Blue Jays Place Teoscar Hernandez On 10-Day Injured List
3:42PM: Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Kaitlyn McGrath and other reporters that the team will be cautious with Hernandez’s injury, but it doesn’t appear to be as severe as initially thought.
3:14PM: The Blue Jays have placed outfielder Teoscar Hernandez on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique strain. Infielder Gosuke Katoh has been called up from Triple-A to take Hernandez’s spot on the active roster. The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath reported earlier today that Katoh had joined the Jays in New York for tonight’s game with the Yankees, and The Toronto Sun’s Rob Longley also tweeted earlier that Hernandez was thought to have an oblique-related injury.
Hernandez suffered the injury during a sixth inning at-bat in last night’s game, as the outfielder looked pained after taking his first swing. Hernandez waved off a visit from the team trainer but then continued to show discomfort after grounding out to end the plate appearance. Hernandez didn’t take the field for the bottom of the sixth, replaced in the lineup by Bradley Zimmer.
As Longley noted, this isn’t the first time Hernandez has missed time with a left oblique strain, as a similar injury resulted in a 10-day IL stint in September 2020. That proved to be a mild strain that resulted in Hernandez missing only the minimum 10 days, but oblique strains are notoriously tricky injuries that can often lead to weeks or even months on the IL, depending on the severity. It was just three days ago that the Jays lost another regular to an oblique strain, as catcher Danny Jansen is expected to miss several weeks of action.
Losing Hernandez for any length of time is a blow to Toronto’s lineup, as the 29-year-old slugger has hit 49 home runs and slashed .295/.347/.538 in 825 PA since the start of the 2020 season. Even for a Blue Jays team that has plenty of hitting, this type of production can’t be easily replicated, especially since the Jays already lost some depth when Jansen went down.
Raimel Tapia and Zimmer (both acquired in offseason trades) figure to get the bulk of outfield work in Hernandez’s absence, and Cavan Biggio also has some experience as an outfielder. In the minors, Mallex Smith and Nathan Lukes are potential options, though neither are on the 40-man roster. The same is true of veteran Dexter Fowler, but Fowler only signed with the Jays at the end of Spring Training and is still participating only in sim games as he works his way back from a torn ACL.
Blue Jays Place Danny Jansen On Injured List
APRIL 12: Manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters (including Kaitlyn McGrath of the Athletic) this evening that Jansen could be out for multiple weeks.
APRIL 11: The Blue Jays announced this evening they’ve selected catcher Tyler Heineman onto the big league club. Starting backstop Danny Jansen has been placed on the 10-day injured list after dealing with some left side soreness. To create space on the 40-man roster for Heineman, outfielder Josh Palacios has been designated for assignment. Toronto also recalled southpaw Anthony Kay from Triple-A Buffalo while optioning reliever Tayler Saucedo.
Heineman returns to the bigs for the first time since 2020. He played with the Marlins and Giants between 2019-20, picking up 62 cumulative plate appearances in 20 games. The switch-hitting backstop only hit .208/.288/.302 in that very brief action, but he owns a solid .284/.352/.415 line in parts of six Triple-A campaigns. Heineman managed a .264/.345/.310 showing in 41 games with the Cardinals’ and Phillies’ top affiliates last season. The UCLA product signed a minor league deal with the Jays this offseason and quickly winds up back in the majors.
Unfortunately for the Jays, that comes as a result of an injury to their primary catcher. An MRI revealed an oblique strain for Jansen, tweets Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports. The Jays didn’t provide an indication of the severity of the strain or a timetable for his return, but it’s not uncommon for oblique issues to keep a player out of action for multiple weeks.
Jansen has had an up-and-down showing offensively in the majors. The right-handed hitter popped 11 homers in just 205 plate appearances last season, finishing the year on a .310/.365/.707 tear in the final month. Jansen had been off to a hot start, collecting four hits (including a pair of homers) during last weekend’s series with the Rangers. That’ll be put on hold for the time being.
