3:05pm: The Jays have officially announced their roster, with both Jim\u00e9nez and Bastardo designated for assignment.<\/p>\n
1:04pm: The Blue Jays are designating infielder Leo Jim\u00e9nez<\/a> for assignment, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet<\/a>. He\u2019s out of options and evidently did not win the final spot on Toronto\u2019s bench, which is likely to go to\u00a0Davis Schneider<\/a>.<\/p>\n Toronto will carry Rule 5 pick\u00a0Spencer Miles<\/a> on the Opening Day roster, reports Mitch Bannon of The Athletic<\/a>. He won the final spot in the middle relief group, which had seemingly been down to him and sidewinding righty Chase Lee<\/a>. The Jays announced over the weekend that they would not carry their other Rule 5 selection\u00a0Angel Bastardo<\/a>, who\u2019ll therefore be designated for assignment this afternoon if he\u2019s not already on waivers.<\/p>\n Jim\u00e9nez will probably land with another organization, as it seems likely he\u2019ll attract trade or waiver interest. The Panama native has spent eight seasons in the Toronto system. His bat-to-ball skills and ability to play either middle infield position made him one of the organization\u2019s better prospects. Jim\u00e9nez has been a good minor league player but hasn\u2019t hit in a limited look at the big league level.<\/p>\n Toronto gave the righty-hitting Jim\u00e9nez 210 plate appearances as a rookie two seasons ago. He hit .229\/.329\/.358 while striking out in 28% of his trips. A deeper Jays infield and a handful of injuries kept Jim\u00e9nez to 18 big league games last season. He didn\u2019t play much in Triple-A either but hit .271\/.416\/.431 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts at that level in 2024.<\/p>\n Myles Straw<\/a>,\u00a0Nathan Lukes<\/a> and backup catcher\u00a0Tyler Heineman<\/a> were locked into bench spots. The Jays were left to decide whether to carry Jim\u00e9nez because he can play shortstop and couldn\u2019t be optioned, or to turn to a more proven right-handed power bat in Schneider. They\u2019re opting for the latter. Ernie Clement<\/a> can slide to shortstop with Schneider at second base when\u00a0Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez<\/a> needs a rest day. The Jays have five days to see if they can flip Jim\u00e9nez for a marginal prospect return. They\u2019d otherwise need to place him on waivers.<\/p>\n Miles was the final borderline Rule 5 decision around the league. The 25-year-old righty has barely pitched since being drafted by the Giants in the fourth round in 2022. A back injury preceded a Tommy John procedure that has kept him to a grand total of 14 2\/3 minor league innings. The Giants left him off their 40-man roster, doubtful that another club would be willing to carry him on the MLB roster with such little professional experience.<\/p>\n It\u2019s particularly surprising that an all-in Toronto team is taking that flier. That speaks to how strongly they feel about the caliber of his stuff, as they\u2019re not in position to burn a bullpen spot on a pure development flier. Miles struck out 11 hitters over 9 2\/3 innings this spring, allowing four runs on 11 hits and five walks. Baseball America<\/a> credits him with a mid-90s fastball and plus curveball and ranked him the #22 prospect in the Jays\u2019 system over the offseason.<\/p>\n Breaking camp certainly doesn\u2019t guarantee that Miles will spend the entire season on the roster. He\u2019ll need to pitch well enough to hold an MLB job. The Jays would otherwise need to run him through waivers and offer him back to San Francisco.<\/p>\n Bastardo was a Rule 5 pick out of the Boston organization in 2024. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery and spent the entire \u201925 season on the injured list. Teams need to carry a Rule 5 pick on the active roster for at least 90 days as soon as they\u2019re healthy if they miss their entire first season due to injury. The Jays were never going to carry two Rule 5 draftees in the bullpen.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old Bastardo has far more minor league experience than Miles, but he showed signs of rust this spring. He walked seven batters and uncorked four wild pitches in 7 2\/3 innings. He\u2019ll go on waivers and will be offered back to the Red Sox if he clears. The selection still worked to the righty\u2019s benefit financially, as he was paid the $760K major league minimum salary for his time on the injured list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3:05pm: The Jays have officially announced their roster, with both Jim\u00e9nez and Bastardo designated for assignment. 1:04pm: The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[122648,49,48,149263,25817,25820,216593,82],"class_list":["post-560492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-angel-bastardo","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase-lee","tag-davis-schneider","tag-leo-jimenez","tag-spencer-miles","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560492","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=560492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}