Blue Jays’ Joe Mantiply To Undergo Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
Blue Jays southpaw Joe Mantiply will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his injured left knee, manager John Schneider told reporters Thursday (relayed by Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet). The veteran reliever went on the injured list a couple weeks ago with what was initially diagnosed as inflammation.
It seems there’s some damage beyond inflammation that requires a scope to correct. (The Blue Jays didn’t provide specifics on Mantiply’s injury, but arthroscopic knee procedures frequently involve a meniscus or patellar tendon repair.) Schneider didn’t give a return timeline but said the Jays don’t believe it’ll be a season-ending procedure.
Mantiply finished last season in Triple-A in the Toronto system. He returned on a minor league deal midway through Spring Training. The Jays selected him onto the MLB roster a couple weeks into the regular season. Mantiply pitched well before the injury, working to a 2.04 ERA across 17 2/3 innings. He fanned 16 of 71 opponents (22.5%) while issuing only four walks.
The 35-year-old southpaw sits in the 88-89 mph range with his sinker. His arsenal is geared more towards weak contact than whiffs — this year’s league average strikeout rate notwithstanding — and he has mostly pitched in low-leverage spots. His loss is nevertheless a hit to an area in which the Jays were already lacking.
Brendon Little, their projected top left-handed bullpen arm, had a horrible start to the season and has been in Triple-A since early April. He’s missing bats in the minors but walking too many hitters. Mason Fluharty and rookie Adam Macko are the two lefties in the MLB bullpen. Ricky Tiedemann is on the 40-man roster but hasn’t pitched since 2024 due to elbow issues. Although Macko has been sharp over his first six MLB appearances, this figures to be a clear target for the Jays if they’re in position to add at the deadline.
Mantiply is one of 10 pitchers on Toronto’s injured list. Depending on his recovery timeline, he could move to the 60-day IL when they need to open another 40-man roster spot.
Blue Jays Select Charles McAdoo
May 28th: The Jays announced their selection of McAdoo today. Right-hander Connor Seabold is also active after being acquired in a trade yesterday. In corresponding active roster moves, right-hander Chase Lee was optioned to Triple-A and Sosa was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist contusion. To open a 40-man spot for McAdoo, righty Lazaro Estrada was transferred to the 60-day IL. Estrada’s 60-day count is retroactive to April 5th, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in a few days. His current status is unclear but he hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment and likely isn’t close to reinstatement.
May 27th: The Blue Jays are selecting infielder Charles McAdoo onto the MLB roster, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. They’ll need to open space on the active and 40-man rosters before tomorrow’s series opener in Baltimore.
McAdoo was a 13th-round selection by the Pirates in the 2023 draft. Toronto acquired the San Jose State product the following summer in a deadline trade sending Isiah Kiner-Falefa to Pittsburgh. The righty-hitting McAdoo was amidst a big offensive season between High-A and Double-A. He initially struggled with his new organization, hitting .185 with a 30% strikeout rate to close the ’24 campaign.
The Jays kept McAdoo at Double-A New Hampshire for all of last season. He still struck out a decent amount but stole 34 bases while hitting 16 home runs. It was enough to earn a bump to Triple-A Buffalo this year. McAdoo carries a .250/.356/.436 slash with eight longballs in 202 trips to the plate. He has walked at an excellent 14% clip and, perhaps most importantly, has slashed the strikeout rate to a manageable 20%.
Baseball America ranked McAdoo the #16 prospect in the Toronto farm system on their updated writeup last week. Their offseason report credited him with above-average power and arm strength along with decent speed. The questions have revolved around his middling defensive value and the subpar contact skills he brought into the season.
McAdoo has split most of his time between the corner infield spots, along with occasional second base work. He played some outfield in the low minors but has been a full-time infielder since 2025. He has a similar defensive repertoire as Lenyn Sosa, an April trade acquisition who has hit .188/.205/.275 across 84 plate appearances with the Jays. Sosa is out of options, but that’s true of everyone on the Toronto bench aside from the recently activated Nathan Lukes.
