Blue Jays: Who has had the worst season as a Blue Jay in 2019?

Socrates Brito

Even though Socrates Brito was only with the Toronto Blue Jays for 17 games, his impact (or lack thereof) won’t soon be forgotten.

The outfielder was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks and was immediately given a chance to win a job in the Blue Jays’ outfield. He was touted as someone who could potentially possess all five tools, and while he did show off some speed that was enticing, I would say the rest of it would now qualify as hogwash.

Brito hit an astonishingly bad .077/.163/.128 in his 39 at-bats and managed a -0.7 bWAR rating. He was a -0.1 defender who couldn’t get on base, and the Blue Jays continued to stick with him hoping that he would turn things around and prove their early forecasts of his potential would be correct. That never came even close to happening.

Really, it’s hard to believe that he only played in 17 games when I think back to how long it felt like Blue Jay fans were sick of watching him struggle. It felt like forever, and really it was only a few weeks. I could say the same about Alen Hanson, and probably should have given him his own slide in this piece, but the two of them always felt like one giant mess to me, for no related reason other than they arrived at the same time. But as bad as Hanson was during his short stay, Brito was worse.

Not surprisingly, no one claimed the 26-year-old when he was designated for assignment, so he’s still in Buffalo serving as depth and hitting .321. However, I would think that it would take a pretty significant rash of injuries before Brito will get another chance in the big leagues with the Blue Jays again. Without beating a dead horse here, the guy was really, really bad in his short tenure in Toronto.