Toronto now looks set to rely on some combination of Alejandro Kirk, Zack Collins and Heineman behind the dish. All three players are currently on the active roster, but Kirk and Collins are bat-first options who could also pick up some time at designated hitter. The Jays have top prospect Gabriel Moreno at Buffalo, but he has just three games of experience there. Moreno is already on the 40-man roster, but Toronto elected to go with the veteran Heineman while giving the talented 22-year-old more regular run in the minors.
Palacios, 26, is a former fourth-round pick who was selected onto the 40-man over the 2020-21 offseason. He reached the majors for the first time last year but only appeared in 13 games after spending much of the season on the minor league injured list. Thanks to the canceled 2020 minor league campaign, Palacios hasn’t gotten extended game action since 2019 with Double-A New Hampshire.
To his credit, the lefty-hitting Palacios had a nice showing in a pitcher-friendly environment that year. He hit .266/.371/.416 with 15 stolen bases, drawing walks at a robust 13.2% clip while punching out 20.5% of the time. Palacios hit just seven home runs, though, and that lack of power has kept him from emerging as one of the top prospects in the system.
Baseball America slotted Palacios 30th in the organization this winter, writing he has enough contact skills and athleticism to function as a reserve outfield type. The Jays acquired Raimel Tapia from the Rockies in Spring Training to fill that role, seemingly pushing Palacios to the bottom of the depth chart. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another team swing a minor trade or waiver claim for the Brooklyn native. He still has a pair of option years remaining and could add some outfield depth to another organization.
Injury Notes: Pollock, La Stella, Sanchez, Borucki, Pearson
A.J. Pollock left today’s game with what the White Sox announced as right hamstring tightness. Pollock had just singled, but seemed to tweak his hamstring while making the turn around first base, and had to be replaced for a pinch-runner. While Pollock’s lengthy injury history (including a right hamstring strain that sidelined him for over two weeks last September) gives particular concern to any new issues, Pollock told The Athletic’s James Fegan and other reporters after the game that today’s injury wasn’t nearly as severe as last season’s hamstring problem.
As it happens, Pollock was already set to miss some time. The outfielder and his wife are expecting their second child, and Pollock was scheduled to go on paternity leave tomorrow. He’ll use the absence to rest his hamstring and hopefully avoid become the latest White Sox player to hit the injured list. Garrett Crochet has been lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery, while the 10-day IL features Lance Lynn, Yoan Moncada, Joe Kelly, Yermin Mercedes, and Ryan Burr, plus Lucas Giolito is now also set to miss at least his next two starts.
More injury updates from around baseball…
- There is “no set in stone timeline at this point” for when Tommy La Stella might return from the injured list, Giants manager Gabe Kapler told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado and other reporters. La Stella underwent Achilles surgery in October and is still feeling some soreness, though he told media that doctors have said this isn’t unusual. Despite the lack of clarity, the Giants did consider using La Stella as a DH to begin the season, so it would seem like he is relatively close to playing. “It was just one of those things where we wanted to make sure that we weren’t sacrificing the long-term success in this process for short-term gains now and make sure I’m set up to be good to go for the rest of the season,” La Stella said.
- Anibal Sanchez could miss his scheduled start Monday, as the Nationals right-hander has been dealing with neck soreness. The Nats already pushed Sanchez’s start back to give him time to heal, but as MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman writes, the club now may need to turn to either the bullpen, or possibly a minor league call-up like Josh Rogers or Aaron Sanchez to take the start. In Aaron Sanchez’s case, the Nationals would have to first clear a 40-man roster spot to select his minor league contract.
- Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo updated reporters (including TSN’s Scott Mitchell) about sidelined pitchers Ryan Borucki and Nate Pearson. Borucki is on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain, but came out of a two-inning simulated game feeling well. Pearson is set to start light throwing after missing time due to mononucleosis, but because Pearson missed a significant portion of Spring Training, Mitchell writes that the right-hander is “essentially starting from scratch” from a preparation standpoint. As such, it might not be until at least mid-May that Pearson is fully ramped up.
