{"id":413243,"date":"2026-01-16T13:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:57:09","slug":"blue-jays-reunite-with-veteran-infielder-after-harsh-move-by-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413243\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Reunite With Veteran Infielder After Harsh Move By Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" top-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768571829_482_0x0.jpg\" alt=\"Logo of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team on a blue...\" data-height=\"937\" data-width=\"1385\" fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA &#8211; 2015\/01\/01: Logo of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team on a blue frosted glass. The logo features the head of the &#8216;Blue Jay&#8217; bird and the Canadian maple leaf in red. The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Blue Jays are a member of the East division of the American League in Major League Baseball. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Toronto Blue Jays just enjoyed more postseason success than they had in the last 30 years, but that has only driven them to seek better results moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>The team quickly followed its World Series appearance with a free agency spending spree that turned into its largest in franchise history, with more than $330 million going toward additions like Dylan Cease, Tyler Rogers and Kazuma Okamoto.<\/p>\n<p>And the Blue Jays\u2019 win-now approach has extended to its minor league system as well. On Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BlueJays\/status\/2011547783980073396\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/BlueJays\/status\/2011547783980073396\" aria-label=\"the team announced\">the team announced<\/a> a slew of minor league additions who would receive invitations to Spring Training, including several intriguing veteran options who could help propel a playoff push next season.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"embed-base color-body color-body-border link-embed embed-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2026\/01\/15\/blue-jays-announce-mlb-veteran-addition-after-cut-by-rival-red-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Blue Jays Announce MLB Veteran Addition After Cut By Rival Red Sox\" data-ga-track=\"forbesEmbedly:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2026\/01\/15\/blue-jays-announce-mlb-veteran-addition-after-cut-by-rival-red-sox\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForbesBlue Jays Announce MLB Veteran Addition After Cut By Rival Red SoxBy Peter Chawaga<\/a>Toronto Blue Jays Add Veteran Infielder After World Series Appearance<\/p>\n<p>Among those latest signees, the Blue Jays have added <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2026\/01\/15\/blue-jays-announce-mlb-veteran-addition-after-cut-by-rival-red-sox\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2026\/01\/15\/blue-jays-announce-mlb-veteran-addition-after-cut-by-rival-red-sox\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"seven-year Major League Baseball veteran\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">seven-year Major League Baseball veteran<\/a> Jorge Alcala and 2020 Chicago White Sox Silver Slugger Award winner Eloy Jimenez.<\/p>\n<p>And the group also included the return of a veteran infielder who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2025\/11\/07\/phillies-infield-veteran-leaves-team-after-harsh-move\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/peterchawaga\/2025\/11\/07\/phillies-infield-veteran-leaves-team-after-harsh-move\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"unceremoniously cut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">unceremoniously cut<\/a> by the Philadelphia Phillies last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Blue Jays brought infielder Rafael Lantigua back to the organization on a minor league contract, the team announced,\u201d per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/01\/blue-jays-sign-rafael-lantigua-to-minor-league-deal.html?utm_source=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/01\/blue-jays-sign-rafael-lantigua-to-minor-league-deal.html?utm_source=twitter\" aria-label=\"MLB Trade Rumors\u2019 Anthony Franco\">MLB Trade Rumors\u2019 Anthony Franco<\/a>. \u201cLantigua, 27, initially signed with the Jays out of the Dominican Republic during the 2016 amateur signing period. The righty-hitting utilityman played his way to Triple-A by the end of the 2022 season. He spent the next two full seasons with their top affiliate in Buffalo before qualifying for minor league free agency. Lantigua signed with the Phillies last winter and again played the majority of the year in the International League.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Philadelphia Phillies Cut Ties With Infielder Who Reunites With Toronto Blue Jays<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Lantigua slashed .230\/.356\/.330 in Triple-A while making most of his starts at second base and third base. He made the big-league club when Phillies\u2019 utility player Edumndo Sosa was injured, but then the Phillies optioned him just three days later, before he had a chance to enter his first career major-league game. Then the Phillies <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Phillies\/status\/1986541982609801415\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/Phillies\/status\/1986541982609801415\" aria-label=\"outrighted him in November\">outrighted him in November<\/a> and he elected free agency as a result.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old infielder has been playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic for Toros del Este, getting some reps at shortstop, and he can remain hopeful that the Spring Training invite turns into his first big-league opportunity with the Blue Jays next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLantigua has reached the majors but hasn\u2019t gotten an opportunity to debut, which he\u2019ll hope will arise with his original organization at some point in 2026,\u201d Franco added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA &#8211; 2015\/01\/01: Logo of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team on a blue frosted glass.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,1518,481,1498,82,3302,507],"class_list":["post-413243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-phillies","tag-sports","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413243","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=413243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}