 draft out of a Florida high school. He’s played all around the infield and performed at three minor league levels this year. The left-handed hitter combined for a .308/.378/.555 showing in 526 plate appearances, albeit with higher than average strikeout totals. BA ranked him 18th in the Jays’ system midseason.
Horwitz, 25, went in the 24th round of the 2019 draft out of Radford. He’s outperformed that modest draft stock and now sits on the brink of the majors after combining for a .275/.391/.452 mark in 483 plate appearances at the minors top two levels. He’s primarily a first baseman, putting plenty of pressure on his bat. According to Baseball America, he’s the #13 prospect in the organization.
Nice.
Raimel Tapia?
He’ll be unemployed for a week
Nah. Tapia’s run into the arbitration wall. Makes too much now for teams to want him as a 4th or 5th OF, and not good enough to be a starter for a good team, nor young enough to be a starter for a bad one. He’ll likely sign a minors deal.
He had a 0.3 WAR last year and is projected to make something like $5 M in arbitration – the Jays’ money is better spent elsewhere.
Like 13 million to the worst starter in the league
Worse than that. Just looked and they’re on the hook for $15MM next year to Berrios. Yikes.
Actually, it’s even worse than that. He has player options for $24MM PER YEAR for 2027 and 2028!! I think we can assume he’ll be exercising those. LOL.
Yeah I’m sure he’ll catch on in Mexico shortly
Tapia is on my all fish team. Along with Mike Trout and Anthony Bass.
Not to mention AJ Pollock., Could also call Tim Salmon and Mike Carp outta retirement.
Steve.
But does he really qualify for the squad? The fish is actually tilapia.
They’re probably planning on adding a lefthand-hitting outfielder with a significant impact bat, maybe with idea of having four starting-caliber outfielders who can rotate between the field and DH.
Especially considering that Tapia was pretty much the only left-handed hitter on the Blue Jays who made any measurable impact, they have to be focused on that upgrade.
Would have liked them to add Tanner Morris as well, but, can’t cover everyone.
Tapia is going to be a good pickup for a team.
If he can play CF, Mets.
4th outfielder
Hope not adding Tanner Morris does not come back to bite the Jays. Really great OBP guy and improving in the field.
My understanding is Morris isn’t terribly good with the glove. Otherwise, he would seem a reasonable utility bench piece with his hitting ability.
Keep Tapia as a backup at least.
They added Lukes to the 40 man earlier and may feel he is a better hitter than Tapia
He’ll be a cheaper player, at the very least, while providing, one imagines, similar production
I thought Tapia was a pretty good player. Surprised.
I’m guessing his extremely low OBP played a part in their decision.
along with a dWAR worse than Bo Bichette who had a historically bad defensive year.. So naturally use him down and close and watch him and springer miss 4 balls zimmer and JBJ woujld get to.. maybe more. But hey, we had Kikuchi instead of Zimmer whom we apparently won’t even use in a blowout playoff game while …. I’m on a tangent. Still not over that game… Tapia is replacement level at the plate and I’d rather have Castellanos’ defense.
I don’t understand how this management can seem so forward thinking and then make the most amateur illogical choices. Why reclaim ZImmer? What is going on?
I’m really glad Tapia is gone. People love him here and it drives me nuts.
I was going to say, I thought he was pretty good and had speed as well
Check Zimmer’s slash line at your own risk. Warning, it’s the scariest thing you’ll ever see
I met Bradley while he was rehabbing in Akron. Great guy! He signed my son’s shirt and took a selfie with him. It was a great 13th birthday for my son! He’ll always have that monster HR he hit off his brother. If Bradley ever needs a slow pitch softball team, I’ve got a spot for him on my roster 😉
Zimmer hits like a pitcher, and in many corners that’s insulting to the pitcher. Jays liked him so much they brought him back for an encore after PHI cut him loose. If any team can afford to carry an OF on their roster who simply CANNOT hit, Brad’s your guy.
Really needs to head to the instructional league where he needs to learn hitting from the ground up. Not sure how he rose through the ranks completely lacking that skill, but he pulled off.
I like Tapia, but not as our 5th OF at $5M this year
Exactly – his production to salary ratio makes him expendable.
