The Blue Jays announced a trio of transactions this morning, including the placement of catcher Tyler Heineman on the seven-day concussion-related injured list. Catcher Ali Sanchez’s contract was selected from Triple-A to take Heineman’s spot on the active roster, and left-hander Josh Walker was designated for assignment to open up space on the 40-man roster.
Heineman has been an unexpected force at the plate this season, hitting a whopping .396/.412/.542 over 51 plate appearances while acting as Alejandro Kirk’s backup. That hot start to the season will now be put on hold for at least seven days, as Heineman will get some time to recover after a rough game on Thursday. During Toronto’s 7-6 win over San Diego, Heineman was visibly shaken up after a pair of foul balls ricocheted off his mask, though he stayed behind the plate and caught 10 of the game’s 11 innings.
With Heineman sidelined, Sanchez will get his first MLB action of the 2025 season, and he’ll make his Blue Jays debut as the starting catcher in today’s game with the Rays. Thirty-one of his Sanchez’s 38 career Major League games came with the Marlins last season, which marked the backstop’s first taste of the Show since the 2021 season. His seven previous big league games came with the Mets and Cardinals in 2020-21, and Sanchez has also suited up at the minor league level in the farm systems of the Tigers, Diamondbacks, and Cubs over his 12-year pro career.
Known more for his glovework than his bat, Sanchez has hit .264/.327/.363 over 2588 career PA in the minors, and he has a more solid .253/.324/.440 in 102 PA with Triple-A Buffalo this season. Sanchez is out of minor league options, so once Heineman is healthy, the Jays will have to designate Sanchez for assignment and have him clear waivers in order to send him back to Buffalo. The catcher would have the ability to turn down an outright assignment and elect free agency, since Sanchez has been previously outrighted in his career.
Walker was another offseason signing for Toronto, inked to a split contract for an MLB minimum salary prorated over his time on the Blue Jays’ active roster. His time on the 26-man lasted only a couple of weeks, as Walker had a 7.20 ERA in five innings over three appearances in late April and early May. That brief amount of work at least made it three straight seasons of Major League work for Walker, who made 24 appearances (22 1/3 innings) with the Mets in 2023-24.
Walker’s 24.2% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate during his short amount of time in the majors hint at the overall story of his career, as the southpaw has a 26.83K% and 9.03BB% over his 276 1/3 career innings in the minors. Both his strikeout and walk numbers have both been rising as Walker has pitched at Triple-A over the last few seasons, with that lack of control undermining his potential at missing bats. The Jays apparently didn’t see enough to keep Walker on the roster, though another club might well be intrigued enough to put in a waiver claim for some left-handed bullpen depth.
Didn’t Garcia also hit the IL?
yes
I see the genius manager is at it again. Let’s call up a new catcher and give him a start with the most particular pitcher in baseball and one of the harder ones to catch and get on the same page with. Not to mention the great outing he had the last time out working with Kirk so lets not do that again. I guess John promised some more relievers some extra innings today. Welcome to the state of the Blue Jays.
Is that you Don Mattingly?
Did I call you and ask you Ross Atkins what to say or report on what he is doing? No it’s not me Ross.
Kirk started the last two games, it’s a day game after a night game and the Jays are in the middle of 13 games in a row. The bench bats have to play sometime.
Ok??? He could wait until tomorrow? Oh my 2 games in a row like how will he be able to move today let alone play?
I guess you missed the fact that the whole thing was sarcasm about how bad John Schneider is as a manager but I thought that was obvious.
Didn’t the BlueJays managment team burn out Garcia causing his injury from overuse which was obvious? – Too many appearances, too close together and too many pitches, not enough recovery time.
yup
Depth is not this teams strong suit.