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The Toronto Blue Jays reportedly claimed hybrid catcher and first baseman Jesus Montero from the Seattle Mariners on Monday, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.  

Montero had been placed on waivers by Seattle on Sunday, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. 

The Blue Jays made a corresponding roster move by designating A.J. Jimenez for assignment, according to Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.

Montero was once among the top prospects in the New York Yankees’ farm system, ranking as high as No. 3 in Baseball America’s top 100 behind only Bryce Harper and Mike Trout in 2011.

At the time, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had ambitious hopes for Montero, holding him in the same conversation as some of the greats of the past generation. 

“In terms of hitting ability, Montero can be a Manny Ramirez or a Miguel Cabrera,” Cashman told ESPN New York’s Ian O’Connor (h/t Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com). “As a catcher, he’s got a cannon for an arm. As far as everything and what I want him to be, I want him to be Jorge Posada.”

But Montero only played 18 games with the Yankees and was dealt to the Mariners the following offseason in the Michael Pineda trade. 

He played one full season in Seattle, compiling a .260/.298/.386 slash line with 15 home runs and 62 RBI in 135 games before spending most of the next three seasons in the minors. 

He’s had an underachieving spring thus far, hitting .237 in 38 at-bats after showing promise in Triple-A last year, where he had a slash line of .355/.398/.569 with 18 home runs and 85 RBI.

The Blue Jays already have a three-headed platoon at first base with Chris Colabello, Edwin Encarnacion and Justin Smoak, as well as All-Star Russell Martin at catcher—last offseason’s big free-agent addition. 

Montero will likely spend most of his time in the minors and be a reliable option should the Blue Jays run into attrition during the season. At this point, he appears to be a cost-effective experiment who could see an occasional big league call-up if he’s able to consistently perform at a high level in Triple-A like last year.

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The New York Yankees‘ Alex Rodriguez enters the 2016 season with 687 home runs, putting him just 27 homers behind Babe Ruth.

Does A-Rod have what it takes to pass the Babe this season? Where would that put him among the all-time greats?

Watch Scott Miller break down A-Rod’s chances of passing Ruth on the all-time home run list this season.

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Boston Red Sox outfielder David Murphy has exercised an opt-out clause in his contract, forcing the team to place him on its 40-man roster or release him by Tuesday.

Tim Britton of the Providence Journal reported the news. Murphy, 34, signed a one-year contract with the Red Sox that is worth $2 million if he makes the major league roster. 

The veteran, who split last season with the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels, has had a mostly solid spring training. He hit .281/.294/.375 with three runs batted in, going without a home run in his 32 at-bats. The Red Sox plugged him in mostly as a backup option to their young outfield, which doesn’t feature an expected starter above 28 years old.

“I’m interested in winning a World Series,” Murphy said, per Scott Lauber of ESPN.com, “and you can’t do that in the minor leagues.”

Based on his 2015 stats, it’s hard to see why a team wouldn’t take a chance on Murphy. He hit a solid .283/.318/.421 last season with 10 home runs and 50 runs batted in. FanGraphs’ WAR formula had him as basically a replacement-level player, which shouldn’t put him in starting contention but is enough to throw him in an outfield platoon somewhere. 

Murphy’s decision to sign with the Red Sox confirms he’s more interested in winning than extended playing time at this point. If Murphy doesn’t make it in Boston, though, he’s seemingly interested in continuing to play, per Lauber:

I feel like, I don’t know, with as crazy as the offseason was and having a pretty decent year last year, I felt like if I took care of business [in spring training] that good things would happen. And as well on the reverse side. If things didn’t end up the way that I wanted them to, then that was part of my thinking, like maybe it’s time to consider walking away. Because at the age that I am and just where things are, it’s not like there’s a ceiling to be reached.

Now that he’s put the pressure on, the Red Sox have to make a decision. Murphy’s performance has largely been on par with his career norm, but his opportunities waned as spring training went on. Odds would be on Boston moving on, but we’ve seen far stranger things happen. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter

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New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez‘s Major League Baseball career will likely come to an end after the 2017 season.

Speaking to ESPN.com’s Andrew Marchand on Wednesday, Rodriguez said: “I won’t play after next year. I’ve really enjoyed my time. For me, it is time for me to go home and be dad.”

Although shortly after that he clarified his remarks to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News: “I’m thinking in terms of my contract which ends in 2017. After that, we’ll see what happens. I’ve got two years and more than 300 games to play.”

The timing of Rodriguez’s possible retirement is not entirely a surprise, as his 10-year contract expires after the 2017 season. He will be 42 years old at that time.

