{"id":409747,"date":"2026-01-15T00:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409747\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:11:13","slug":"eloy-jimenez-one-of-five-toronto-blue-jays-free-agent-signings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409747\/","title":{"rendered":"Eloy Jimenez one of five Toronto Blue Jays free-agent signings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">TORONTO \u2014 Designated hitter Eloy Jimenez was one of five free agents the Toronto Blue Jays signed to minor-league contracts on Wednesday, giving them invites to the team\u2019s major-league spring training camp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Infielders Carlos Mendoza and Rafael Lantigua as well as left-handed pitcher Michael Plassmeyer and right-hander Jorge Alcala were also signed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 29-year-old Jimenez split the 2025 season between the Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays organizations, batting .247 over 54 combined minor-league games with 13 extra-base hits and 30 runs batted in. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Jimenez signed with the Chicago Cubs as an international free agent in 2013, eventually making his MLB debut with the Chicago White Sox in 2019. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The six-foot-four, 250-pound right-handed hitter has suited up for 534 career Major League games between the White Sox and Baltimore Orioles with a career .269 average and 95 home runs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He finished fourth in American League rookie of the year voting in 2019 and won a Silver Slugger Award in 2020.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OFFICIAL: We\u2019ve signed the following free agents to Minor League deals with invites to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SpringTraining?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SpringTraining<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd39 DH Eloy Jim\u00e9nez<br \/>\ud83d\udd39 INF Carlos Mendoza<br \/>\ud83d\udd39 LHP Michael Plassmeyer<br \/>\ud83d\udd39 RHP Jorge Alcala<br \/>\ud83d\udd39 INF Rafael Lantigua <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pfx0cZmaCT\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Pfx0cZmaCT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJays\/status\/2011547783980073396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mendoza, 26, appeared in 97 games last season between the Detroit Tigers\u2019 double-A and triple-A squads, batting .287 with 25 extra-base hits and 41 RBIs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lantigua, 27, appeared in 125 games with Philadelphia\u2019s triple-A affiliate last season, batting .230 with 15 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, and 56 RBIs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Plassmeyer, 29, spent the 2025 season with the Texas Rangers\u2019 triple-A team, going 9-4 with a 4.43 ERA over 28 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Alcala, 30, split the 2025 season between the Minnesota Twins, the Boston Red Sox, and the St. Louis Cardinals, appearing in 56 games while posting a 6.22 ERA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Designated hitter Eloy Jimenez was one of five free agents the Toronto Blue Jays signed to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-409747","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-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409747","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=409747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}