In a move that has Blue Jays fans everywhere scratching their heads, the Blue Jays have supposedly resigned infielder Edwin Encarnacion to a one-year contract worth $2.5 million. The deal also comes with a club option for $3.5 million for one more season.
Encarnacion, who was claimed off of waivers by the Oakland Athletics, did not come to an agreement on a new deal with the team, so he remained a free agent. The Blue Jays, who by some wicked stretch of their imagination decided to step in and offer the error machine a contract.
Much to the delight of some readers, it’s expected Encarnacion will play first base and DH mostly next season and stay far away from third base in an attempt by the club to limit E5 Encarnacion’s errors.
Former Blue Jay Lyle Overbay, who gave the Blue Jays some great defense at first base, decided to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates a couple of days ago, so the Jays have decided to severely downgrade at first base defensively with a platoon of Adam Lind and Encarnacion.
With the free agent market pretty bare for good talent, the Jays may of picked up their best first base, third base, DH combo there was available. But after rumors of Carlos Pena, Derrek Lee and others possibly heading to the Blue Jays, ending up with Encarnacion feels like getting a lousy participant ribbon instead of a top three ribbon at a school track meet.
In 96 games last season, he batted .244 with 21 home runs and 51 RBIs.
In 652 career games, Encarnacion has posted a .258 average with 100 home runs and 337 RBIs.
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