Even though A-Rod’s career has come to be defined by his postseason shortcomings and performance-enhancing-drug use, he has started to rebuild his image. The first step was a successful 2015 season with a .250/.356/.486 slash line and 33 home runs, his most in a season since 2008, after missing the entire 2014 season due to a suspension.

Rodriguez also had a fine transition to the broadcast booth as part of Fox’s television coverage for the postseason after the Yankees lost to the Houston Astros in the American League Wild Card Game.

While few will ever agree on Rodriguez’s ultimate place in baseball history, there’s no denying he was among MLB‘s greatest players during his peak. He’s hit 687 home runs, the fourth-most in MLB history, won three AL MVP awards and won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees.

It seems unlikely Rodriguez will end his career as MLB’s all-time home run leader, assuming he does retire after the 2017 season. ESPN Stats & Info showed what he would have to do to get there if he plays just two more seasons:

If Rodriguez climbs within, say, 15-20 homers of Bonds’ record after the 2017 season, he may find incentive to continue his career. 

Cynicism about Rodriguez’s announcement emerged on Twitter immediately after the news broke, as Josh Newman of the Asbury Park Press displayed:

It is certainly unusual for a player to announce his potential retirement two years in advance. Derek Jeter and David Ortiz made their respective announcements one season before they walked away, but Rodriguez has always been a little different.

There will be ample time to debate Rodriguez’s place in MLB history. This is a time to let it sink in that one of the sport’s great talents plans to leave on his own terms, if that’s indeed what A-Rod is doing. He’s earned that right, and the farewell tour would be fun to watch.

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Go get an ace, we all told the Boston Red Sox. Go get an ace, and the rest of the starting rotation will fall into place.

They got an ace—one of the best. There’s a reason David Price cost $217 million.

But the idea that simply adding a No. 1 would transform the rotation hasn’t had a good spring in Fort Myers, Florida. Instead, after a year of asking “Who’s No. 1?” the big question for the Red Sox now is “Who’s No. 2?”

As my friend Jon Heyman tweeted last week:

As another scout said to me this week: “The big issues are [Rick] Porcello and [Clay] Buchholz answering the bell. The depth’s OK, but they don’t have shutdown guys.”

Which is exactly why Eduardo Rodriguez is so important.

For all the talk about David Ortiz’s final season, Pablo Sandoval’s weight and Hanley Ramirez’s reactions at first base, the real key to the Red Sox could be whether the 22-year-old Rodriguez can overcome a spring injury and take another step forward.

He was good enough last season that when Dave Dombrowski took over as Red Sox president last August, he spoke of Rodriguez as a future ace. He could be good enough this year that he becomes the true No. 2 behind Price.

The Red Sox bullpen should be good enough, especially if the forearm stiffness that forced Carson Smith from a game Monday doesn’t prove to be serious. The batting order looks promising.

But with Rodriguez set to open the season on the disabled list because of a dislocated right kneecap suffered early in camp, the rotation behind Price sets up with Buchholz, Porcello, Joe Kelly and a fifth starter to be named later.

Rodriguez has already begun throwing, and the hope is he could be ready sometime in late April. The bigger hope is that he can continue making the progress that has already made the July 2014 trade that sent Andrew Miller to the Baltimore Orioles look so good for the Red Sox.

He was the first Red Sox rookie left-hander with double-digit wins since John Curtis in 1972. He debuted in late May with 7.2 scoreless innings (and just three hits) in Texas, and he made eight other starts where he pitched at least six innings while allowing one run or none.

His 3.85 ERA was the best by a Red Sox rookie with at least 20 starts since Curtis (3.73) and Lynn McGlothen (3.41) debuted in ’72.

Meanwhile, Buchholz has been hurt so much that he’s made 20 starts just twice in the last five seasons and still doesn’t have a 30-start season in eight years in the big leagues.

In a Sunday piece on the issues facing the Red Sox, Boston Globe baseball columnist Nick Cafardo wrote that it’s important for Buchholz to be “a solid No. 2.” But how do you count on him?

How do you count on a guy who has done little to inspire any confidence this spring? In his first two exhibition starts, Buchholz allowed 12 baserunners in 5.1 innings (although he was better Monday).

Porcello has been even worse, giving up 19 hits in his first nine spring innings. The Red Sox would like to think he can build on a strong second half of 2015 (3.49 ERA over his last 12 starts), but it’s a little much to see him as a true complement to Price.

