Phillies Release Vinny Nittoli
The Phillies announced Tuesday afternoon that reliever Vinny Nittoli has been released. He’d lost his spot on the 40-man roster last week once the Phils acquired Erich Uelmen from the Cubs.
Assuming he clears release waivers, Nittoli will head to the free agent market. He’s bounced around a bit on minor league contracts over the past year-plus. After making his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2021, the righty went on to ink successive non-roster contracts with the Twins, Yankees and Blue Jays. He logged Triple-A time with all three clubs without reaching the majors.
Nittoli was set to exercise an opt-out clause in his deal with Toronto last August. Philadelphia jumped in to acquire him, immediately adding him to their MLB roster. The Phils gave him two big league appearances down the stretch, in which he tossed a pair of scoreless innings.
The 32-year-old has three MLB outings under his belt over the past couple seasons. He averaged just under 93 MPH on his fastball while leaning primarily on a slider during his brief look with the Phils. He’s coming off a solid year in Triple-A, where he posted a 3.81 ERA with a quality 30.8% strikeout percentage and a meager 6.7% walk rate over 52 frames. He’ll be a depth option for teams looking to add some upper level relief help, likely via minor league deal with a non-roster Spring Training invitation.
Orioles Outright Chris Vallimont
The Orioles announced this afternoon that righty Chris Vallimont has gone unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He was assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk.
Vallimont, 26 in March, has yet to reach the major league level. A former Marlins draftee, he was dealt to the Twins in the 2019 deal that sent Lewin Díaz to Miami. Minnesota selected Vallimont onto their 40-man roster over the 2021-22 offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was assigned to Double-A Wichita to start last season but struggled, allowing 24 runs through his first 19 innings. Minnesota took him off the 40-man and he landed with Baltimore after being snagged off waivers.
The O’s sent him directly to Norfolk. Vallimont started 12 of his 16 appearances for the Tides, putting up a 5.38 ERA across 72 frames. His 21.3% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk percentage were solid enough but he had a tough time stranding runners. Baltimore never recalled him for his MLB debut and took him off the 40-man when acquiring Ryan O’Hearn (whom they promptly designated for assignment to claim Díaz off waivers in a full-circle move).
This is the first career outright for Vallimont. He doesn’t have the right to refuse the assignment, so he’ll stick in the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot. He could still be in camp as a non-roster Spring Training invitee and is likely to head to Norfolk to start the season as rotation depth.
Rockies Agree To Minor League Deals With Ty Blach, Josh Rogers
The Rockies have brought in a pair of left-handers — Ty Blach and Josh Rogers — on minor league contracts, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com (Twitter link). Both pitchers will be in big league camp as non-roster invitees.
Blach returns for a second season with the Rox. A Denver native, he signed a non-roster pact last winter. The veteran made the Opening Day roster and spent the year as a long relief option for skipper Bud Black. Blach threw 44 1/3 innings across 24 appearances, working to a 5.89 ERA. He only struck out 15% of opponents but walked a minuscule 5.7% of batters faced and put up a decent 43% ground-ball rate. At the end of the season, Colorado ran him through outright waivers. He elected minor league free agency but has now circled back to Colorado for another year.
The 32-year-old has never been overpowering. Blach sits in the low-90s with his fastball and doesn’t miss many bats. He’s typically shown solid control and kept the ball on the ground over parts of five big league campaigns. Blach had a fair bit of run as a starting pitcher with the division-rival Giants between 2017-18. It’s possible he gets a look as rotation depth or battles for the kind of multi-inning role out of the bullpen he had last season.
It’s a similar story with Rogers. As with Blach, he’s a soft-tossing control specialist. Rogers has pitched at the MLB level in four of the last five seasons. He spent his first two campaigns with the Orioles, starting three of eight appearances. After not reaching the majors in 2020, he returned late in 2021 with the Nationals. Rogers posted a 3.28 ERA over six starts for a rebuilding Washington club late in the year, securing his spot on the 40-man roster over the following offseason.
