The Blue Jays announced a flurry of roster moves this morning, headlined by their move to place second baseman Andres Gimenez on the 10-day injured list with an ankle sprain. Outfielder Joey Loperfido was recalled to the big league roster to replace Gimenez. In a second set of moves, right-hander Ryan Burr was activated from the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Lazaro Estrada was optioned to Triple-A and outfielder Will Robertson was designated for assignment to make room for Burr on the active and 40-man rosters respectively.
Gimenez suffered an ankle injury on Wednesday, and aggravated the issue further on Friday after initially attempting to play through it. He was viewed as day-to-day initially, but Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet noted yesterday that Gimenez was being sent for an MRI. That MRI revealed a sprain, and the Blue Jays evidently felt the issue was severe enough to warrant a trip to the injured list. Gimenez’s exact timeline for return is not yet known, but the timing of the injury means he won’t be back until after the All-Star break at the very earliest.
It’s a tough blow for the division-leading Blue Jays, as while Gimenez is batting just .218/.300/.322 on the year he’s offered his trademark strong glove at second base and has heated up considerably since returning from a quad strain at the start of June. In 25 games since returning, Gimenez had slashed .253/.340/.349 with a wRC+ of 101. A combination of league average offense and Gimenez’s stellar defense is enough to make him an extremely valuable player, as seen in 2023 when he posted 3.8 fWAR for the Guardians despite a 97 wRC+.
While Gimenez is on the shelf, the Jays appear likely to rely on some combination of Will Wagner, Leo Jimenez, and Davis Schneider at the keystone. Loperfido is replacing Gimenez on the roster after posting a 111 wRC+ at the Triple-A level throughout this season, but he hit just .214/.264/.350 in 81 games for the Jays last year and seems unlikely to be much more than a depth option for the club during this return to the majors. Acquired from the Astros as part of the Yusei Kikuchi trade, Loperfido does actually have some experience at second base in the minors but has been limited to the outfield and first base at the big league level.
As for Burr, the right-hander is now poised to make his season debut after being sidelined by a bout of right shoulder inflammation during Spring Training. Burr posted a 4.08 ERA in 75 innings with the White Sox between 2018 and 2022 before spending the 2023 campaign in the Rays’ minor league system. He joined the Blue Jays for the 2024 season and posted a 4.13 ERA in 32 2/3 innings of work with an impressive 33.6% strikeout rate. Toronto is surely hoping Burr can leverage that high strikeout rate into stronger results going forward, and if he can it wouldn’t be hard to see him become a late-inning option for the Jays to help set up Jeff Hoffman.
Making room for Burr on the 40-man roster is Robertson, who crushed the ball at Triple-A this year to the tune of a .288/.410/.582 slash line (159 wRC+) in 51 games to break down the door to the majors and force himself onto the big league roster for the first time in his career. He ultimately appeared in just three games at the big league level, however, and struck out in seven of his 12 plate appearances in the majors. He did notch his first big league hit before getting sent back down, however, and since then he’s continued to hit at a high level in the minors. The Blue Jays will now have one week to either trade Robertson or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he can be outrighted to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option for the remainder of the season.
I still can’t believe the Jays bailed out Cleveland on that wretched Gimenez contract.
Canadians are too dang nice!
It was a horrible trade for the Jays. A very expensive bench defender and a meh bullpen arm.
He’s an all-glove 2B (not even a SS!) who was owed almost $100 million dollars at the time of the trade and they’re eating every single penny of it. Just a baffling move for the Jays in general, but especially when they desperately needed to add offense.
He can play SS and a lot of people think he’s Bo insurance
I guess, but he’s only played 6 innings at SS since the start of 2023, so it’s probably fair to assume that he’s a lesser defender there than at 2B, and since defense is basically the only thing he offers, playing him out position isn’t going to help the Jays minimize the damage done by trading for his contract in the first place.
I guess its good Cleveland got out of all that money owed, but they could have probably used Giminez in their pathetic lineup. Half of their batters have .600/sub .600 OPS. And the return Cleveland ultimately got for Giminez just likely got himself thrown out of baseball.
Not sure how any move can be questioned when the Jays are leading the division and on a serious roll. I get he’s been hurt, both of their expensive acquisitions have been hurt but can’t blame anyone for that. Give them credit for acquiring enough young depth to handle it
The depth that was better than Gimenez last season in Clement? There is no need to blame injury here. Or, the fact that Scherzer has been injury prone, you can’t blame injury? Let’s not pretend the Jays don’t need another bullpen arm and starting pitcher. And let’s not pretend there wasn’t a track record prior to this offseason. The good times now is not what it’ll be down the road.
Blah blah blah take your nonsense elsewhere Bob Dylan wannabe
Robertson was having a year in AAA as of late, too bad.
Estrada was superb yesterday in 4 innings of relief, only one run allowed. It was his first major league appearance and will not be his last.
Danger! Will Robertson!
To be fair, the DFA may get him out of having to play in Canada so I think it might actually qualify as the exact, polar opposite of “danger.”
😉
The polar opposite of danger is Canada?
I would agree that Canada is the polar opposite of Baltimore
He probably can’t find it on a map and only heard of it when Trump started babbling about it.
Statistically speaking, Canada is the most dangerous country in the universe to live in.
@King Floch
Even more dangerous than living on the Martian colonies???
I just bought a house there!!
Toronto’s polar opposite is actually in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.
Will Wagner, not Will Warren.
Personally I don’t see Will Warren playing a lot of 2B for the Jays this week, but ok…
Can’t be any worse manning 2b than he was in his last start. Yankees need him to step up now, pretty crazy he’s up to their #3 with all the injuries the starters have taken.
Surprised the DFA ain’t Loperfido instead of Robertson
More of Clement at 2B. Not as good with the glove but a world better with the bat.
Jays are winning despite Alphonse and Gaston because of resurgence of Springer and the coming of age of Barger. But how long can it last? The lack of quality starting pitching is burning out the relievers too early in the season.
Gimenez trade was awful. Can’t figure it out. Why would Shapiro and Atkins do that?
Never change Jimmer
Let’s also give Clement and Kirk their due plus the recall of Schneider. A lot has happened with contributions from many.
Let’s also not overlook the fact JDGoat has been one of the worst Jays fans drinking the koolaid for years. Laughable to comment when he dislikes the very same thing done to him/it.
Thankfully the Jays are playing teams at the right time. Baltimore imploded, Boston has been up and down, Yankees are losing SP and Tampa’s been steady. All this has given the Jays a path to first, and they need another SP and RP (and a bat most likely).
I am in total agreement. Clement and Kirk have been awesome. Everything in this Jays season revolves around that starting rotation and their health and can they get through the 6th inning.
One thing Alphonse and Gastonne have done really well is signing and trading for bullpen pieces and they have good depth in the minors for the bullpen as well.
Its a bit of a change to see the Jays on a roll. I wouldn’t count the Yankees out though. They usually do something to manup at the deadline.