Maybe Kelly, who also showed promise late last season (2.35 ERA in his final eight starts), can eventually be that guy. Maybe eventually the Red Sox can trade for someone, although MLB Network’s Heyman reported that a winter inquiry about Oakland‘s Sonny Gray went nowhere because the A’s didn’t want to move him.

Rodriguez is the best option, and that’s why it’s not a stretch to label him as one of the most important players on a team that has back-to-back last-place finishes but much bigger dreams.

The rotation, in any case, is the key to those dreams. One veteran scout who follows the American League East closely went so far as to say the lack of quality starters was the one issue that keeps him from believing the Red Sox could win.

Not everyone agrees. Another veteran scout said recently that if Price pitches well, the Red Sox probably will win.

That was the idea, after all. Go get an ace, and the rest will fall into place.

If Rodriguez gets healthy and pitches well, maybe it will.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Alex Rodriguez has a new lady in his life.

Typical? Perhaps.

What isn’t, however, is the woman in question.

According to Emily Smith of Page Six, the New York Yankees superstar is currently dating Anne Wojcicki, a Yale graduate and co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, a genetic research firm. She’s also the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

But No. 13 isn’t intimidated by her mind, status or fortune (somewhere in the neighborhood of billions of dollars). In fact, a source told Smith that A-Rod has described her as “interesting, inspirational and very smart.”

He supported Wojcicki during her appearance at a satellite event for the Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting, dined with her in Tampa, Florida, during a spring training trip and the pair was even spotted together at Graydon Carter’s pre-Super Bowl party. 

Despite already drawing some attention, Smith’s source described the couple as “very new,” saying they’ve been on “a few dates.” 

Could this be the start of something big? An evolution in A-Rod? 

One thing is for certain: Rodriguez’s 40s—and the maturity, responsibility and settling-down sentiments entailed—have finally kicked in.

[Page Six]

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Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Carson Smith is facing an extended stint on the disabled list in 2016.

Continue for updates.

Forearm Injury Will Shelf Smith

Tuesday, March 22   

According to the Boston Herald‘s Michael Silverman, Smith has a strain in his flexor mass muscle but is expected to pitch sometime this season despite there not being a timetable for his return.

Smith was pulled from his outing on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals when he experienced “tightness” and “cramping” in his forearm, per Silverman. 

The 26-year-old spoke with Silverman after the game on Monday about the injury: “I’m concerned; it’s my career. I think everybody here, if they felt something in their forearm, is going to be concerned. Who knows how serious it is. We toyed with some tests in there and…there were optimistic results.”

The Red Sox acquired Smith during the offseason, along with starter Roenis Elias from the Seattle Mariners, in return for starter Wade Miley and minor leaguer Jonathan Aro. 

In his first full season in the majors last year, Smith recorded 92 strikeouts in 70.0 innings pitched—which led all rookie relievers, per Silverman—along with 13 saves. 

With the arrival of Craig Kimbrel in Boston, Smith was most likely going to be the Red Sox’s setup man as the team attempted to restock its bullpen, which struggled mightily last season.

Boston relief pitchers allowed 4.65 runs per game in 2015, fifth-worst in the league, and had just 63 holds. Only six teams in the majors had fewer last year. 

Now with Smith out for what could be an extended period of time, the Red Sox might have to rely on former closer and 40-year-old Koji Uehara, who made his spring training debut on March 12 after recovering from a fractured wrist that ended his 2015 season early in August. 

Hopefully for the Red Sox, he will be enough to keep the setup role afloat while Smith recovers. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons will reportedly have a new contract as he attempts to lead his team to a second consecutive American League East division crown.

TSN.ca cited sources Monday that said Gibbons is inked for the 2016 and 2017 campaigns. The rollover clause was eliminated, and “Gibbons has received a bump in pay to compensate for it.”

TSN.ca explained the previous rollover clause: “Under the terms of Gibbons’ original deal, there was a clause that would preclude him from reaching ‘lame-duck’ status. In that previous contract, a proviso existed whereby every Jan. 1, the contract became guaranteed for the following year with another option tacked on to it.”

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins appeared on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM and discussed Gibbons’ contract with Steve Phillips and Todd Hollandsworth:

The 2016 season will be Gibbons’ fourth in his current stint with Toronto. He was also the team’s manager from 2004 to 2008 and sports a 555-541 overall record with the Blue Jays.

The 2015 season marked Toronto’s first playoff appearance since 1993, when it won the second of back-to-back World Series titles. While Toronto lost to the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals in last year’s American League Championship Series, it finished the regular season with a 93-68 record and the most runs scored in baseball.