The 28-year-old returned to Washington last season but didn’t recapture his prior year’s success. Working out of the bullpen for all but three of his 16 outings, he allowed a 5.13 ERA through 26 1/3 frames. His 10.6% strikeout rate narrowly topped his 9.7% walk percentage and he surrendered just over two homers per nine innings. Washington let him go shortly after the trade deadline.
Rogers hooked on with the Marlins on a minor league pact after that. He got the ball nine times with their top affiliate in Jacksonville, putting up a 4.75 ERA across 47 1/3 frames. Miami never gave him a big league look, and he returned to free agency at season’s end. He’ll join Blach in serving as rotation or long relief depth with Colorado.
Royals Sign Kohl Stewart To Minor League Deal
The Royals announced agreement with righty Kohl Stewart on a minor league deal this afternoon. Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that Stewart isn’t likely to be in big league camp as he continues to rehab from an elbow injury that cut his 2021 season short.
Stewart sat out the entire 2022 campaign, ostensibly due to the aforementioned elbow concern. It’s not clear whether he ever underwent surgery or attempted to rehab without going under the knife. In either event, Stewart hasn’t thrown a competitive pitch since the Cubs placed him on the 60-day injured list in July 2021 with what the club announced as elbow inflammation. Chicago ran him through outright waivers at the start of that offseason rather than reinstate him to their 40-man roster. He remained a minor league free agent until today.
The 28-year-old is a former top five draftee, going fourth overall to the Twins in 2013. Stewart spent five seasons climbing the minor league ladder before briefly appearing at the MLB level with Minnesota between 2018-19. He started six of 19 appearances over those two years, working to a 4.79 ERA through 62 innings. The Twins let him go at the end of the latter season, and he hooked on with the Orioles on a split deal.
Stewart, a Type 1 diabetic, opted out of the 2020 campaign due to concerns over COVID-19. He never threw a pitch as an Oriole, as the team let him go at the end of the year. As a free agent, he found a big league deal with the Cubs. Stewart started three of four outings with Chicago, allowing 12 runs in 13 2/3 innings before the injury issues intervened.
All told, the Houston native owns a 4.88 ERA over 75 2/3 major league frames. He’s fanned a below-average 13.6% of opponents against a slightly elevated 9.6% walk rate. Over parts of four Triple-A campaigns, he owns a 4.65 ERA in 162 2/3 innings. The sinkerballer had a strong prospect pedigree for a while, however, and he’s induced grounders on over half the batted balls he’s allowed in the big leagues.
Precisely when Stewart will be ready for a return to pitching isn’t clear. Once he’s healthy, he’ll offer the Royals some rotation or long relief depth. He’ll presumably head to Triple-A Omaha at some point during the 2023 season and try to work back to the MLB level.
Blue Jays Sign Brandon Belt
January 10: The Jays have officially announced Belt’s signing.
January 9: After 12 seasons with the Giants, Brandon Belt is headed to Toronto. He’s in agreement with the Blue Jays on a one-year, $9.3MM contract for the 2023 season. The Excel Sports Management client has reportedly already passed his physical. The Jays are expected to formally announce the signing Tuesday, at which point they’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move.
A fifth-round pick by San Francisco in 2009, Belt reached the majors two seasons later. He played in 63 games as a rookie and took hold of the primary first base job by his second season. Belt was a key contributor on San Francisco’s 2012 World Series team, hitting .275/.360/.421 over 145 games. Injuries limited him to 61 regular season contests during the 2014 season but he was healthy enough to contribute to San Francisco’s third title in five years during the playoffs.
Belt battled intermittent injury issues throughout the coming years. When healthy, he was a consistently productive offensive player. While San Francisco’s pitcher-friendly home ballpark depressed his over-the-fence power, he was an annual threat for 30+ doubles and posted huge on-base numbers thanks to massive walk rates. At the start of the 2016 season, the Giants inked Belt to a $72.8MM extension that kept him off the open market through the 2021 campaign. He followed up with a .275/.394/.474 showing through 655 trips to the plate, earning his only career All-Star nod in the process.
