November 17: Sandlin has indeed rejected his outright assignment and elected free agency, according to an announcement from the Blue Jays.
November 15: The Blue Jays outrighted Nick Sandlin off the 40-man roster, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. Sandlin has over three years of service time and will surely elect free agency in the coming days.
It’s effectively an early non-tender of the righty reliever. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Sandlin for a $2MM salary if he were tendered an arbitration contract. That’s not a huge amount, but the Jays soured on his future enough that they didn’t want to lock him into a middle relief role going into next season.
This drops their roster count from 38 to 37. Teams need to decide which eligible prospects they want to keep out of the Rule 5 draft by Tuesday evening. The Jays have an extra spot available than they would have had if they’d waited until Friday’s non-tender deadline to make the cut.
Toronto acquired Sandlin as a secondary piece of last winter’s Andrés Giménez trade. The Southern Mississippi product had pitched to a 3.27 earned run average over parts of four seasons in Cleveland. Sandlin never had great control, but he missed a good number of bats behind a plus slider and a promising splitter. The Jays hoped he could take on a higher-leverage role after being more of a sixth/seventh inning type in a loaded Cleveland bullpen.
Injuries kept that from happening. Sandlin went down three weeks into the season with a lat strain. He returned in mid-June but was shut back down after nine appearances by elbow inflammation. The latter injury ended his year. Sandlin tossed 16 1/3 innings overall. He gave up seven runs (four earned) with 16 strikeouts and eight walks. He recorded five holds and a save but also surrendered three leads.
Sandlin’s stuff was diminished. He averaged career lows on both his slider (78.4 MPH) and four-seam fastball (91.4). While he has never been a flamethrower, his heater was in the 94-95 MPH range during his rookie season and sat between 92-93 last year. Other teams evidently share the Jays’ concerns about the diminished velocity. Sandlin cleared waivers, suggesting no club wanted to take a flier and tender him at that projected $2MM price.
That trade sure looks suspect now. They gave up Horwitz, their second best hitter of 2024 who was cheap and under team control til 2031 in exchange for a badly overpaid glove only player and a solid reliever.
Part of the value of taking on a glove only player with a bloated salary was also getting a solid reliever to help the bullpen. They’ve just straight up dumped the reliever so now they’re stuck with that glove only bloated contract and no reward for it.
I think the Jays are happy with GG defence at short going forward
Horwitz is a good player, wish him well!
he was overly redundant on the Jays 40 man
I’m sure they’d love to have gold glove defense at short.
Gimenez has 3 gold gloves, all of them at 2nd. He has 67 DRS for his career at 2nd and 6 DRS at SS for his career.
He’s respectable at short. He’s not a gold glover there.
compared to BoBa Chette he is a GG wrapped in platinum covered in sprinkles and glitter
And compared to Bo’s bat, he’s a minor leaguer getting ready to be cut.
The real question will be what to do with Bo if he re-signs. Jays can NOT put him back at short. He doesn’t really have a 3B arm and his lack of range/speed make other options compromises, too.
Honestly, his best non-ego position is DH …with minimal occasional rotation through IF positions. That said, he may be on his next contract before he agrees to anything like that.
Getting ready to be cut? Are you kidding. Played well in the playoffs and had some clutch hits.
No I’m not kidding.
The playoffs are a small sample.
For the season (369 ab’s) he was 34% below average at the plate.
He was 19% below average the year before. He’s been a bad hitter his whole career outside of one fluky good year.
Canuckleball
You would give him his $100 M or whatever and send him on his way?
May I suggest ducking out of the way of those headshots instead of taking the HBP ….
Wow.
No
I said his bat is cuttable.
His glove at 2nd keeps him around.
I was referencing the commenter who said his glove vomits sparkles or whatever compared to Bo. I was simply pointing out that his bat is every bit as bad as Bo’s glove.
right – getting cut
baseball is a team game
the Jays sported a 112 wRC+ and scored the 4th most runs in MLB
ZZZZZZZZZZZ……..
AND THEY HAVE THE BEST DEFENSE
Mike_t- Cubs have the BEST defense. Fun fact Cubs have only 28 guys on their 40 man with some more dead weight that can go. Roberts, Hollowell, McGuire, Morgan. Minus of course the guys they need to add to keep them out of rule 5. Which I believe I read is about 5 guys. They’re in a pretty good position I think.