Blue Jays Acquire Connor Seabold
The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired right-hander Connor Seabold from the Tigers. Detroit, who designated Seabold for assignment a few days ago, gets minor league lefty Juanmi Vasquez in return. Seabold is out of options and will need a spot on the active roster once he joins the team. The Jays opened a 40-man spot by moving José Berríos to the 60-day injured list. Berrios required Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.
Seabold, 30, began the season with the Jays on a minor league deal. He came into the year with a career track record of being a swingman, without much success to his name, sporting a 7.79 earned run average in 119 innings.
Back in March, Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet profiled Seabold, noting that the Jays had planned on using Seabold as a multi-inning depth option until he showed some increased velocity at the start of camp. He had averaged around 92 miles per hour in his big league career but was suddenly hitting 96 and averaging 94.1 mph this year. He also changed up his breaking pitches with some encouraging developments.
The Jays kept him mostly in a single-inning relief role in spring. He tossed 6 2/3 innings over six Grapefruit League appearances. Allowing five earned runs gave him an unsightly 6.75 ERA but he struck out 13 of the 33 batters he faced, a huge 39.4% clip.
Despite the extra velocity and strikeouts, the Jays couldn’t find a roster spot for him. Seabold triggered an opt-out in his deal and then quickly landed with the Tigers. He gave them 15 2/3 innings over 11 appearances with a 3.45 ERA. His fastball averaged 93.5 mph, a slight drop from spring training but an increase over his previous big league work. Though the ERA was decent, he only struck out 20.3% of batters faced. He got bumped off the roster when Troy Melton came off the 60-day IL.
For the Jays, they didn’t have a spot for Seabold in March but there’s a lot more breathing room on the roster now. Since the season started, they have lost Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Lazaro Estrada, Max Scherzer, Joe Mantiply and Tommy Nance to the injured list.
It’s unclear whether the Jays plan to use Seabold as a multi-inning option or as more of a traditional reliever. They could use help in both areas. Thanks to the rotation injuries, they currently only have three true starters in Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Patrick Corbin. They’ve been doing a bullpen game every five days with Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles taking on bulk innings. With Cease recently hitting the IL, there’s another hole to fill.
Seabold could perhaps get stretched out but the relief corps also needs help. Thanks to those bullpen games, and the injuries to Nance and Mantiply, the current group has been heavily used. Someone will have to be bumped off when Seabold is added. Chase Lee and Adam Macko have options and could be candidates. Yariel Rodríguez and Austin Voth aren’t optionable but could end up designated for assignment.
More moves are probably coming for the Toronto pitching staff. They have Shane Bieber rehabbing, so he could be in the mix in the next few weeks. Maybe Cease or Scherzer can get healthy in the near future. Perhaps they will call up someone like Chad Dallas for a spot start or two. For now, Seabold will hopefully be useful in bridging the gap.
To get Seabold, the Jays are giving up a bit of long-term depth, though Vasquez isn’t really a top prospect. He’s 22 years old and hasn’t climbed higher than the High-A level. He can get strikeouts but control is an issue. He has 33 High-A innings under his belt between last year and this year with a 6.00 ERA, 32.7% strikeout rate but a 15% walk rate. The Tigers will hope he harnesses his stuff a bit better going forward and they have some time to help him out. He won’t be Rule 5 eligible until after the 2027 season.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Select Austin Voth
The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Austin Voth from Triple-A Buffalo. To make room on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, Toronto optioned right-hander Tanner Andrews to Buffalo and transferred catcher Alejandro Kirk from the 10-day to the 60-day IL. Kirk has already been out for nearly 60 days since undergoing thumb surgery in early April, so that move is largely a formality. The move to the 60-day doesn’t restart his IL clock, so he’ll still be eligible for activation once he reaches 60 total days on the shelf.
Voth, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in March and has already been summoned to the majors once this season. He allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings during his only appearance with the Jays this season and was then passed through waivers. Voth briefly elected free agency but wound up re-signing on a new minor league contract.