The Texas product saw his production tail off a bit over the next few seasons, hitting at a slightly above-average level through 2019. He rebounded in a huge way in 2020, mashing at a .309/.425/.591 clip to secure some down-ballot MVP support during the shortened season. He continued to rake the following season but saw that year frequently interrupted by injury. Belt lost time to a left oblique strain and soreness in his right knee but managed a .274/.378/.597 showing while shattering his previous career mark with 29 home runs in just 97 games. Unfortunately, an errant pitch fractured his left thumb late in the season and he wasn’t able to participate in San Francisco’s playoff run.
In advance of what was set to be Belt’s first trip to free agency, the Giants tagged him with an $18.9MM qualifying offer. He accepted and returned to the Bay Area for another season. Injuries again proved problematic, this time seemingly have a deleterious effect on his performance even when he did manage to take the field. Belt had a trio of IL stints last season and while the first was a very brief absence related to COVID-19, the latter two were more worrisome. He lost around three weeks between May and June due to inflammation in his balky right knee and that again arose in mid-August.
After his second knee-related IL placement, the veteran elected to shut things down and undergo season-ending surgery. It was the third surgical procedure he’d undergone on that knee. Belt acknowledged he might contemplate retirement if recovery didn’t go well, but he told reporters a few weeks later he felt revitalized by the operation.
The injuries sent him to the open market in advance of his age-35 campaign coming off arguably his worst season. He hit .213/.326/.350 through 298 trips to the plate. Belt still walked at an excellent 12.4% clip but saw his power production drop. He managed eight home runs and posted a career-low .138 ISO (slugging minus batting average). Belt’s 38.5% hard contact rate, while still a bit better than average, was markedly down from his 2020-21 levels.
Toronto clearly believes that diminished production was a symptom of the injuries, which the club can hope won’t be as concerning after last summer’s surgery. If Belt can recapture any of his previous form, he’d add a quality left-handed bat to a predominantly right-handed lineup. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be the everyday first baseman. Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk figure to get a decent number of designated hitter at-bats when the other is in the lineup at catcher. Everyone in that group hits from the right side, so Belt adds some balance to the mix. None of those players will be strictly relegated to the short side of a platoon by Belt but he adds another high-upside offensive option for skipper John Schneider.
It’s a short-term deal but isn’t an insignificant commitment for the club. Tacking on Belt’s $9.3MM salary brings Toronto’s projected 2023 payroll a bit above $212MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That shatters last year’s approximate $171MM commitment, which had been a franchise record. More notably, it firmly positions the Jays as likely luxury tax payors for the first time in franchise history. The organization is up around $242MM in tax obligations, according to Roster Resource. After entering the night within a rounding error of the base threshold of $233MM, they’re pushing well past it to bring in more offensive help.
A team’s CBT number is officially tabulated at the end of the season, so the front office could theoretically look for ways to dip back under the line. That seems unlikely as the Jays battle for what they hope will be their first AL East title in eight years. Toronto boasts one of the league’s best lineups but could still look for help at the back of the rotation or in the bullpen over the next couple months.
The Blue Jays will pay a 20% tax on their first $20MM in CBT overages. They’re set to take on around $1.84MM in fees as a result of this signing, meaning their actual commitment to bring in Belt is closer to $11MM. If they surpass the $253MM mark, they’d be taxed at a 30% rate on any additional overages. Going past $273MM would come with further penalties.
San Francisco will move forward without one of the last remaining players from their excellent run in the first half of the last decade. Brandon Crawford is the only player from the 2014 team who’s still a Giant. It had long looked as if the club were going in that direction this offseason, with LaMonte Wade Jr. and J.D. Davis looking likely to share first base reps.
Belt had been one of the top first basemen still available on the open market. The free agent class at the position is now led by Trey Mancini and Yuli Gurriel, while Luke Voit and Miguel Sanó are around as bounceback targets for clubs looking to roll the dice on a power bat.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was first to report Belt and the Blue Jays were in agreement on a one-year contract that’d be announced Tuesday and that Belt had already passed his physical. Kaitlyn McGrath of the Athletic was first with the $9.3MM guarantee.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blue Jays Designate Julian Merryweather For Assignment
The Blue Jays have made their signing of Brandon Belt official, announcing the move today. To open a spot for him on the 40-man roster, right-hander Julian Merryweather has been designated for assignment.
