The Blue Jays announced that they have placed second baseman Andrés Giménez on the 10-day injured list with a right quad strain. Infielder Michael Stefanic had his contract selected from Triple-A to replace Giménez on the active roster. In a corresponding move to open a space on the 40-man, right-handed reliever Dillon Tate was designated for assignment.
Giménez exited Wednesday’s game against the Angels early after hurting himself while running to first base on a bunt hit. He sat out the series finale on Thursday, so his IL placement is retroactive to May 8. The second baseman has struggled at the plate so far in his first season with the Blue Jays. Still, he has offered value with his Gold Glove-caliber defense and strong baserunning. Needless to say, his glove and his legs will be missed for however long he is out. As of right now, it’s hard to say how long that will be; the severity of his strain has not yet been made clear. In Giménez’s place, Ernie Clement will most likely get the bulk of the starts at second base.
Stefanic signed with the Angels as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and made his big league debut for L.A. in 2022. He appeared in 90 games for the Angels from 2022-24, seeing time at both second and third base. The infielder slashed .232/.317/.275 with a 72 wRC+ in 264 trips to the plate. Stefanic elected free agency last fall after he was outrighted off of L.A.’s 40-man roster, and he quickly latched on with the Blue Jays, signing a minor league pact in November. He has continued to mash at Triple-A Buffalo, much like he did as a minor leaguer in the Angels’ system. So far this year, he hit .319 with an .826 OPS and a 142 wRC+ prior to his call-up.
The Blue Jays claimed Tate off waivers from the Orioles in September 2024. He was a dependable middle reliever for Baltimore from 2020-22, pitching 158 innings with a 3.65 ERA and a 3.62 SIERA. However, he missed the 2023 season with a right elbow flexor strain and has not looked nearly as effective since his return. He pitched particularly poorly in his five appearances for Toronto this season, giving up three runs on seven hits and six walks in 5 1/3 innings of work.
ok
Orelvis is 10 for his last 33 with 6 extra base hits.
Why wouldn’t you use this is as an opportunity to get some more power in the lineup vs another all glove no bat guy? Jays have 6 of those in the lineup already
Stefanic is hitting .319 with more RBI’s than Martinez has this season. Martinez is also hitting below .200 with 36 strikeouts. He doesn’t deserved to be called up. Not to mention he is a trainwreck defensively.
@ericl
I heard on a podcast that he committed more than 50 errors in 200 games. I’m not a fan of errors at all but those numbers are a flashing red light waving a red flag.
Stefanic is 29 in AAA.
Orelvis got off to a slow start but has heated up and is a power hitter, also don’t need him to play D
18 hits in 84 at-bats is hardly heating up. He is supposed to be a power hitter, but has 2 home runs. on the year. Ali Sanchez, Christian Bethencourt, Joey Loperfido & Riley Tirotta all have more homers for Buffalo than Martinez does. He isn’t hitting AAA pitching. He certainly isn’t going to hit major league pitching. Martinez absolutely has to play D. He isn’t going to be the permanent DH. He can’t even field routing ground balls
I agree Dusty I think its time to see if he can get it together at the major league level. Some guys just don’t do well in AAA/AA but then get called up and never get sent back down, granted its rare but it does happen. Right now I will take a 10-20 day hitting tear from Orelvis, the Jays could use it.
All this is assuming Johnny lets him play and don’t sit him in favor of Straw/Lukes/Clement.
10 for his last 33, you had to expand the set to try to prove things wrong.
Anyways, enjoy stefanic
Also jays don’t have a D problem, they have a run creation problem and not even attempting to address it
Would love to see Stefanic carve out an MLB career. He had the nickname of The Plumber on our site due to his name sounding like a plumber who advertised on TV back in the day.
Can we DFA John Schneider?
Not going to happen. Shapiro doesn’t get a 4th manager. Only Steinbrenner could get away with that.
I agree that I don’t think it will happen but maybe not for same reason.
I think they will keep Schneider because he has no backbone and is quick to take the blame for Atkins’s meddling/bumbling such as the Berios incident in the playoffs a few years ago. John was quick to say that it was planned with the front office right after the game but quickly changed his story after Atkins came out and said he doesn’t get involved in those things and John changed his story to a “me or we on the bench” decided to do it.
Start with atkins
Andres is a great guy and tremendous glove. But he’s not worth $96 million because he doesn’t hit much. An albatross of a contract.