It’s been a fine season for the journeyman Voth in Buffalo. He’s taken the ball eight times (all starts) and logged a 2.90 ERA, a 17.4% strikeout rate, a 6.8% walk rate and a 39.4% ground-ball rate in 31 innings. He was building up a bit early on but has gone five innings multiple times now, including two of his past three starts. That’ll make him an option for a swingman role in the bullpen, a bulk reliever following an opener or a more conventional starter at any point.
Toronto’s rotation has been decimated by injury in 2026, so adding some length to the staff is sensible. The Jays lost José Berríos to Tommy John surgery last week and put Dylan Cease on the 15-day IL over the weekend due to a hamstring strain. Max Scherzer has been out for a month due to tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his ankle. Shane Bieber has yet to pitch this season due to elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce tore his ACL in his first start back on a big league mound after signing a three-year, $30MM deal following a dominant run in the KBO. He’s not likely to pitch again this season. Bowden Francis underwent Tommy John surgery in February.
It could be another short stay on the roster for Voth, but that mounting pile of injuries creates more opportunity for him to stick around than was the case the last time he was called to the big leagues in early April. He can’t be optioned to the minors, so if the Jays want to free up his roster spot, they’ll need to opt for the DFA route once again.
As for Kirk, he’s still on the mend from a broken left thumb. He underwent surgery and had a screw placed in the thumb to help stabilize the injury back on April 6. He’s not expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment until next week anyhow, per The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement a week from today, on June 3.
Blue Jays, Matt Bowman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays are in agreement with reliever Matt Bowman on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The 34-year-old sinkerballer (35 on Sunday) will presumably report to Triple-A Buffalo.
Bowman was granted his release last week after opting out of a non-roster deal with Minnesota. It was moderately surprising that a Twins team with one of the worst bullpens in MLB didn’t carve out a spot. He pitched well at Triple-A St. Paul, working 21 1/3 innings of 1.69 ERA ball. Bowman got ground-balls at a 55% clip with quality strikeout (28.1%) and walk (6.7%) marks.
Minnesota’s front office was evidently skeptical he’d maintain anything close to that against big league hitters. Bowman’s 7.1% swinging strike rate in the minors is well below average. He sits in the low-90s with his sinker while mixing in a cutter, slider and splitter. Bowman has pitched parts of seven MLB seasons with as many teams, logging the majority of his work with the Cardinals between 2016-18. He made 20 big league appearances with Baltimore last year, pitching to a 6.20 earned run average through 24 2/3 frames.
Toronto’s bullpen has been middle of the pack despite a top five strikeout rate. They lost a couple middle relievers, Tommy Nance and Joe Mantiply, to the injured list last week. They have a handful of middle relievers who have bounced up and down from Buffalo this season and could be sent down if they want to carve out a spot for Bowman at some point. Chase Lee, Tanner Andrews and Adam Macko have options remaining. Yariel Rodríguez does not but would likely clear waivers and accept a Triple-A assignment based on his contract.
Blue Jays Place Dylan Cease On 15-Day IL, Select Tanner Andrews
5:12pm: The Blue Jays have officially announced Cease’s IL placement. To take his 26-man roster spot, the Jays selected righty Tanner Andrews from Triple-A Buffalo. The Marlins drafted Andrews in the 10th round back in 2018, but he has still not pitched in the majors. Now 30 years old, Andrews has registered a 5.58 ERA in 129 Triple-A innings. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays last winter and opened 2026 with 20 innings of 1.35 ERA pitching in Triple-A before his promotion. Andrews has struck out 22 batters and yielded just 11 hits as a Bison, but he has also issued 14 free passes. His selection gives the Jays a full 40-man roster.
3:29pm: The Blue Jays are placing right-hander Dylan Cease on the 15-day injured list, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to report. Cease is dealing with a mild left hamstring strain, manager John Schneider announced.
This will be the first true IL stint for the durable Cease, who suffered the injury in a 4-1 loss to the Pirates on Sunday. Cease landed on the COVID-19 IL as a member of the White Sox back in 2021, but the team activated him after just two days on the shelf. Also a former Padre, Cease entered this season with five straight years of at least 32 starts on his resume. Whether he reaches the 30 mark for the sixth year in a row depends on how long this injury shelves him. Schneider said he’s “hoping it’s a minimal stay” on the IL (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet).
