Help on the way for Buffalo Bisons, Toronto Blue Jays sign OF Ryan Langerhans

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Fear not Buffalo Bisons fans help is on the way!

Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweeted not long ago that the Toronto Blue Jays have signed outfielder Ryan Langerhans for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons and activated infielder Mauro Gomez from the disabled list.

Langerhans, 33, was recently released by the Toronto Blue Jays on June 23, 2013. He signed with the team in December last year.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1998 amateur draft by the Atlanta Braves and despite a relatively promising start to his MLB career his production completely fell off the charts in 2005. By 2006 he was replaced with an emerging Matt Diaz and never really found a home after being shipped across the country and back to the Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels.

Langerhans was batting only .220/.338/.435 when he was let go but the recent additions of Anthony Gose, Kevin Pillar and Moises Sierra to the Toronto Blue Jays outfield, combined with injuries to regular Blue Jays starters Jose Bautista, Colby Rasmus and Melky Cabrera has created a severe lack of depth in the Buffalo Bisons outfield.

Gomez, who normally plays first base or DH’s for the Bisons, appeared in 37 games for the Boston Red Sox last year and had a respectable line of .275/.324/.422. In 97 games with Buffalo this year he’s batting .243/.316/.531 and has provided some nice pop with 28 home runs. At 28 years of age he’s failed to stick around at the major league level so I would mostly like classify Gomez as a “Quad-A” player if I use the definition from Blue Jays From Away.

The recent promotion of Ryan Goins to the Blue Jays left the Bisons with only two middle infielders in Jim Negrych and Mike McCoy, unless you include Andy LaRoche who does have experience playing shortstop but so far this year has only made one brief appearance at second base for Buffalo.