Blue Jays Acquire Luis Urías

The Blue Jays have acquired infielder Luis Urías from the Diamondbacks, according to Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. Arizona receives cash in return. Urías had been with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal, though it appears he’ll join Toronto’s big league roster after exercising an upward mobility clause, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.

Urías signed that minor league pact with Arizona in the middle of March. He didn’t appear with the big league club, instead spending most of the season at Triple-A aside from a handful of plate appearances in the Arizona Complex League. In 117 plate appearances at Triple-A, Urías was batting .361/.393/.546 with a 123 wRC+. That’s a pretty fortunate outcome, as evidenced by Urías’ unsustainably high .367 average on balls in play. He’s also walking only 6.0% of the time, so Urías’ overall output could regress if his luck on contact starts to even out.

Urías peaked from 2021-22 with the Brewers. He played in 269 games between those two seasons and batted .244/.340/.426 with a 111 wRC+. Although Urías didn’t hit for a high average, he compensated by walking 10.8% of the time and showing solid power with 39 home runs in that span. Altogether, Urías was worth a combined 4.8 fWAR in his age 24-25 seasons.

Unfortunately, Urías’ production tailed off right as he should have been hitting his physical peak. After missing the first two months of 2023 with a strained left hamstring, Urías performed poorly enough that Milwaukee optioned him to Triple-A that June and eventually traded him to the Red Sox at the deadline. Urías ended that season with an 84 wRC+ in 177 plate appearances as his batting average fell below the Mendoza line. The next two seasons weren’t much better, with Urías putting up a 90 wRC+ in 439 plate appearances for the Mariners and Athletics.

Presumably, the Diamondbacks weren’t willing to give Urías a spot on their big league roster. He will now get that chance with the Blue Jays instead. Toronto has an open spot on its 40-man roster, though Urías will still need an active roster spot. Of the team’s three bench players who aren’t catchers, only Yohendrick Piñango is hitting well (113 wRC+). Meanwhile, Davis Schneider and Myles Straw are each hitting at least 13% below average by wRC+.

Straw is out of options and is an above-average defender, but it’s been five years since he was even close to average as a hitter. Schneider has more positional flexibility, but is striking out 32.1% of the time en route to a 40-point drop in wRC+ from last year’s 127 mark. That said, Toronto optioned Schneider just last month, and he’s hit well in seven games since returning on June 12th, so the Jays might not be in a rush to option him again. Regardless, someone will probably get demoted, lest the club operate with a short bullpen.