Blue Jays Sign CJ Stubbs To Minor League Contract
The Blue Jays have signed CJ Stubbs to a minor league deal, as per the catcher’s MLB.com profile page. The contract apparently doesn’t contain an invitation to Toronto’s big league Spring Training camp, as Stubbs wasn’t included on the Jays’ list of spring invites released earlier this week.
A tenth-round pick for the Astros in the 2019 draft, Stubbs was cut loose by Houston in May 2024, and he then quickly inked a new minor league deal with the Nationals. This stint in the Nats organization resulted in Stubbs’ first taste of Major League action, albeit a small one. Stubbs’ MLB resume consists of a single game, as he went 0-for-3 while starting behind the plate in the Nationals’ 2-0 win over the Marlins on September 1. Starter Andrew Alvarez was also making his big league debut, and Stubbs guided Alvarez (over five innings) and four Nats relievers to a two-hit shutout.
This noteworthy game didn’t result in any more playing time for Stubbs, and he elected minor league free agency after being outrighted off Washington’s 40-man roster in late October. Alejandro Kirk and Tyler Heineman are locked into the Blue Jays’ catching duties, but Stubbs’ cup of coffee in the Show is still enough to make him the only other catcher in the organization with any MLB experience. Depending on whether or not the Jays add any other catching help on a minors deal, Stubbs currently projects as the first call-up if Kirk or Heineman got injured.
The 29-year-old Stubbs doesn’t have a ton of experience even at Triple-A, as he has 45 games and 145 plate appearances over parts of three seasons with the Astros’ and Nationals’ top affiliates. He has hit .222/.366/.453 with six homers over that small Triple-A sample, and Stubbs has a career minor league slash line of .206/.315/.396 over 1854 PA. Stubbs has hit 72 homers in the minors and even stolen 52 bases (out of 20 attempts), but he has struck out in 648 of his 1854 PA.
Players Entering Minor League Free Agency
Major League free agents became eligible to sign with other teams on Thursday, but the minor league free agent market has technically been open since season’s end. MLBTR has published several posts detailing players who had already elected to become minor free agents, but Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (multiple links) has the full account of all the minor league free agents that officially joined their big league counterparts on the open market on Thursday.
This list details only players who have played in the Major Leagues, and whose minor league free agency hasn’t already been covered on MLBTR in the last month.
Athletics: Aaron Brooks, Carlos Duran, CD Pelham, Bryan Lavastida, Nick Martini, Alejo Lopez
Braves: Ian Anderson, Davis Daniel, Enoli Paredes, Amos Willingham, Brian Moran, Jonathan Ornelas, Chandler Seagle, Matthew Batten, Conner Capel
Orioles: Jakson Reetz, Livan Soto, Thaddeus Ward
Red Sox: John Brebbia, Isaiah Campbell, Mark Kolozsvary, Chadwick Tromp, Seby Zavala, Trayce Thompson
Cubs: Yency Almonte, Zach Pop, Caleb Kilian, Austin Gomber, Forrest Wall, Billy Hamilton, Joe Ross, Tommy Romero, Antonio Santos, Tom Cosgrove, Dixon Machado, Nicky Lopez, Carlos Perez
White Sox: Elvis Peguero, Kyle Tyler, Vinny Capra, Chris Rodriguez, Caleb Freeman, Joe Perez, Owen White, Andre Lipcius
Reds: Tejay Antone, Alan Busenitz, Buck Farmer, Josh Staumont, P.J. Higgins, Eric Yang, Levi Jordan, Edwin Rios, Davis Wendzel, Evan Kravetz, Adam Plutko, Charlie Barnes, Alex Young
Guardians: Riley Pint, Tyler Naquin, Parker Mushinski
Rockies: Xzavion Curry, Sean Bouchard, Owen Miller, Karl Kauffmann,
Tigers: Kevin Newman, Brian Serven, Jordan Balazovic, Nick Margevicius, Blair Calvo
Astros: Jon Singleton, Joe Hudson, Kenedy Corona, Greg Jones, Matt Bowman, Luis Contreras, Tyler Ivey, John Rooney
Royals: John Gant, Spencer Turnbull, Bobby Dalbec, Diego Castillo, Geoff Hartlieb, Jordan Groshans, Nick Pratto, Isan Diaz, Stephen Nogosek, Nick Robertson, Joey Krehbiel, Noah Murdock, Ryan Hendrix
Angels: Shaun Anderson, Brandon Drury, Yolmer Sanchez, Ben Gamel, Evan White, Cavan Biggio, Logan Davidson, Travis Blankenhorn, Oscar Colas, Kelvin Caceres, Dakota Hudson, Chad Stevens, Angel Felipe, Jordan Holloway, Victor Gonzalez
Dodgers: Michael Grove, Luken Baker, Giovanny Gallegos, Kyle Funkhouser, Chris Okey, CJ Alexander, Zach Penrod
Marlins: Jack Winkler, Lane Ramsey
Brewers: Luis Urias, Oliver Dunn, Julian Merryweather, Daz Cameron, Drew Avans, Josh Maciejewski, Jared Oliva
Twins: Jose Miranda, Anthony Misiewicz, Jonah Bride, Thomas Hatch, Daniel Duarte, Connor Gillispie
Mets: Joey Meneses, Jose Azocar, Joe La Sorsa, Gilberto Celestino, Ty Adcock, Bryce Montes de Oca, Yacksel Rios, Oliver Ortega, Luis De Los Santos
Yankees: Kenta Maeda, Jeimer Candelario, Rob Brantly, Andrew Velazquez, Jose Rojas, Joel Kuhnel, Wilking Rodriguez
Phillies: Matt Manning, Adonis Medina, Lucas Sims, Jacob Waguespack, Phil Bickford, Rodolfo Castro, Oscar Mercado, Brewer Hicklen, Christian Arroyo, Payton Henry
Pirates: Brett Sullivan, Nick Solak, Nelson Velazquez, Beau Burrows, Ryder Ryan
Cardinals: Zach Plesac, Anthony Veneziano, Tyler Matzek, Zack Weiss, Drew Rom, Aaron Wilkerson
Padres: Eguy Rosario, Tim Locastro, Reiss Knehr, Nate Mondou
Giants: Sean Hjelle, Miguel Diaz, Max Stassi, Sam Huff, Cole Waites, Drew Ellis, Ethan Small
Mariners: Michael Fulmer, Casey Lawrence, Collin Snider, Jesse Hahn, Nick Anderson, Josh Fleming, Austin Shenton, Jacob Nottingham, Beau Taylor, Cade Marlowe, Jack Lopez, Michael Mariot, Hagen Danner
Rays: Cooper Hummel, Jonathan Hernandez, Jamie Westbrook, Tres Barrera
