TORONTO \u2014 Outfielder Daulton Varsho, infielder Ernie Clement and backup catcher Tyler Heineman agreed to one-year contracts with the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday to avoid arbitration. <\/p>\n
Varsho\u2019s deal was worth US$10.75 million, Clement came to terms at $4.6 million and Heineman agreed to $1.2375 million.<\/p>\n
Pitcher Eric Lauer, the only other Blue Jays player eligible for arbitration, will have a hearing on his contract. <\/p>\n
Varsho, 29, was limited to 71 games last season due to shoulder and hamstring injuries. A Gold Glove Award winner in 2024, the defensive star hit .238 last year with an .832 on-base plus slugging percentage, 20 homers and 55 runs batted in. <\/p>\n
Clement, 29, became an everyday player with the Blue Jays last season, hitting .277 with a .711 OPS over 157 games. He hit nine homers and drove in 50 runs before shining in the playoffs. <\/p>\n
The utility infielder set a Major League Baseball record with 30 post-season hits and had a .411 average. The Blue Jays reached Game 7 of the World Series before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers. <\/p>\n
Clement was an American League Gold Glove finalist at both utility and third base in each of the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
Lauer, 30, was a reliable member of the starting rotation in the middle of the year before returning to the bullpen late in the campaign. <\/p>\n
The left-hander, who pitched in South Korea and the minor leagues in 2024, was 9-2 with a 3.18 earned-run average over 28 appearances (15 starts). <\/p>\n
Heineman hit .289 last season over 64 games as a backup for Alejandro Kirk. The 34-year-old had three homers, 20 RBIs and an OPS of .777.<\/p>\n
MLB players who don\u2019t reach deals by Thursday\u2019s deadline will have hearings scheduled from Jan. 26 to Feb. 13 in Scottsdale, Ariz.<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from The Associated Press. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Outfielder Daulton Varsho, infielder Ernie Clement and backup catcher Tyler Heineman agreed to one-year contracts with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,713,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-397934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-justice","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}