Cease was a prized offseason acquisition for the Blue Jays, who added him on a seven-year, $210MM deal – the largest free agent contract in franchise history. Before the injury, the 30-year-old lived up to the billing. Over 11 starts, Cease has given Toronto 62 innings of 3.05 ERA ball with personal-best strikeout and ground-ball rates of 35.7% and 47.1%, respectively. His 10.1% walk rate is right in line with his career mark (10%), and advanced metrics such as xFIP (2.50), FIP (2.57), SIERA (2.73) and xERA (2.95) suggest Cease deserves even better results than he has gotten.
Despite Cease’s brilliance, the reigning American League champion Blue Jays have gotten off to an underwhelming 25-28 start. They already sit 10.5 games behind the AL East-leading Rays, but they are just a half-game out in a jam-packed wild-card race. Injuries have been a big part of the problem for Toronto, particularly in its rotation. Shane Bieber, acquired from the Guardians last season, stuck around on a $16MM player option, but he hasn’t pitched at all as a result of elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury just one start into a three-year, $30MM pact. José Berríos underwent Tommy John surgery last week, and Max Scherzer has been out for a month with right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. Eric Lauer stayed healthy for Toronto this year, but after he posted a dismal 6.69 ERA in 36 1/3 innings, the team traded him to the Dodgers earlier this month. That left one fewer depth option for the Blue Jays.
With Cease out for at least a couple of weeks, the sturdy Kevin Gausman will front the Jays’ rotation. Phenom Trey Yesavage missed most of April with a shoulder impingement, but he has been superb over five starts since he came off the 15-day IL. With a 3.86 ERA over nine starts and 44 1/3 innings, Patrick Corbin has given the club bang for its buck on a $1MM pact. Those three are locked into spots, but the rest of Toronto’s rotation is up in the air.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images.
Blue Jays Option Davis Schneider
The Blue Jays announced that outfielder Nathan Lukes has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. As a corresponding move, infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.
It’s Schneider’s first time getting optioned to the minors in about a year. He got out to a slow start in 2025 and was sent to the minors for about six weeks from mid-April to early June. Once he came back up, he was a key part of the Toronto lineup. He slashed .249/.364/.468 for a 135 wRC+ after that recall. His 25.2% strikeout rate was a bit high but he offset that with a big 15% walk rate.
He continued to be a key part of the club into the postseason, getting 24 plate appearances as part of the club’s World Series run. His 37.5% strikeout rate wasn’t great but he drew walks at a 16.7% clip and hit a home run, leading to a .200/.333/.400 line and 110 wRC+.
Here in 2026, his profile has leaned even further to the extremes. He is drawing walks at a huge 19.1% clip but has also been punched out at a gruesome 34.8% pace. A .205 batting average on balls in play hasn’t helped but his .127/.295/.211 line isn’t pretty regardless of the caveats.
His demotion speaks to his struggles but also the strong showing from Yohendrick Pinango, who had no major league experience prior to this season. Some injuries pushed him up to the big leagues and he has responded with a .313/.352/.418 line in his first 71 career plate appearances. Some of that is due to a .370 BABIP he won’t be able to sustain but the Jays will ride the hot hand for now.
Sticking with Pinango over Schneider gives the Jays a bit less ability to maximize platoon situations. Schneider’s right-handed bat would ideally be complementing lefties like Pinango, Lukes, Jesús Sánchez and Daulton Varsho. Since Schneider can play second base, there have also been situations where the Jays have been able to have righties Schneider and Ernie Clement in the middle infield, protecting lefty-swinging shortstop Andrés Giménez.
With no Schneider, the outfield now has four lefties, with Myles Straw the only righty bat in the mix. Lenyn Sosa now seems to be the righty-swinging second base option, despite having a .189/.187/.284 line since joining the Jays.
