Blue Jays drop ball on Ezequiel Carrera designation fiasco

The Toronto Blue Jays appear to have dropped the ball in the way management has handled the Ezequiel Carrera designation as the brain trust apparently has yet to shed some light on their plans for the outfielder since clearing waivers and returning to the team as a non-roster invitee.

Ezequiel Carrera has been a serviceable fourth outfielder during his 3-year tenure north of the border. The outfielder has always risen to the occasion when called upon and appears to be well liked within the Blue Jays inner circle.

Carrera was designated for assignment earlier this week as he found himself on the outside looking in after the additions of Randal Grichuk and Curtis Granderson. The 30-year old went unclaimed and returned to the team as a non-roster player. Since returning to the team it appears nobody from the Jays front office has communicated with Carrera on the plan moving forward.

The outfielder voiced his displeasure yesterday claiming that he was surprised by the designation as he thought he had done a great job for the team over the past three seasons.

“I’ll be honest, I was surprised, I’m so surprised and so shocked, mostly because I think I’ve been doing a great job the past three years. And I think last year was one of my best.”

I’ll be honest — I haven’t had any clear conversations with anybody in the front office. I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Carrera said. “I would love, of course, to at least know what their goal is — or what their plan is — with me. Like anybody else, you always want to know what plan they have for you. All I know is that I have to battle even more now to try to make a team, or to see what they can do with me.

“But I’m going to try to make it hard for them to cut me or to let me go. I don’t know. I’m just here to do my job. I’m here to work hard. And we’ll see what’s going to happen. But I definitely want them to show me a little bit, at least, of what the plans are with me.”

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Last season Carrera hit .282/.356/.408 with 8 homers and 10 stolen bases in a career-high 131 games in 2017. Thus far Kevin Pillar, Randal Grichuk, Curtis Granderson and Steve Pearce are all ahead of Carrera in the outfield pecking order with the big club.

However, they may not want Carrera taking at-bats away from the kids in Buffalo if he fails to break camp with the team.

Regardless of whether it’s a business or not, the Blue Jays owe it to Carrera to sit him down and shed some light on their plans for his future with the organization. This should have been done when he returned to the team days earlier.

Next: Blue Jays Injury Updates

Unfortunately, as it stands right now, Ross Atkins and company have dropped the ball and need to rectify the Carrera fiasco sooner than later.