Blue Jays reportedly make offer to free agent Ji-Man Choi

The Toronto Blue Jays have reportedly made an offer to free agent first baseman Ji-Man Choi who hails from South Korea.
According to Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the Blue Jays are one of thirteen teams to have formally made an offer to Ji-Man Choi. The 26-year old has spent parts of the last two seasons at the major league level with the Angels and Yankees.
According to Choi’s agent, the free agent will wait until some of the big name first basemen are off the market before making a decision on his future. His agent did indicate Choi has a $1.4 million dollar offer that includes first-class airline tickets and a personal interpreter on the table from an unknown team.
The Yankees, Angels, Rays, A’s, Brewers, Marlins, Cubs, Reds, Orioles, Twins, Braves and White Sox have reportedly also all made offers to Choi along with the Jays.
Choi latched on as a free agent with the Seattle Mariners in 2009 as a 19-year old but did not make his major league debut until 2016 as a member of the Angels. In his rookie campaign, Choi hit .170/.271/.339 with 5 home runs in 54 contests while earning $650,000 with the halos.
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Last season the Yankees inked Choi as a free agent however he only saw action in 6 games with the big club in 2017. The first baseman hit .267 with 2 home runs in 18 plate appearances last season with the Bronx Bombers.
The South Korean native had a respectable season on the farm for the Yankees Triple-A affiliate hitting .288/.373/.538 with 15 round trippers in 87 games. In 7 minor league season’s Choi is a career .305/.402/.497 hitter with 55 homers in 475 games. Choi was primarily utilized as a first baseman in the minors but he does have major league time at left field under his belt as well.
Choi could provide the Jays with organizational depth at the first base position in the event Justin Smoak is injured at some point during the 2018 season. The disappointing performance mailed in by Rowdy Tellez last season could also be the motivation to have an extra layer of depth at the Triple-A ranks as well.
Next: Blue Jays: 12 predictions for the upcoming year
The Jays in all likelihood will be very busy this month after slow playing the market for much of the offseason.