Bichette: No Extension Talks With Blue Jays Right Now
The Blue Jays’ core players are about to get more expensive. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has already reached arbitration as a Super Two player, agreeing to a $7.9MM salary in his first of four passes through the arb system. Teoscar Hernandez is earning $10.65MM this year, his second of three arb seasons. Cavan Biggio, like Guerrero, qualified for Super Two and is in his first of four arb seasons, making $2.1225MM this year.
As for Bo Bichette, his two years and 63 days of service time fell shy of this year’s Super Two cutoff of 2.116, meaning he won’t be able to earn a meaningful salary increase until after this season. As for whether an extension is in the cards, the 24-year-old had told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith that his camp and the club have had some conversations, but that “right now we’re focused on the season and accomplishing what we think we’re capable of. Right now, we’re not talking.” Most players usually prefer not to continue extension talks into the regular season, meaning it’s likely they won’t resume until the end of this campaign, when Bichette will have reached arbitration and earned himself some more leverage in any future negotiations.
Team president/CEO Mark Shapiro doesn’t seem overly stressed about the situation. “It’s not like we are a small market where if it gets towards the end of the contract and we can’t extend them, we need to panic and trade them for prospects,” Shapiro tells Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “I understand fans or maybe someone externally might think you need to extend these guys. I felt that way when I was working in Cleveland. I do not feel that way working in Toronto.” That’s not to say they won’t try at all, of course. “Those players are both under control for three more seasons (beyond 2022),” Shapiro said of both Bichette and Guerrero. “That is a very long time. During that time, it’s safe to say we will continue both formally and informally to explore extensions with them. Should that not happen, we’re very comfortable that our market gives us the ability to go year to year and pay them year to year. And if they happen to get to free agency, we obviously will be a team that will pursue them in free agency, too.”
Despite a 2020 season in which the team played their home games in Buffalo with no fans, and a 2021 season in which they bounced from Dunedin to Buffalo and then back to Toronto with limited capacity, the club is running a franchise record Opening Day payroll this year. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource pegs it at $172MM, topping the $163MM from 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. However, there will be need for future moves, as a big chunk of the roster will be hitting free agency after the 2023 season, including Teoscar Hernandez, Hyun Jin Ryu, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Matt Chapman. “You won’t need to ask, you can just look at the attendance numbers, look at the ratings and that will give you your answer,” Shapiro said of the future spending. “If we get back to levels we were at in ’15 and ’16, we will be fine to sustain or even grow our payroll. If we do not, we will probably have to reconsider our roster.”
As for Bichette, Davidi reports that the Blue Jays offered him a salary of $747.1K for this year, just barely above the $700K league minimum. Bichette refused this offer, a move often taken by pre-arbitration players as a form of protest against compensation they consider insufficient. Whether that will hamper future relations between the two camps is unknown, but Shapiro’s comments illustrate he views the future health of the club as connected to larger issues than an individual player’s contract. As Davidi points out in his piece, the club was content to let Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien sign elsewhere, while turning to alternatives like Kevin Gausman, Matt Chapman and Yusei Kikuchi for replacements. While the merits of that strategy can be debated, the public relations will certainly be different with players like Bichette and Guerrero, who have been the focus of Jays fans since well before their debuts, as opposed to vets on short-term deals like Ray and Semien.
Guardians Trade Bradley Zimmer To Blue Jays For Anthony Castro
The Guardians have announced that they have traded outfielder Bradley Zimmer to the Blue Jays in exchange for right-hander Anthony Castro.
For the Blue Jays, this is the second trade in recent weeks where they’ve added a speedy outfielder with a left-handed bat as a complement to their lineup of right-handed power bats, with the other being Raimel Tapia. Zimmer was selected by Cleveland as the 21st overall pick in the 2014 draft and made his debut in 2017. He didn’t hit a ton, putting up a line of .241/.307/.385 for a wRC+ of just 79 in 101 games. However, he did steal 18 bases and get favorable reviews for his work in the field, which helped him earn a mark of 1.6 wins above replacement, in the estimation of FanGraphs.