Merryweather, 31, has spent the past three seasons in the Blue Jays’ bullpen after being acquired in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson from Toronto to Cleveland in 2018. He’s shown flashes of potential as a hard-thrower with near top-of-the-line velocity and above-average spin on his heater. However, even though Merryweather has averaged better than 97 mph on that fastball, he’s posted a below-average 21.8% strikeout rate in his career while logging a 5.64 ERA in 52 2/3 frames.
Merryweather’s 7.4% walk rate has been sharp, but he’s also been quite homer-prone in his big league career, yielding eight long balls in those 52 2/3 Major League innings. It’s tempting to assume that’s due to the hitter-friendly nature of his home park, but Merryweather has allowed more long balls on the road (five) than in Toronto (three) in a nearly equal number of plate appearances. Opponents have regularly made hard contact against the 6’4″ righty, evidenced by average exit velocities of 90.3 mph in each of the past two seasons and hard-hit rates of 47.4% and 44.8% in 2021 and 2022.
Because he’s out of minor league options, Merryweather will need to either stick on a team’s Opening Day roster or else be passed through waivers in order to be sent to Triple-A. The Blue Jays themselves will have the opportunity to attempt to pass him through waivers, though they can also take the next few days to gauge interest in a trade before taking that step.
Nationals Designate Andrés Machado For Assignment
The Nationals have officially announced their deal with outfielder Corey Dickerson. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, reliever Andrés Machado was designated for assignment.
Machado, 30 in April, has spent the past two years with the Nats as a depth reliever, getting frequently optioned and recalled as needed. He’s thrown 95 innings over those two seasons with a solid 3.41 ERA. His 9.9% walk rate and 43.6% ground ball rate in that time were both roughly average, but his 18.3% strikeout rate was a few ticks below par.
Machado’s opponents have registered a .264 batting average on balls in play against him, which is on the low side. For example, the league average in 2022 was .289, a 25-point difference. A pitcher can sometimes earn a lower BABIP than average by minimizing hard contact, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Machado. Statcast only places him in the 23rd percentile among qualified pitchers in terms of average exit velocity, 15th in hard hit rate and 27th in barrel rate.
It’s possible that good luck was helping Machado keep earned runs off the board. Whether that’s true or not, he’s now out of options, giving the club less versatility in using him on the roster. They will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. If another team were to acquire him, he has between one and two years of service time and has yet to reach arbitration. Though he hasn’t racked up huge strikeout numbers in the big leagues, he did average over 95 mph on his fastball in 2022. He also struck out 26.6% of Triple-A batters faced in the past two years.
Twins Acquire A.J. Alexy From Nationals
The Twins have acquired right-hander A.J. Alexy from the Nationals, according to announcements from both clubs. Alexy had been designated for assignment by the Nats last week. In exchange, right-hander Cristian Jimenez will be going to the Nats. In order to open a spot on their 40-man roster, the Twins have designated righty Oliver Ortega for assignment.
Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who went to the Rangers in the 2017 Yu Darvish trade. Since then, he’s posted some strong results in the minors but struggled to be as successful in the majors. He missed much of 2019 due to injury and then the minor leagues were canceled in 2020, but he showed promise in 2021. He tossed 65 minor league innings between Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 1.66 ERA along with a 29.8% strikeout rate. The 10.6% walk rate was certainly high but it was still a solid enough showing to get him into the majors.
Alexy posted a 4.70 ERA in 23 MLB innings that year, despite matching strikeout and walk rates of 17.5%, with both of those numbers being worse than league average. In 2022, he was limited to just seven innings in the show, getting tattooed for an 11.57 ERA in that short time. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A with a 5.91 ERA, getting strikeouts at a healthy 23.6% clip but with the walks still high at 12.8%.
The Rangers overhauled their rotation this winter and designated Alexy for assignment in the process. Despite his struggles in the majors so far, he’s still young and has some solid results in the minors to build from. He also still has an option year remaining, allowing a team to keep him in the minors as starting depth. The Nats grabbed him off waivers from the Rangers but he got bumped from their roster when they signed Dominic Smith. He’ll now head to the Twins and enter their rotation mix.
