The Blue Jays announced on Monday that they’ve claimed catcher Juan Graterol off waivers from the Angels and designated right-hander Leonel Campos for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
The 27-year-old Graterol will give the Blue Jays a potential option to back up Russell Martin in 2017, as the team lacks a clear option right now. A.J. Jimenez is the top internal candidate but is coming off a lackluster season at Triple-A. Toronto has reportedly expressed interest in veteran Jarrod Saltalamacchia as well, though Graterol represents a better defensive options.
Graterol, 27, made his Major League debut and tallied 15 plate appearances with the Halos this past season. The former Royals farmhand spent the 2015 season in the Yankees organization before inking a minors pact with the Halos last offseason. He’s a career .274/.306/.338 hitter in parts of three seasons (95 games) at the Triple-A level and has halted stolen base attempts at a very strong 38 percent clip in the minors. Baseball Prospectus gives him average pitch-framing grades in the minors as well.
It’s been a hectic offseason for Graterol, who was designated for assignment by the Angels back on Nov. 22 and has changed teams on four occasions since. The Reds claimed Graterol off waivers when he was first designated, and he’s since gone to the Diamondbacks and then back to the Angels on waivers before today’s claim.
The 29-year-old Campos was claimed off waivers out of the Padres organization earlier this winter. Campos logged 22 innings with San Diego in 2016 and struggled to a 5.73 ERA and 5.7 BB/9. His 9.8 K/9 rate and 50.9 percent ground-ball rate in that limited sample were more encouraging. Campos has averaged 93.3 mph on his fastball in his MLB career — a total of just 30 innings all coming with the Padres. He has a 4.35 ERA in parts of three seasons at Triple-A and has averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings at that level. However, he’s also displayed some considerable control issues, averaging 5.3 walks per nine and throwing 25 wild pitches in 109 2/3 innings.
how many teams will he go through this off season?!
Will probably compete with Rollins and Dragmire
Good grief hopefully he never packed up his stuff and moved…I would just wait until I reported to spring training with somebody before I even considered making any long term plans if I was him
Yeah, I feel for him and Brady Dragmire. I think Graterol may actually stick with the Jays though because they don’t have a better option right now.
Wow this is terrible to get dfa’d and get claimed more than 5 times in one offseason.
Beats clearing waivers and getting paid less.
I guess that is true but it’s sounds rough to even make plans to do anything for housing
Better option than Jimenez in the event they don’t find a proven backup option.
Excellent. I was hoping that we’d put in a claim (and get him) when I saw that he was DFA’d a few days back.
But the Jays already have a future hall of fame super prospect they stole from the Pirates ready to back up Martin
Haha… McGuire’s a future HoF prospect, huh? Slow your roll, man. I’d be the happiest guy out there if that was true, but come on.
He was just providing some #AlternativeFacts to McGuire’s future as a baseball player.