Unfortunately, Zimmer has never been able to top that mark since. He started 2018 with the big league club but struggled over 34 games and got optioned down to the minors. A shoulder injury suffered that year wiped out the remainder of his 2018 and most of his 2019 as well. Over 2020 and 2021, he got into 119 big league games and showed a similar profile to his rookie year. The batting line was fairly tepid, coming in at .220/.329/.333 for a wRC+ of 88, but with 17 steals and good defense. On the other hand, he did strike out in 34.2% of his plate appearances, something that has been a persistent issue with him throughout his big league career.
As a lefty hitter, he’s better versus righties but doesn’t have drastic platoon splits for his career. With the Jays featuring a starting outfield of right-handed batters George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Zimmer and Tapia will likely be competing for given those guys the occasional day on the bench or in the DH slot, giving the lineup a different look.
It seems Zimmer was nudged out of the plans in Cleveland, as he didn’t crack the lineup in today’s season opener, with Myles Straw, Amed Rosario and Steven Kwan getting the starting nods on the grass. Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins were both working in the Cleveland front office at the time Zimmer was drafted and are clearly willing to take a shot that the 29-year-old can still be valuable. His defense was estimated to be worth seven Outs Above Average by Statcast last year, meaning he can be a productive player even without any offensive improvement. Though development in that department will surely be a goal of his new team. He qualified for arbitration for the first time this year and settled on a salary of $1.3MM. He can be controlled through the 2024 season.
As for the Guardians, they’ve subtracted a player who wasn’t likely to see significant playing time and is out of options, while adding an optionable reliever to their bullpen mix. Castro made his MLB debut in 2020 with Detroit but pitched just a single inning. After going to the Jays on a waiver claim, he was able to log 24 2/3 innings in the bigs last year with a 4.74 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. The 26-year-old has an option year remaining and just over a year of service time, meaning he could be controlled by the Guardians for years to come.
Blue Jays To Select Gosuke Katoh
The Blue Jays are planning to select infielder Gosuke Katoh to the big league roster, the team informed reporters (including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet) this afternoon. Toronto already has a vacancy on the 40-man roster, meaning they won’t need to make another move in that regard.
Once finalized, Katoh will get his first MLB opportunity. The 27-year-old began his professional career back in 2013, when he was selected by the Yankees in the second round out of a California high school. The left-handed hitter spent the next few seasons in the low minors, drawing plenty of walks but rarely hitting for power and striking out quite a bit. He didn’t reach Double-A until 2018, and he spent some time there the following season after struggling to a .229/.327/.335 line.
After a more productive 2019 campaign split between the minors’ top two levels, Katoh qualified for minor league free agency. He signed on with the Marlins for 2020 but didn’t play in a game in the Miami organization because of the canceled minor league season. Katoh caught on with the Padres last winter and spent the entire year with their top affiliate in El Paso. He had a solid .306/.388/.474 showing over 402 plate appearances with the Chihuahuas. Katoh walked at a customarily strong 11.4% clip and his 20.9% strikeout rate was among the lowest rates of his minor league career.
That wasn’t enough for Katoh to get an MLB opportunity in San Diego, but he latched on with the Jays on a minors pact this winter. He impressed the front office and coaching staff enough to get a season-opening bench job that had been up for grabs. It had seemed as if first baseman Greg Bird was trending towards that spot, but Bird was let go this afternoon once the club had opted for Katoh instead.
In doing so, the Jays will forfeit some power potential for a bit more defensive flexibility. Katoh bounced between first, second and third base and left field for El Paso last season, whereas Bird would’ve been limited to first base or designated hitter. Katoh pairs with the righty-hitting Santiago Espinal as utility options behind the starting infield of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio, Matt Chapman and Bo Bichette. He still has all three minor league option years remaining, so while he’ll be receiving his first MLB opportunity, Katoh could bounce between Toronto and Triple-A Buffalo for a while.
Blue Jays Release Greg Bird
The Blue Jays have released first baseman Greg Bird from his minor league contract, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter link). Toronto gave “strong” consideration to carrying Bird on the roster, Nicholson-Smith adds, but ultimately the Jays will go in a different direction with their Opening Day 28-man roster.
