The Blue Jays announced this evening that catcher Brian Serven was outrighted to Triple-A Buffalo. Toronto hadn’t previously indicated that Serven had landed on waivers. They apparently quietly took him off the roster last week. That technically drops their 40-man count to 39, although Toronto has still yet to finalize the Yariel Rodríguez signing, which will put that back at capacity.
Toronto just grabbed Serven off waivers two weeks ago. He has bounced between a few teams this winter. A former fifth-round pick of the Rockies, he was designated for assignment by Colorado in early January. The Cubs placed a claim but DFA him within a week. Toronto pursued a similar strategy and will retain Serven after successfully slipping him through unclaimed.
The Arizona State product has played in 73 MLB games over the last two seasons. Working mostly as a backup catcher to Elías Díaz in Denver, he hit .195/.248/.314 over 228 plate appearances. Serven has logged 534 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He owns a .238/.305/.450 slash there, including a .199/.241/.331 mark in 38 games a year ago.
Serven posted above-average pitch framing numbers in his MLB work. He’ll stick with the Jays as a non-roster depth catcher who’ll very likely get an invitation to big league Spring Training. The Jays are down to Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk as their only catchers on the 40-man roster. Barring further acquisitions this offseason, Serven would have a good chance of being reselected to the MLB club if either Jansen or Kirk require any time on the injured list.
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