The Twins have a solid group of starters with Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle and Bailey Ober the likely front five. However, there are injury concerns scattered throughout that crew. Maeda didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, whereas the other four all made at least one trip to the IL in 2022 for various ailments. Alexy can now join Josh Winder, Simeon Woods Richardson and others as depth options on Minnesota’s roster.
By claiming Alexy and hanging onto him for a few weeks, the Nats will receive Jimenez for their troubles. He’s still quite young, not turning 19 years old until May. He spent 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, posting a 3.38 ERA over 37 1/3 innings with a 30.2% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate and 57.9% ground ball rate.
Ortega, 26, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels last week. He split his time between the majors and Triple-A in 2022, posting matching 22.3% strikeout rates at each level. His 6.6% walk rate in the minors was almost doubled in the majors at 12.2%, yet his major league ERA of 3.71 was somehow a couple runs better than his 5.96 mark in Triple-A. That was probably just bad luck, since his minor league BABIP was almost 100 points higher on the farm and his strand rate was 8% lower. He’s still young and has a couple of option years, making him appealing for any club looking for extra pitching depth. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers.
Nationals Sign Corey Dickerson
1:14pm: The Nationals have officially announced their signing of Dickerson.
7:30am: The Nationals and free-agent outfielder Corey Dickerson are in agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.25MM, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The Excel Sports Management client can earn another $750K via performance incentives. The Nats Report first reported that Dickerson and the Nationals were in agreement on a deal.
Dickerson, 33, will join his eighth big league team with this agreement — and his third in the National League East, having played prior stints with both the Phillies (2019) and Marlins (2020-21). His 2022 season was spent with the Cardinals, where he logged a .267/.300/.399 slash with six homers, 17 doubles and a triple in 297 plate appearances. That slash is at least somewhat skewed by an awful start to the season which saw him bat .180/.237/.213 through his first 97 plate appearances; from June 1 through the end of the 2022 campaign, Dickerson recorded 200 trips to the plate and posted a hefty .307/.330/.484 batting line.
In reality, Dickerson’s true talent level likely lies somewhere between the two extremes. The 2017 All-Star and 2018 Gold Glove winner is a lifetime .281/.324/.481 hitter but has settled in closer to a league-average bat since the 2020 season, slashing .266/.313/.403 in 872 turns at the plate.
The left-handed-hitting Dickerson carries a fairly sharp platoon split, with the majority of his power coming versus right-handed pitching. Dickerson’s 25.8% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate against lefties are also demonstrably worse than his respective 18.9% and 6.1% marks when holding the platoon advantage. Overall, Dickerson has held his own in terms of batting average against lefties (.259) but has paired that with a bleak .299 on-base percentage and just a .394 slugging percentage. Against righties, however, he’s slashed .287/.331/.505.
For a rebuilding Nationals squad with an all-right-handed-hitting outfield of Alex Call, Victor Robles and Lane Thomas, adding Dickerson on an affordable one-year deal is eminently sensible. His days as a center fielder should be behind him, but Dickerson can take plate appearances against right-handed pitching off the plates of each of his new fellow outfielders. Robles, in particular, was anemic against righties in 2022, slashing just .188/.238/.258 in 240 plate appearances. It’s also worth noting that Call was a 27-year-old rookie in 2022, and while his production in the upper minors (and in his 47-game MLB debut) certainly merited the promotion, he’s not exactly locked in as an established, everyday big leaguer just yet.
Dickerson could also see some time at designated hitter, and the Nationals will surely mix in 2022 breakout slugger Joey Menseses — another right-handed hitter. Meneses could log time at first base, spelling recent signee Dominic Smith against lefties, and he’s an option in the outfield corners and at designated hitter.
There should be plenty of at-bats to go around, and given the short big league track records of Call, Thomas and Meneses — to say nothing of Robles’ continued offensive struggles that now span the past three seasons — Dickerson should fit in nicely and raise the floor for a lineup that’s light on proven hitters. He’ll also give the Nationals a potential trade chip at the deadline. Dickerson alone isn’t going to fetch a prominent, top-tier prospect, but he can still net the Nats some minor league talent if he’s healthy and performing well.
