Winter Transactions - Pitchers And Catchers Report Today !

Tuesday, February 12 2013 @ 12:01 AM EST

Contributed by: John Northey

Now that spring (training) is here it is time to go over the changes to the Jays roster this past winter.  Who has left, who has come and who is here now?

Just to make it easy I'm including a few extras from September for players who are no longer here.  Expect a lot of names you may not recognize as they list many, many minor league transactions.  Raw data from the always useful Baseball Reference.

Added...

Removed...
Neutral (never really here or never really left)...

Phew.  Lots of changes.

New guys...
Major Leaguers: Starters: Buehrle, Johnson, Dickey; Bullpen: Jeffress, Rogers; Catchers: Blanco, Thole (one here one to minors); Infielders: Reyes, Izturis, Bonifacio; Outfielders: Cabrera
Minor Leaguers: Pitchers: Germano, Wagner, Hinshaw, Vargas, Thompson, Perez, Ortiz, Bush, Smith, Carlyle, Brummett, Storey, Beck, Hottovy; Catcher: Nickeas, Infielders: Velez, Zawadzki, Hoffpauir, DeRosa, LaRoch, Outfielders: Langerhans, Loewen, DH/1B: Jimenez,

Significant guys lost...
Pitchers: Litsch, Villanueva, Frasor, Lyon, Carpenter, Nicolino, Alvarez, Syndergaard, Dyson
Catchers: Mathis, d'Arnaud
Infielders: Johnson, Gomes, Escobar, Hechavarria
Outfielders: Marisnick (corrected)

OK, some of those significant losses really aren't (Litsch may never be anything again, Dyson I don't see much future for or Carpenter, never a big Mathis fan and Marisnick is the only infielder with a real shot at making an all-star team unless Johnson makes a major comeback).  d'Arnaud, Villanueva, Lyon and Alvarez are the ones I'd be most nervous about doing well with Syndergaard there too.  Escobar could hurt since he is now in Tampa Bay with Johnson (weird eh?).  None of the here and gone during the winter crew catches me as significant.

No question the team was drastically improved.  Not much question AA added a lot of veteran depth to AAA too.  Nickeas and Thole should be a really good combo in AAA catching, tons of pitchers to sort out in spring and I could see one or more of those infielders getting a shot in the majors during injury periods without being a major hit to the team (ie: play at a better than Mike McCoy level) with tons of relievers to step in when someone has issues in the pen (as there always is).  It has been a fun winter and now for the fun spring that follows.  Lets hope April-October is even more fun.

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