Major roster decisions loom for a number of Major League Baseball teams within the next two weeks, and that group includes the Toronto Blue Jays.
This year, the Blue Jays have an infielder, Leo Jiménez, who is on the roster bubble and doesn’t have any minor-league options remaining. After returning from pool play in the World Baseball Classic with Team Panama, the 24-year-old now faces about a week of remaining spring training games to make his case to stay with the organization.
Earlier this week, Blue Jays insider Keegan Matheson forecasted that Jiménez was in trouble. In an opening day roster projection, Matheson predicted that Jiménez would be left off the bench and exposed to waivers, though the competition was not necessarily close to being decided.
“Leo Jiménez still has a shot at winning a reserve infield job here — and he’s out of options — but the Blue Jays are plenty comfortable sliding Davis Schneider in as a reserve, too,” wrote Matheson.
If Jiménez does not make the cut for opening day, he’ll have his poor performance at the plate in a limited major league sample size largely to blame. Last season, he had just two hits in 29 at-bats, amounting to a .301 OPS even with a home run in that sample. That dropped his small-sample major league OPS to .635 in 242 plate appearances.
Jiménez was off to a 4-for-13 start at spring training before going 0-for-5 in a backup infield role for the Panamanians in the WBC.
It’s getting to be crunch time, and though his Blue Jays journey wouldn’t be guaranteed to end if he missed the roster cutdown, it would drastically increase those odds.
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