Bird, 29, had a strong spring showing in Dunedin, hitting .261/.393/.565 with a pair of homers, a double, five walks and five strikeouts in 28 trips to the plate. That performance comes on the heels of a .267/.362/.532 batting line with 27 home runs in 461 plate appearances with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate last season.
There’s never been too much doubt that Bird has the ability to hit. He was at one point viewed as a possible long-term option at first base for the Yankees, and understandably so after a .261/.343/.529 batting line and 11 home runs in 178 plate appearances as a rookie in 2015. Injuries, however, have taken their toll on Bird over the years and caused him to miss substantial amounts of time. Shoulder surgery wiped out his entire 2016 campaign, and when he returned in Spring Training the following year, Bird fouled a ball off his ankle that resulted in an injury which eventually required surgery. A year later, that same ankle required a second surgery, and in 2019, he developed plantar fasciitis in his other foot and missed the bulk of the season.
Bird’s huge rookie showing, his career .277/.365/.530 slash line in Triple-A, and this year’s brief but impressive spring performance with the Jays all serve as a reminder of the upside he has at the plate. It’s quite possible he’ll draw interest from another team in need of some help at first base and/or designated hitter. Nicholson-Smith does note that there’s some chance of the Jays re-signing Bird to a new minor league deal, but he’ll of course have the opportunity to talk to all 29 other clubs now as well.
Any team that does pick him up could technically control him not only for the 2022 season but also through 2023 via arbitration, though he’d first need to make the big league roster at some point and hold a spot through season’s end.
White Sox Trade Zack Collins To Blue Jays For Reese McGuire
The White Sox and Blue Jays have agreed to a swap of catchers, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). Zack Collins is headed to Toronto, while Reese McGuire has been dealt to the Sox.
Rumors have swirled for months that the Jays were looking to move some of their catching depth, though today’s move still gives Toronto a bit more roster flexibility behind the plate while still retaining that depth. Collins has a minor league option remaining while McGuire is out of options, so the Blue Jays can now more easily stash Collins at Triple-A.
From Chicago’s perspective, the Sox now have a more established big leaguer who can work as the backup behind Yasmani Grandal. Since Grandal will get some time at the DH spot, McGuire and Seby Zavala (who is also out of options) can each get some action behind the plate, and the expanded 28-man rosters for April will allow the White Sox the luxury of carrying three catchers.
The Pirates selected McGuire with the 14th overall pick of the 2013 draft, and he was a regular on top-100 prospect lists during his time in Pittsburgh’s farm system. However, despite some good numbers in limited action in 2018-19, McGuire’s potential has yet to really manifest itself at the big league level. The 27-year-old has hit .248/.297/.390 with nine homers over an even 400 plate appearances with the Blue Jays, with McGuire often finding himself behind Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, and Luke Maile on the catching depth chart.
Collins and McGuire share rather similar resumes — both are left-handed hitting catchers, they were born less than a month apart in 1995, and both are former first-round picks. The White Sox selected Collins 10th overall in 2016, and like McGuire, Collins has also yet to offer much production in the majors. Collins has a .195/.315/.330 slash line and seven home runs in 351 career PA, and he has struck out in 113 of those plate appearances.
Defense has been a question mark for Collins dating back to his college days at the University Of Miami, whereas McGuire is regarded as a decent defender. (Statcast gave McGuire a solid +4 in framing runs during the 2021 season.) This could be seen as something of a hitting-for-defense swap, if the Jays think they’ve seen something in Collins that can allow him to unlock his power potential.
With Collins able to be optioned, Jansen and Kirk now projects as Toronto’s regular catching tandem, and Kirk is also expected to get some DH time. It isn’t out of the question that the Jays might still deal from this catching depth, as star prospect Gabriel Moreno is starting the season at Triple-A and could be making his Major League debut before 2022 is out.