His defence is one of the reasons they go to the playoffs. And you say the playoffs are “small sample”. Maybe in games played, but certainly not in importance.
Gimenez is fine at short if the Blue Jays are willing to spend on other parts to compensate Gimenez obvious shortcomings as a hitter. Given his current salary he is nowhere near the value. You will also see why he was moved to 2B come 2026. Canuckleball is correct.
The Jays would have lost the ALCS without Gimenez. That trade has already worked out for Toronto. The money doesn’t matter, it’s not handcuffing them.
They don’t have unlimited funds. The money does matter. It could stop them from offering as much as they otherwise could to resign Bo or whomever else they may be targeting.
They aren’t poor, but they also don’t have Dodger money.
They have Dodger money. Rogers is a multi trillion dollar corporation.
@goalieguy41
Rogers Communications has a market capitalization of 29 billion dollars. Or about 3% of a trillion dollars. If you assign worth based Enterprise Value then that comes in around 80 billion. Again, well short of a trillion.
@yick04
They’re going to be paying Giminez 78M over the next 4 years. He has good defense but a bat that is 30% below league average. Finding a glove only middle IF for half of that or less isn’t a Herculean lift. That ~20M would go a long way towards adding a top of the line starter.
As far as playing the alternative history game. The Jays would have won the world series with Horowitz on the team.
And where would Horowitz have played? 1B?DH? Would Springer have hit the 3-run home run that got us to the WS?
@friesTO
You’re missing the point of the alternative history game. Neither point is provable. It’s a derivation of the Hitchens Razor, That which is presented without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
…except when presented by The Orange GOAT
This forum is full of contrarians
Horowitz is mid as eff
Gamines has more bat to offer
It’s way too small of a sample size to say can’t win a gold glove at short
He did look good there in the playoffs
Also giminez plays with an intensity and edge. The guys a winner and a leader and has been his whole career.
yick, the two games Gimenez hit bombs where the Jays won by 9 and 6, respectively? Do they win Game 1 having a competent hitting shortstop? To say the Jays would have lost is ridiculous and wrong.
70% of the people arguing with me can’t even spell Horwitz’s name right.
100% of the people arguing with you won the argument.
Right at everything until you brought up the money. It does matter. That’s how every single gm in baseball assets value. You the fan doesn’t but that’s why nobody asks you what your opinion is on the trade or value of a player.
That’s another dumb take from you. The money matters because he’s not going to be benched because of his salary. Same goes for Santander come March. At some point you really need to have a reasonable baseball take and you’ve gone years without one.
How mad does it make you that I’ve been offered multiple jobs in professional baseball while you couldn’t even dream of being asked?
Doesn’t make me mad one bit. Many baseball organizations have hired know-nothings. I’m sure you’d contribute with things you feel given this last comment was a poor attempt to feel better.
I’ll tell you if it makes you mad alright. You ready. It makes you mad now stfu
You should try comedy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Gimenez’s glove is more valuable than Horwitz’s bat.
@C-Daddy
A 70 wRC+ is for all intents and purposes is unplayable in the Majors. At best Giminez is a bench player while his AAV is that of a starter.
So an MLB regular puts up 2 fWAR in a season. Giminez put up 1 fWAR in 369 PAs or basically half a season. He’s not unplayable in majors. That’s hyperbole. The Jays won more games than any other team with their roster constructed as it was. That’s reality.
Making career assessments after the guy comes off two IL stints and posting his worst seasonal offense stats is so short-sighted. Especially when the injuries, ankle and quad, impact his performance on both sides of the ball.
He puts the ball in play a lot but too much of it is weakly hit and most of that will be on pitches outside the zone. His bat, soft as it is, will improve if he can improve that sick chase rate.
His bat you build a line-up “around” because the rest of what he brings is worth it!
@kodion
In 2022 Gimenez had a wRC+ of 141. It has declined every year since to 70. That’s not a blip, that’s a trend.
@MuleorAstroMule
Thank you for the numbers. Using those numbers, he projects out to a 1.7 fWAR/600. That is a full season. As you state, a starter should put up 2.0 fWAR over a season. Since 1.7 is less, it supports my contention that he is a bench player.
