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WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 01: Jose A. Ferrer #47 of the Washington Nationals celebrates with C.J. Stubbs #36 after the final out of the game against the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park on September 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
The Toronto Blue Jays have not made a high-profile signing across MLB since Kazuma Okamoto earlier this month. While Toronto has one of the most complete rosters in baseball, it missed out on Bo Bichette, who is now with the New York Mets, and Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, who received better deals with the respective teams they’ve signed with.
However, the Blue Jays did recently sign 6-3 catcher C.J. Stubbs to a minor league contract, according to his MLB.com transaction page. He can also be known as the Phillies’ catcher Garrett Stubbs’ brother. Stubbs has little MLB experience, and the Blue Jays already have a pair of catchers they like, so this move makes Stubbs’ role with Toronto a bit unclear, but it is just a minor league deal, so it can help with organizational depth.
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Blue Jays Sign C.J. Stubbs
The Blue Jays have still been very active in MLB’s hot stove season, but most of that noise came on the pitching side of things. Toronto spent over $260 million on Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, and Tyler Rogers this offseason, so to say they haven’t made additions is just wrong.
Is signing C.J. Stubbs to a minor-league deal that doesn’t include an invite to spring training the news Blue Jays fans want to hear? Probably not.
GettyWASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 01: Jose A. Ferrer #47 of the Washington Nationals celebrates with C.J. Stubbs #36 after the final out of the game against the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park on September 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
MLBTradeRumors.com was first on the Stubbs news, and writer Mark Polishuk outlines his career to this point:
“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. ”
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Blue Jays’ Catcher Outlook
As mentioned, the Blue Jays already feel pretty comfortable with Alejandro Kirk as the everyday catcher, and even if Kirk needs a day off or two, Tyler Heineman can take his place. Both Kirk and Heineman provide much more with the bat than Stubbs. However, you can never have enough capable catchers, and the Stubbs ‘name’ likely kept C.J. around for this long.
Once a 10th-round pick by the Houston Astros in 2019, CJ Stubbs was let go by Houston and picked up by the Washington Nationals in 2024.
He has one major-league game under his belt and went 0-for-3.
Stubbs is in a situation where he could potentially get called up if Kirk or Heineman gets injured, but even then, if that were to happen, the Blue Jays may want to acquire another backstop on the external market somehow.
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