Blue Jays activate Edwin Encarnacion, Option Anthony Gose To Buffalo

As expected, the Toronto Blue Jays have activated first baseman/designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion from the 15-day disabled list prior to their Friday series opener with the Chicago White Sox. The only mystery heading in to the day was who would be removed from the active roster in order to make room for Encarnacion. Well, that mystery has been solves, as Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi is reporting that Anthony Gose will be heading to Buffalo as the corresponding roster move.

Sources: #BlueJays option Anthony Gose to triple-A Buffalo to make room for EE: http://t.co/Mnu05n5rdx

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) August 15, 2014

The move to send Gose down is actually a logical one, as the young center fielder still has minor league options available to use. With rosters expanding on September 1st, there is no doubt that Gose will return to the team at that point to continue a 2014 season where he has been relatively servicable, slashing .234/.333/.291 with 14 stolen bases and 21 runs scored, mostly from the bottom of the line-up.

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The extra benefit of optioning Gose is that it gives the Blue Jays further at least another two weeks to evaluate how viable Juan Francisco, Danny Valencia, and Nolan Reimold will be for Toronto down the stretch. All three present solid potential, but all three come with decided platoon splits. That holds especially true for Juan Francisco, who Alex Anthopoulos admitted earlier this morning on Sportsnet 590 to having “a lot of swing and miss to his game and that’s certainly hard to watch at times”. Still, Francisco’s power potential is what has him clinging to a roster spot for the time being.

That all aside, fans and teammates alike will be happy to see Edwin Encarnacion back in the line-up tonight. The 31-year-old has been out since July 5th with a strained quad, and the Blue Jays have struggled to replace the run production of an All-Star posting a 163 wRC+, a .314 ISO, a .959 OPS, and 2.9 WAR in his first 88 games.

Encarnacion will join Adam Lind, who returned to the line-up on Tuesday, in trying to help return the Blue Jays offense to the top of the American League.