With Dickerson in the fold, the Nationals’ payroll will inch beyond the $104MM mark. It’s a far cry from the $197MM Opening Day payroll the team trotted out in 2019, when they went on to win the World Series. However, this iteration of the Nationals is more focused on building up the farm and setting the stage for future seasons, and the front office’s rebuilding effort is taking place in conjunction with ownership’s exploration of a potential sale of the team.
Be that as it may, the generally slashed payroll leaves the Nats with plenty of latitude for additional spending, should further deals to their liking present themselves. Beyond Dickerson, Washington has thus far agreed to Major League deals with the aforementioned Smith (one year, $2MM), third baseman Jeimer Candelario (one year, $5MM), swingman Erasmo Ramirez (one year, $1MM) and right-hander Trevor Williams (two years, $13MM) in free agency. There’s still room for another veteran starter, and the bullpen has plenty of uncertainty that could be offset by the addition of a more reliable name.
Pirates Trade Zach Thompson To Blue Jays
The Blue Jays have acquired right-hander Zach Thompson from the Pirates in exchange for minor league outfielder Chavez Young, per a team announcement. Toronto has designated right-hander Junior Fernández for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Thompson, who’ll provide the Jays with some further rotation depth. Thompson was designated for assignment by the Pirates last week.
Thompson, 29, was drafted by the White Sox back in 2014 but was never added to their roster and reached minor league free agency after 2020. He then signed a minor league deal with the Marlins just in time for his breakout campaign. He cracked Miami’s roster that year and ended up making 26 appearances, 14 of them starts. He tossed 75 innings with a 3.24 ERA, 21% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 43.4% ground ball rate.
After that nice surprise campaign, the Marlins sold high and flipped Thompson to the Pirates as part of the Jacob Stallings deal. Unfortunately, the move to Pittsburgh didn’t go well for Thompson, who was deployed in a swing role. He made 22 starts and seven relief appearances, posting a 5.18 ERA over 121 2/3 innings. He still got grounders at a solid 45.3% rate but his strikeout rate dipped to 16.6%. The Bucs designated him for assignment last week when they made their signing of Rich Hill official.
Despite that poor season, there’s little harm for the Jays in taking a flier on him. Thompson still has a full slate of options and can be kept in the minors until he’s needed. The Jays have four rotation spots spoken for, with Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos firmly entrenched. The fifth spot is a bit less certain, but they have plenty of options, including Yusei Kikuchi, Mitch White and Nate Pearson. Thompson will jump into that mix and give the club another layer of depth. He has between one and two years of MLB service time, meaning he still hasn’t reached arbitration and can be cheaply retained for the foreseeable future.
In order to get that extra pitching depth, the Jays are parting with Young. The 25-year-old will jump to a new organization for the first time, having spent his entire career in the Jays’ system until now. He was selected in the 39th round of the 2016 draft, drafted out of the Bahamas. Since then, he’s climbed his way up the minor league ladder, hitting well at each stop until he got to Triple-A. In 78 Double-A games in 2021, he hit .265/.350/.409 for a wRC+ of 109. In 65 Triple-A games last year, his production dropped to .234/.331/.350, 86 wRC+. He’ll look to take a step forward at the plate with his new team, but he provides a solid floor to the Bucs from his speed and defense regardless. He’s played all three outfield positions, including plenty of center field, and has stolen at least 20 bases in each of the past four minor league seasons.
The Jays are also relinquishing Fernández, whom they just grabbed on waivers from the Yankees last week. The right-hander has huge velocity but has yet to figure out how to properly harness it. He averaged 98.8 mph on his four-seamer this year and 98.7 mph on his sinker last year but struck out just 16.7% of batters faced while walking 14.3% of them. 2022 was his last option year and he’s become a popular target on waivers in recent months. After being designated for assignment by the Cardinals in September, he’s been claimed off waivers by the Pirates, Yankees and Blue Jays. The Jays will now have a week to trade him or put him back on waivers yet again.