Rangers: Omar Narvaez, Cal Quantrill, Ty Blach, Alan Trejo, Joe Barlow, Cory Abbott, Michael Plassmeyer, Alex De Goti
Blue Jays: Eloy Jimenez, Buddy Kennedy, Joe Mantiply, Elieser Hernandez, Rene Pinto, Adam Kloffenstein
Nationals: Francisco Mejia, Juan Yepez, Joan Adon, CJ Stubbs, Parker Dunshee, Erick Mejia, Adrian Sampson, Delino DeShields
Nationals Outright Four Players
The Nationals announced that four players have cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Rochester. They are right-handers Eduardo Salazar and Mason Thompson, left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara and catcher CJ Stubbs. Salazar and Thompson have already elected free agency.
These types of moves are common at this time of year. The 60-day injured list goes away five days after the World Series, meaning players on the shelf need to be added back to the 40-man roster. Most teams have a few impending free agents, which can open a few spots, but there is often a squeeze. Prior to these moves, RosterResource projected the Nats to have 42 players for their 40 spots, so opening some breathing room was inevitable.
Thompson, 28 in February, is the most experienced of the bunch. He made his debut with the Padres back in 2021 and was traded to the Nationals at that year’s deadline as part of the Daniel Hudson deal. He has largely been an up-and-down reliever for the Nats since then, though he missed the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Overall, he has thrown 114 big league innings, allowing 5.21 earned runs per nine. His 50.6% ground ball rate is good but his 17.8% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate are both subpar.
The righty exhausted his final option season in 2025, meaning he would have been out of options in 2026. Given his uninspiring numbers, he would have had a hard time hanging onto a roster spot going forward. Since he has at least three years of big league service time, he had the right to elect free agency.
Salazar, 28 in May, came to the Nats via a waiver claim last summer. Between the Reds, Dodgers and Nationals, he has thrown 70 2/3 innings with a 5.99 ERA. Similar to Thompson, his 52.8% ground ball rate is strong but his 16% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate are subpar figures. Also like Thompson, he just exhausted his final option season and will be out of options going forward. He was outrighted by the Reds in 2023, which gave him the right to reject this outright assignment.
Ogasawara, now 28, just wrapped up his first season in North America. After years of pitching in Japan, he was posted for MLB clubs last winter. The Nats gave him a two-year, $3.5MM deal, plus a $700K posting fee to the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
They didn’t get much from that $4.2MM investment. The lefty spent a decent chunk of the 2025 season in the minors. When in the majors, he posted a 6.98 ERA over 38 2/3 innings. His 17.3% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 36.4% ground ball rate were all subpar.
Players normally require three years of service time or a previous career outright to have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. A player coming over from Asia will sometimes have special language in their contract allowing them to circumvent standard MLB rules. Unless Ogasawara’s deal has such language, he’ll stick with the Nats as non-roster depth.
Stubbs, 29 in November, was added to the roster late in the year in emergency fashion. At the time, Keibert Ruiz and Drew Millas were both injured, leaving the Nats with Riley Adams as their only healthy catcher. Stubbs got into one game, going hitless in three at-bats. Shortly thereafter, the Nats signed Jorge Alfaro and bumped Stubbs back to the minors.
Going into the winter, Stubbs was the least experienced of five catchers on the 40-man roster. He also has a 35% strikeout rate in his minor league career. The Nats bumped him off the roster and no club put in a claim. Since he has spent most of the past seven years in the minors, he should qualify for minor league free agency five days after the conclusion of the World Series.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Nationals To Select CJ Stubbs
The Nationals are going to select catcher CJ Stubbs to the roster, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He will take the active roster spot of fellow backstop Drew Millas, who suffered a finger fracture earlier today. The Nationals already have two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move will be required in that department.
Stubbs, 28, gets the call to the big leagues for the first time. The younger brother of Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs, CJ spent most of his career in the Astros’ minor league system. He was released in May of 2024 and then landed a minor league deal with the Nationals.
He has been a decent hitter in the minors at times but isn’t having a great season. From 2022 to 2024, he had a combined .202/.323/.404 slash line and 98 wRC+. But this year, between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a .148/.279/.240 line and 57 wRC+. His 11.6% walk rate is good but he’s also been striking out 37.3% of the time. Baseball Prospectus gives him strong grades for his framing on the farm.
The Nationals currently have three catchers on their 40-man roster. Keibert Ruiz has been on the concussion injured list for over a month and doesn’t appear close to a return. That left Millas and Riley Adams as the two active catchers. With Millas getting injured today, Adams was the only healthy backstop on the roster. Stubbs will step in, presumably in a backup role, and will make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images