Infielder Michael Stefanic and the Blue Jays are in settlement on a minor league deal. Stefanic’s agent Nate Heisler of Klutch Sports activities relayed the information on X whereas Stefanic himself took to Instagram to thank the Angels, their followers and his former colleagues for his time with that membership, along with expressing his pleasure about his new alternative.
Stefanic, 29 in February, was an undrafted free agent again in 2018. The Angels signed him at the moment and he began to garner consideration as a minor leaguer attributable to his plate self-discipline and multi-positional talents, although a transparent lack of energy. In 2021, he took 554 journeys to the plate within the minors, strolling in 9.4% of them whereas solely hanging out 13.9% of the time.
His house run whole spiked to 17 that yr, despite the fact that he had solely hit three over the 2018 and 2019 seasons mixed. Maybe that was attributable to him getting as much as the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League however his .336/.408/.493 line that yr nonetheless translated to a 132 wRC+, indicating he was 32% higher than league common.
Baseball America ranked him the #22 prospect within the Angels’ system going into 2022 and he went on to make his main league debut that yr. He has been despatched to the plate 264 occasions over the previous three large league seasons, strolling in 8.7% of these whereas hanging out simply 15.2% of the time. However he hasn’t but hit a house run, resulting in a reasonably empty slash line of .232/.317/.275 and 72 wRC+. He has continued to hit within the minors, nonetheless, with a mixed line of .349/.444/.456 and 133 wRC+ over the previous three years.
That wasn’t sufficient to get him a lot run on the main league degree and he exhausted his remaining possibility yr in 2024. The Angels handed him via waivers and outrighted him final month, however Toronto will give him a non-roster gig. Stefanic has additionally performed each place on the diamond apart from middle discipline and catcher in his skilled profession, maybe giving him a shot at carving at a utility or bench function.
The Jays have loads of uncertainty of their place participant group at current. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette are each a yr away from free company. Proper fielder George Springer is now 35 years outdated and has simply two years left on his deal. Second base, third base and left discipline are pretty open. Gamers like Spencer Horwitz, Ernie Clement, Will Wagner, Nathan Lukes, Leo Jiménez, Davis Schneider, Jonatan Clase, Orelvis Martínez, Addison Barger, Joey Loperfido and Steward Berroa are all on the 40-man roster however Clement and Schneider are the one ones of thar group with greater than 112 video games of MLB expertise.
If Stefanic can earn his manner onto the roster, he’s out of choices however he has only a bit greater than a yr of service time, which means he will be cheaply retained past 2025 if he has a roster spot at season’s finish.