Kodion, read NoSaints’ comment a couple times over.
I see it the other way. He has proven he is capable of more. We all know he isn’t 40% better than anyone with a bat but I happen to believe a 27 yaer-old is more likely to bounce back than sink further.
He starts in my infield if he keeps playing the defense he does. The bat will be what it is. With the strength of the Jays’ offense, particularly if Bo re-signs, I’ll take a pale imitation of The Wizard at Short for the next 4 or 5 years since he is on the payroll anyway and that D is GOLD, baby!
@kodion
Betting on a blip isn’t a sound strategy for anything. Since his 2020 debut with the Mets he has only 2 seasons where his offense was above 100 wRC+. Over the past 3 seasons his wRC+ is 85 (1600 PA’s) and declining. Some are betting on Gimenez to win. I’m not betting this nag to show.
Let me reiterate what you clearly can’t see: there is a reason Gimenez was moved to 2B from SS. Why? A few factors; range and arm.
Jays offense. Yeah, Springer’s numbers are coming down and currently no Bo. Let’s not pretend the offense is some juggernaut.
I should laugh at your Wizard reference but the fact that you believe it is a problem. I’ll put it in this context; Jays would be better off starting Clement at short if they sign Bo to play 2B and an OF to keep Barger at 3B. Gimenez is not a net positive, and showed it in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.
Ozzie smith’s career OPS was 87…. Giminez is 96….. while he’s no Ozzie he’s not the absolute disaster you claim.
Dojaho back then they used to call legitimate errors. Today they don’t. Case in-point, Freeman missing an infield pop up called a base hit. Soft.
Plus, Ozzie had a better arm than Gimenez. It was a big reason why he was moved to 2B. He will not be this all-world shortstop people think.
You comparing anyone to Ozzie smith should come with an auto ban from posting for 30 days.
Gimenez is a great fielder at 2B and a good fielder at SS.
The Gimenez trade was bad from day one, not because of what they gave away, but because they took on a starting infielder salary for a role player production. Ernie Clement can do everything Gimenez can do, for a team quarter of the price
I did say pale but, if you want to paint it as a direct comp, then you might want to hope it develops that way because 1) as you imply, that contract is an anchor otherwise and 2) it’s the only hope that his tenure will be a good one, overall, for the Jays.
P.S. I won’t appeal a ban if it is enforced immediately. Most of my commentary for the next 3 months will be bragging on any FA Pool performance anyway …and even I don’t need to see that in print!
Ernie owes his success to the Jays
he didn’t get good by accident
prior to this Jays tenure he was an A’s castaway
that’s bad
C-Daddy, Horowitz’s glove is more valuable than Gimenez’s bat. Now count the millions Gimenez is stealing from you.
Hindsight is 20/20. Sandlin got hurt and might never get back to as good as he was before the trade. Jays don’t have a crystal ball.
Also, Giminez is still a legit steal threat and that speed around the bases helps their style at the plate.
Hard to steal a bag when you get out constantly. He’s a 10-hole hitter in a 9-man lineup.
Sorry to see it. I’ve always assumed he and I are related.
Spencer was great here but there was a glut at 1B and 2B. So while a trade was likely for what we got in exchange has always felt like a let down. Like a better Davis Schneider with better plate control and higher averages
So I think they just liked Davis more than Spencer otherwise it would have been Davis that would have been traded. Had the same deal gone through with Davis instead of Spencer then that would have been an upgrade at 2B. But it’s easier to look back at his 2025 averages now not then when there weren’t enough numbers to keep him here
That’s baseball you can’t second guess in real time but you can always look back
Horwitz and Davis Schneider are very different players. I would have lumped Horwitz in with Will Wagner, Alan Roden, Nathan Lukes stylistically. Corner only defenders with hit over power offensive profiles from the left side. Horwitz was/is the best hitter of the group but probably also the most defensively limited.
This makes a lot of sense. He is the odd man out based on the offseason needs. Good decision by the Jays.
Is Little coming off the 40 man so they can put another prospect in to protect them from the rule 5 draft?
Astros should stock up on minor league depth.
I can definitely see Hoyer kicking the tires on this guy.