{"id":888484,"date":"2026-09-11T19:16:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888484\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T19:16:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:16:39","slug":"blue-jays-designate-jesus-sanchez-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888484\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Designate Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jays announced Friday that outfielder Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez<\/a> has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to outfielder Rudy Martin Jr.<\/a>, whose previously reported call to the majors<\/a> is now official.<\/p>\n

Toronto acquired S\u00e1nchez from the Astros in an early-spring swap that sent another lefty-swinging outfielder, Joey Loperfido<\/a>, back to Houston. Loperfido was originally drafted by the \u2018Stros but was traded to the Jays in 2024\u2019s Yusei Kikuchi<\/a> deal. He never got a particularly long look in Toronto and hasn\u2019t received one back in Houston, either.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, 29 next month, got out to a nice start but has seen his role diminish in recent months. He\u2019s long had issues against fellow lefties, typically requiring a platoon partner, and that\u2019s been no different in 2026. S\u00e1nchez remains an effective hitter against righties (.276\/.333\/.448 in 267 plate appearances), but he hasn\u2019t hit lefties at all in a tiny sample of 32 plate appearances (4-for-30 with a double and three singles).<\/p>\n

More concerning than his performance at the plate has been his performance with the glove. S\u00e1nchez has never been an elite defender in the outfield, but he joined the Jays with better-than-average career marks in both outfield corners. His limited work in center field early in his career with the Marlins wasn\u2019t pretty, but the Jays weren\u2019t acquiring him to patrol center. S\u00e1nchez, however, had some defensive lapses late last year with the Astros, and his defense this season in Toronto hasn\u2019t rebounded. Defensive Runs Saved (-10) and Outs Above Average (-8) have both been harsh critics of his defensive prowess.<\/p>\n

Between the poor defense, the dearth of production versus lefties and the good-not-great offense against right-handers, S\u00e1nchez has graded out below replacement level both at FanGraphs and at Baseball-Reference. It\u2019s not what the Jays had in mind when acquiring the veteran, who agreed to a $6.8MM salary to avoid arbitration this past winter. S\u00e1nchez has another season of club control remaining, but he\u2019d be due a raise to around $8MM if another club claimed him off waivers and tendered him a contract. That feels highly unlikely, given the frustrating nature of his 2026 season.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, S\u00e1nchez will clear waivers and become a free agent. At that point, any team could sign him for the prorated league minimum through season\u2019s end. He\u2019d still be eligible for an arbitration raise based on this year\u2019s salary, however, so he\u2019d probably just be outrighted after the season. One way or another, S\u00e1nchez will likely be a free agent this winter. The question for him will be whether a club commits to a guaranteed deal or whether he has to settle for a non-roster invitation to spring training on a minor league contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays announced Friday that outfielder Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez has been designated for assignment. His spot on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,32548,591,85],"class_list":["post-888484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jesus-sanchez","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}