For Schneider, the move may impact him from a career perspective. He came into this season with his service time count at two years and 29 days. If he had spent the entire 2026 season in the majors, he would have pushed that to 3.029. Getting to three years would have meant qualifying for arbitration and put him on pace for free agency after 2029. If he stays in the minors for the rest of the season, then he wouldn’t qualify for arbitration and his path to free agency would be pushed by a year, though he could keep those things on the table if he is recalled relatively quickly.
Photo courtesy of William Liang, Imagn Images
Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Dylan Cease Leave With Injuries
8:35PM: Guerrero told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi and other reporters postgame that he felt some numbness in his arm after being hit, but he described his status as just day-to-day. Manager John Schneider didn’t rule out Guerrero being in the lineup as early as Monday’s game with the Marlins, depending on how the All-Star feels after a night’s rest. Cease will undergo an MRI but also suggested to Schneider that he might not miss his next start, as the skipper said “all the [early] testing and stuff seemed pretty positive.”
1:51PM: The fifth inning on Sunday against the Pirates was a double whammy for the Blue Jays. Dylan Cease departed in the top of the frame with a leg injury. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. took a Mitch Keller sinker to the elbow in the bottom of the inning and was immediately replaced.
The team announced left hamstring discomfort as the reason for Cease’s removal. Guerrero has been diagnosed with a right elbow contusion. The first baseman had X-rays taken, which came back negative for a fracture, per the club.
Toronto has been among the most injured squads in the league. Catcher Alejandro Kirk, outfielder Nathan Lukes, and infielder/outfielder Addison Barger are currently on the injured list. Outfielder Anthony Santander had shoulder surgery will miss most or all of the season. On the pitching side, Jose Berrios, Bowden Francis, and Cody Ponce are done for the year. Shane Bieber has yet to appear this season. Max Scherzer remains out.
Cease is well-known for his impressive durability. The right-hander has never been on the 15-day injured list since debuting with the White Sox in 2019, apart from a brief stint in early 2021 for COVID-19 reasons. Cease has made 32+ starts in every season since the shortened 2020 campaign.
Guerrero also has a clean injury history. He’s never been on the injured list in his eight years in the big leagues. Guerrero has topped 155 games and 675 plate appearances in five consecutive seasons. An absence for either Cease or Guerrero would be challenging for Toronto to navigate, but neither injury seems like a major issue.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Notes: Scherzer, Bieber, Rotation Depth
41-year-old Max Scherzer has been on the 15-day injured list for about a month with a combination of right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. The five starts he made for the Blue Jays before landing on the IL were a mixed bag. Scherzer allowed one earned run in six innings in his season debut on March 31st, then two earned runs in another six innings on April 18th. However, Scherzer failed to complete three innings in his other three starts, be it due to injury or ineffectiveness.
Despite his lackluster results this year, Scherzer will be a key piece of rotation depth when he returns from the IL. Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet reports that Scherzer threw around 30 pitches in a bullpen session yesterday. The Jays are considering another bullpen or facing live hitters as the next step, followed by a rehab assignment. Per the team’s injury tracker at MLB.com, Scherzer is in line to return in early- to mid-June. A return on the later side might be realistic if the veteran needs three or four rehab starts.
The depleted state of Toronto’s rotation depth is well-known at this point. Shane Bieber has been on the IL since late March with right elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce‘s return stateside lasted one start before an ACL sprain put him out until next year. More recently, Eric Lauer was traded to the Dodgers and José Berríos underwent Tommy John surgery, putting him out until midway through next year. The fact that Toronto is giving starts to Patrick Corbin, who had a 5.47 ERA from 2021-25, speaks to the Blue Jays’ need for rotation depth.
None of that takes away from the rotation’s performance overall. The group’s 3.86 ERA is ninth-best in the Majors, while their 4.9 fWAR ranks sixth-best. Dylan Cease (2.0 fWAR) and Kevin Gausman (1.8) are in the Top 10 of qualified starters. Trey Yesavage has a 1.07 ERA in five starts since returning from injury and has not yet allowed a home run. Rather, it’s the back of the rotation that needs reinforcement.