In fact, Toronto’s 891 total runs scored were 127 more than the New York Yankees, which finished in second place with 764 runs. Thanks to sluggers such as Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion, Gibbons trotted out arguably the most feared lineup in the league in 2015 and likely will again in 2016.

As a result, he finished fourth in the American League Manager of the Year voting last year behind Jeff Banister of the Texas Rangers, A.J. Hinch of the Houston Astros and Paul Molitor of the Minnesota Twins, per Baseball-Reference.com.

Part of what likely makes Gibbons appealing to the front office is the fact the Blue Jays have shown steady improvement throughout his second stint with the team:

Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro had nothing but encouraging words to say about his team’s manager, per Steve Buffery of the National Post: “Gibby’s been unbelievable. I appreciate (watching) him across the field, but his consistency, his patience, his positive attitude, his openness to ideas and thoughts, there’s a steadiness to him and a professionalism to him that, day to day, has just been extremely impressive.”

Perhaps most importantly for Gibbons’ long-term future, Buffery noted Shapiro rebuffed the idea he hired Eric Wedge as the player development adviser to be something of a “Manager in Waiting” for the Blue Jays. Wedge was the American League Manager of the Year in 2007 with the Cleveland Indians.

With Gibbons leading the way, the Blue Jays figure to challenge for another playoff spot in 2016. They lost David Price to the Boston Red Sox this offseason when their division rivals signed him, but there is still a core in place to remain competitive this season and beyond.

Outside of Bautista, Encarnacion and defending American League MVP Donaldson anchoring the lineup, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, center fielder Kevin Pillar and catcher Russell Martin make the middle of the field a strength for Toronto. What’s more, ace Marcus Stroman is only 24 years old and has the talent to become one of the best pitchers in the American League, and Toronto added Drew Storen to solidify the bullpen.

If the Blue Jays fulfill their potential and compete for a World Series yet again, Gibbons will have even more job security moving forward.

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“Since I left, I haven’t heard that joy that Cuban people have,” said Dayron Varona, the Tampa Bay Rays‘ only Cuban-born player, when speaking to USA Today‘s Jorge L. Ortiz in his native Spanish tongue.

On Sunday evening, when the Rays touched down in Havana for an exhibition game against the Cuban national team, Varona was undoubtedly experiencing a lot of that joy.

For the first time in three years, the outfielder was reunited with his relatives.

According to Ortiz, the 28-year-old had not made the return trip to his homeland since he and his mother defected to Haiti on board a boat.

Varona made the journey back thanks in large part to Rays pitcher Chris Archer and third baseman Evan Longoria, who advocated that he be added to the travel team despite not being a part of the 40-man roster.

Although his impact on Tuesday’s exhibition is likely to be limited, his presence as a guide for MLB‘s first Cuba-visiting team since the 1999 Baltimore Orioles could prove invaluable.

To some very delighted loved ones, however, his presence is plenty invaluable as it is.

[USA Today, h/t For The Win]

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The Tampa Bay Rays will be without their closer for the foreseeable future, as righty Brad Boxberger underwent surgery to repair a core muscle injury.

Continue for updates.

Timetable for Boxberger’s Return from Core Surgery

Friday, March 18

According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Rays manager Kevin Cash revealed that the 27-year-old hurler is expected to miss eight weeks of action.

The Rays are lacking in terms of other relievers with extensive closing experience after trading Jake McGee to the Colorado Rockies, which will prompt Cash to take a by-committee approach until Boxberger returns, per Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune:

According to Topkin, Cash said Friday that the core muscle injury was a nagging issue that Boxberger had been dealing with for a period of time.

The former first-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds made his first All-Star team last year and led the American League with 41 saves. He also struck out an impressive 74 batters in 63 innings.

Boxberger had some issues as well, however, as his 3.71 ERA and 1.37 WHIP were quite high for a closer. He additionally went just 4-10, which was partially the result of six blown saves.

Although he regressed significantly from a 2014 campaign that saw him post a 2.37 ERA and 0.84 WHIP along with 104 strikeouts in a setup role, he is undoubtedly the top power arm in Tampa’s pen.

Closing out games was often an adventure with Boxberger on the hill, but that figures to continue while he is on the shelf since the Rays don’t boast another definitive option.

The Rays are looking to bounce back from a 2015 season that saw them finish fourth in the AL East with a record of 80-82.

That won’t be easy with many of the teams around them seemingly getting better, and being without a clear-cut closer for the first six weeks of the season could put them in a hole that will be very tough to dig out from.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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