The Blue Jays have re-signed catcher Josh Thole to a Major League contract and optioned second baseman Devon Travis to the team’s rookie-level affiliate in the Appalachian League, the team announced to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith). While some Jays fans may recoil at the notion of Travis being optioned, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that Toronto’s Bluefield affiliate will see its season come to an end tonight, thus making Travis eligible to return to the big leagues tomorrow. Presumably, Thole’s re-signing was completed last night in order to make him postseason eligible if necessary, thus necessitating the brief demotion for Travis.
Thole, 29, was placed on irrevocable waivers and subsequently released earlier this week following Toronto’s weekend acquisition of Dioner Navarro. Even at the time of his release, however, Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star reported that it was likely that Thole would be quickly re-signed. While he’s managed just a .158/.246/.211 slash in 147 trips to the plate this year, Thole is of course eminently familiar with catching R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball and could continue to do so for the final month of the 2016 campaign. Because he’s once again on the 40-man roster, Thole would be eligible to be retained for the 2017 season via the arbitration process — he projects to finish the year about a week shy of six full seasons of big league service — though he’s a definite non-tender candidate even with a minimal salary.
hmmm
Does this make Travis ineligible for postseason?
No. Basically, anyone on the 40-man roster is eligible.
Anyone in the organization is eligible, regardless of being on the 40 man. Obviously, they would have to be added before playing in a major league game, but they don’t have to be on it now
Ok thanks
After reading up on it, I believe that Arjonn is correct, but regardless, Travis is eligible for sure
If this was always planned, can anyone explain the benefit for Thole to reject the outright assignment in the first place? Had he accepted it, they would have been able to keep Travis up. Not a huge deal, but I’m just curious if anyone has an idea
Leverage for Thole, perhaps. Maybe he got a little bonus when he re-signed..
If he didn’t elect FA, he would have had to stay down for 10 days from being DFA’d. Electing FA allows the team to bring him back quickly (aka for Dickey’s next start)
He would’ve had to stay down for 10 days, now he’s back on the major league roster
Ok, I thought that only applied to optional assignments, not outrights. Thanks