I can figure Bradley Zimmer getting DFA’ed, but I wasn’t sure what team he was on this week.
The Springer signing was supposed to settle CF for the Jays. Two years into a large 6 year contract and the guy has to play corner. So they paid a guy CF dollars to play a corner that he doesn’t hit well enough to justify that salary…with 4 years to go.
How many CF’s are the Jays going to go through this year, unless they pay the FA price for Nimmo or make a major trade?
Atkins can stand next to Ng trying to find a quality ML CF in trade for 2023.
Well, they could sign Kiermeir to play CF, move Springer to RF, move Teoscar to LF and then trade Gurriel. That would solve the CF defense issue while putting your most fragile and expensive player to a less strenuous role defensively.
They aren’t going after kiermier Imo
TennVol;
With their luck Kiermeir would play well for a month, then have another physical problem.
I keep writing about all teams and all positions – you have to develop your own.
Wrote at the time of the signing Springer wasn’t a CF. Still to this day the most games Springer has ever played in one season is 89 games in CF
Thay seemed like an odd set of pickups. A lefty Tapia as your #4, okay. But then a lefty Zimmer as your #5? And then following that up with lefty JBJ as your #6?
Biggio is the only other lefty in the lineup so the Jays tried to balance that out with Tapia and Zimmer. JBJ was signed because Zimmer, to put it nicely, didn’t meet expectations.
Ya, Tapia was pretty pointless. Sure he had the best bat of the three. But your extra outfielders need to at least play a moderately above average defense. Having him rostered necessitated at least one of the other two.
They were all bad. Tapia the worst as he cant play a lick of defense. Now they are all gone thankfully.
Tapia intrigues me a little.
The Angels had an absolute black hole in LF last year. Had something like 14 guys play there and add up to a couple of negative WAR. Adell, Duggar, Wade,
Tapia’s slash line vs. righties is about league average, his glove is about league average. Just getting LF to league average would be huge here and the free agent market is thin.
Not worth $5 million in Toronto but might be worth $3 million here.
If Tapia had any defensive utility, he’d be a fine bench piece at a few million. But he’s pretty much a LF only as he’s not really a good enough outfielder for CF despite his speed and doesn’t have much arm at all. His best trait is that he makes a lot of contact but it’s pretty poor quality contact.
Tapia is the definition of mid. Don’t really understand the shock over this. He obviously wasn’t surviving the offseason, especially at that price.
Agreed 100%
Does Adrian Hernandez not make the 40-man? Would hate the thought of them losing a future bullpen stud. Compared to a fringe outfielder like Luke’s to me Hernandez has way more value. Am I missing something here?
Agree 100%
I’m scratching my head
I’ve heard that Selsun Blue helps with that.
Arb kinda screws over guys like Tapia. He’s not worth upwards of 4M because he’s not really a starter, but he should still be on a team as a 4th outfielder. It’s just that it’s hard to pay a lot for something like that.
They could always have settled if both sides agreed. You aren’t forced into arb.
Judging by the comments here and on Twitter, Tapia might be the single most overrated player in the league.
1.3 career fWAR in 1858 PA. He sucks. EOS
Lots of clueless people out there. Not that WAR is everything but he is an awful defender and also a bad hitter.
Agree.. at least Zimmer offers elite defence. And is a great runner.
Tapia will find a job in like 13 seconds, Zimmer should head to Korea, get on those Thames enhancements and hit dingers lol
Big Zim Dog, as I sarcastically nicknamed him, couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag. I don’t think even Korea can save him.
Clearing space for Nimmo and Judge.
DFA’ing Tapia is a really foolish move. Someone will pick him up in days.
Doubtful. He’s a 4th OF offensively and not great defensively.
I’m sure he will find another job but not at his current salary
He will get 1-3 per and maybe 2-4 extra thru incentives
Bradley Zimmer was 2 wins away from a World Series ring, now he’s DFA’d. How the mighty have fallen
Glad the Blue Jays save money with Tapia.. I wasn’t a fan of the his game. Has speed but other then that doesn’t do much but get a hit here and there. Even in the outfield he was underwhelming.
If Tapia can’t get a MLB offer he’ll thrive in the KBO