AL East Notes: Pearson, Borucki, Harvey, Judge, Meadows, Rays, Pollock
The Blue Jays are dealing with some injury concerns in their bullpen, as Nate Pearson is dealing with a non-COVID illness and Ryan Borucki left yesterday’s game with discomfort in his right hamstring. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (Twitter link) and other reporters that Borucki will undergo an MRI. More will be known about Borucki’s situation when the MRI results are in, but for Pearson, his illness has limited him to only two appearances thus far in Grapefruit League action.
In all likelihood, Pearson’s illness will keep him from making Toronto’s Opening Day roster. While this issue seems less serious than the other injuries that have sidelined the righty over the last two years, it represents yet another setback for the former top prospect. As for Borucki, the southpaw has been a pretty solid reliever when healthy, though he missed almost all of the 2019 season due to elbow problems and over two months of last season with a forearm strain. If another IL stint is required for Borucki, Tim Mayza will be the only left-hander in the Jays’ projected bullpen, which could open the door for Anthony Kay, Tayler Saucedo, or Andrew Vasquez to break camp.
More from around the division….
- The Orioles are considering re-signing Matt Harvey, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Harvey struggled to a 6.27 ERA over 127 2/3 innings with Baltimore last season, a performance that didn’t lead to any publicly-known interest in his market this winter. Harvey’s situation is further clouded by the possibility of a suspension of at least 60 games. A new deal would surely take the form of a minor league contract, and if Harvey is suspended, he’ll need some extra time anyway to get ramped up to pitch.
- There doesn’t appear to be much new on the extension front between Aaron Judge and the Yankees, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that the two sides aren’t close to an agreement. Judge has stated that he doesn’t want negotiations to continue after Opening Day, so it seems as though quite a bit of progress will have to be made over just five days’ time.
- Also from Rosenthal, he reports that the White Sox proposed a trade to the Rays that would’ve seen Austin Meadows head to Chicago in exchange for Craig Kimbrel. Though Tampa Bay has reportedly been discussing Meadows in other trade talks, the Rays turned down the Kimbrel offer, which isn’t a surprise considering that the closer’s $16MM salary for 2022 would’ve taken up an outsized portion of Tampa’s limited payroll.
- The White Sox ended up dealing Kimbrel to the Dodgers yesterday for another outfielder in AJ Pollock. Beyond Chicago’s talks with the Rays, there is another AL East connection to that swap, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that the Red Sox were one of the teams interested in Pollock. The right-handed hitting Pollock would’ve been a nice balance for Boston’s current corner outfield tandem of Alex Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr., both of whom swing from the left side. Beyond just a platoon split, Pollock would’ve been mostly an everyday option, but the Red Sox seem committed to Bradley getting more of a regular share of outfield duty even though Bradley is coming off a dreadful season at the plate.
Blue Jays Select David Phelps’ Contract
The Blue Jays announced that David Phelps will break camp with the team, and that his minor league contract has been selected to the active roster.
The veteran right-hander will receive a $1.75MM salary, and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (via Twitter) reports that Phelps can earn another $1.75MM in incentives. Phelps gets an extra $250K for appearing in 35 games, and then additional $250K bonuses for every additional five appearances, topping out at the 65-game plateau.
Phelps is now set to play in what will be his 10th Major League season, and looks to rebound from an injury-shortened 2021. A ruptured lat muscle ended Phelps’ season after only 10 1/3 innings of work, and the 35-year-old said he even considered retiring rather than face such a lengthy recovery process. However, Phelps decided to give it another chance, and ended up re-signing with Toronto on a minors deal. It isn’t the first time Phelps has overcome a major injury, as he missed a big chunk of 2013 due to a forearm strain, and then all of the 2018 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
These stops and starts have perhaps made Phelps something of an underrated pitcher, especially since he became more or less a full-time reliever in 2016. Since the start of the 2016 campaign, Phelps has a 3.12 ERA and 29.9% strikeout rate over 207 2/3 innings with six different teams. Phelps is prone to some free passes (he also has a 10.4% walk rate over the last six seasons), but he has generally been a solid bullpen weapon when healthy. Toronto is hopeful that Phelps can continue this form in 2022, and add some depth to a relief corps that is pretty much unchanged from last year, barring the acquisition of Yimi Garcia.