Blue Bird Banter

Photo by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images Former Blue Jays’ first baseman Lyle Overbay turns 48 today. Lyle came up to the majors with the Diamondbacks. He played a handful of games in 2001 and 2002 before making the Diamondbacks out of spring training in 2003 after being listed as Baseball America’s 65th-best prospect. He didn’t do great and returned to the … [Read more...] about Happy Birthday Lyle Overbay

Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images Tyler Heineman is a 33-year-old journeyman catcher who has played in parts of five major league seasons. When a catcher gets his backup catcher union card, he can often play for years. He’s played for six MLB teams and played in several team’s minor league systems. He’s the type of guy teams like to have in … [Read more...] about Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Tyler Heineman

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a right-handed hitting first baseman who turns 26 in March. Six seasons into his MLB career, he’s played 819 games (one of the seasons was Covid shortened). He’s been very durable, playing 161, 160, 156 and 159 games in the four seasons since the shortened season. Vlad had a 21.5 bWAR at that time. He’s had … [Read more...] about Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Vladimir Guerrero

Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images Four Years Ago (Really? Just four years?) The Blue Jays signed Marcus Semien to a one-year, $18 million contract. Semien was coming off a poor 2020 season (a shortened season due to the Covid pandemic) with the A’s, hitting just .223/.305/.374 with 7 home runs in 53 games. The year before, he hit .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs, a career … [Read more...] about Today in Jays History: Jays Sign Marcus Semien

Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images Andrés Giménez is a 26-year-old, left-handed hitting second baseman/shortstop who the Jays picked up from the Guardians for Nick Mitchell (a minor league outfielder) and Spencer Horwitz, who had a pretty good rookie season with the Jays, hitting .265/.357/.433 in 97 games for the Jays. The Guardians sent Nick Sandlin, a … [Read more...] about Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Andrés Giménez