Spencer Miles was a Rule 5 pick this offseason. While he has a 2.17 ERA in 14 appearances, there’s inherent risk in anybody with such little minor league experience (14 2/3 innings from 2022-24) and two major injuries (a back injury and Tommy John surgery). Miles has also made just one start in the Majors and has maxed out at 4 1/3 innings and 63 pitches in any appearance.
As for Corbin, he has a 3.86 ERA in nine starts including today. However, there’s little reason to believe that will be sustained. Corbin has been a below-average pitcher by ERA- in every season since 2020. Excluding his little-used slow curveball, his velocity is down across the board compared to 2025. Meanwhile, opponents’ average exit velocity against Corbin has held constant, and he’s had a 4.2% uptick in hard contact rate and a 6.37 expected ERA thus far.
Scherzer comes with age and injury risks, though it’s hard to argue that someone with his track record and postseason experience won’t at least be a viable depth starter. Bieber is a bit further off from returning, but he’s perhaps even more valuable to the Jays than Scherzer. Bieber had a 3.57 ERA in 40 1/3 innings last year after returning from Tommy John surgery. Although he allowed more home runs than usual, Bieber showed his signature control by walking just 4.4% of hitters. He also induced groundballs at an above-average 48.2% rate, slightly above his career number of 46.4%.
According to a separate post from Zwelling, Bieber will begin a rehab assignment on Monday. He’ll aim for two innings in the Complex League, then progress to three innings in his next outing. Toronto’s injury report has Bieber expected back in late June, which suggests he’s in for a longer rehab assignment than Scherzer. That could mean Bieber only pitches half a season in the Majors, but that would still be Bieber’s largest sample size since 2023, when he made 21 starts for the Guardians.
If everyone were healthy, Cease, Yesavage, and Gausman would occupy the first three rotation spots. They could be followed by Bieber and Scherzer, with Miles continuing as a fireman out of the ‘pen and Corbin as a long reliever. Further injuries could change that picture, of course, but the return of the Jays’ depth starters will go a long way to ensuring they stay in the playoff hunt as the season goes on.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Re-Sign Eloy Jimenez To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays and designated hitter Eloy Jimenez have reached an agreement on a new minor league contract, per Mitch Bannon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He was with Toronto earlier this season but elected free agency in early May after being designated for assignment and clearing waivers.
It appears no other club was willing to plug Jimenez right onto its big league roster, so he’ll head back to the Jays and hope for another opportunity. Jimenez, 29, appeared in a dozen games with the Jays prior to his DFA and hit .290 with a .343 on-base percentage in 35 trips to the plate. That .290 average is obviously strong but lacked any teeth; Jimenez didn’t have an extra-base hit (and thus also slugged .290), and he continued to show a ground-ball approach at the plate, undercutting the plus power he once showed.
Early in his career, Jimenez was a top prospect who looked like a potential star. He blasted 31 homers in only 504 plate appearances as a rookie, and while that came in the juiced-ball 2019 season, it still appeared to set the stage for a run as a middle-of-the-order bat on Chicago’s south side.
Instead, injuries regularly hobbled Jimenez over the course of his White Sox tenure. He’s never reached 500 plate appearances in a season since that 2019 debut, nor has he put together even a 20-homer campaign (let alone another 30-homer season). He was still plenty productive when healthy in 2020-22, hitting a combined .281/.334/.499, but his bat has tanked since.
Dating back to 2023, Jimenez has taken 873 major league plate appearances and posted a below-average .259/.307/.393 line. If he were able to provide value with his glove and/or on the basepaths, that could still be a passable line, but Jimenez is a poor defensive outfielder whose sprint speed sat in the 21st percentile of big leaguers earlier this season, per Statcast. Defensive Runs Saved has dinged him for -14 runs in his career, and Statcast has graded him at -19 Outs Above Average. He’s played all of 117 innings in the outfield since Opening Day 2023 — and none since 2024.
Jimenez is still only 29, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he reinvents himself and enjoys a nice second act in his career. He’s taken 258 minor league plate appearances across the past two seasons, however, and slugged well under .400 in that span. He’s got a ways to go, but the Blue Jays aren’t risking anything by seeing if they can get him back on track with a non-roster deal that’ll send him to Triple-A Buffalo.