Will Robertson set to join Blue Jays in St. Louis

While no additional move has been confirmed, he may just join the Jays’ taxi squad, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith; Nathan Lukes was taken out of the lineup shortly before the start of Tuesday’s game. If Lukes is placed on the injured list, Robertson seems like the most logical replacement as they both bat left-handed and play the corner outfield.

Robertson has been torching Triple-A this season. In 51 games, the left-handed batting outfielder is slashing .288/.410/.582 with an organization-leading 12 home runs in just 188 plate appearances. He also had a three-home run game earlier this season. A big obstacle for Robertson was hitting for a low average (.226 last season) and a high strikeout rate (31.3% last season).

On top of improving the batting average, Robertson is only striking out 23.9% of the time this season, a significant improvement from last season. He has one of the best wRC+ in the organization at 159, easily on pace for a career-best.

Despite his high strikeout rate and low batting average in 2024, Robertson hit 19 home runs, tied for the second-most in the organization last season. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Robertson has hit 50 home runs, the second-most for any Blue Jays minor league player, just four behind Orelvis Martinez.

Robertson is not on the 40-man roster, and as it stands, the Blue Jays have 38 players on their 40-man roster. They won’t need to designate anyone for assignment to make room for Robertson, but once Angel Bastardo, Ryan Burr, Alek Manoah, and Max Scherzer return, it will create a logjam on the 40-man roster.

How long Robertson remains on the 26-man roster (if added) depends on how long Anthony Santander and Daulton Varsho remain on the 15-day Injured List. It also becomes a question of how much playing time he’ll get, as the Jays already have Jonatan Clase, Alan Roden, Davis Schneider, George Springer, and Myles Straw on the 26-man roster if Lukes heads to the Injured List.

Still, the power potential is interesting for the Blue Jays, so we’ll see how he does.