Blue Jays outright Devon Travis, DFA Ryan Tepera

The early roster shuffle continues for the Blue Jays continued as they announced that Devon Travis will be outrighted to Triple-A and Ryan Tepera has been designated for assignment.

The Blue Jays announced a pair of roster moves on Monday night that will open up a couple of spots on their 40-man roster. Unfortunately for the nostalgia driven fans out there, the moves were related to a couple of veterans.

The last two Blue Jays on the roster from the 2015 and 2016 playoff teams were Devon Travis and Ryan Tepera now that Justin Smoak is a free agent, and it appears likely that they’ll join him on the open market.

Tepera was designated for assignment on Monday in a move that comes as a bit of a surprise to this writer, even if last year wasn’t his greatest showing. The veteran only appeared in 23 games while battling some elbow issues, pitching to a 4.98 ERA and a 1.292 WHIP over 21.1 innings. That said, he’s been a very useful back of the bullpen piece in the past, and since he only made 1.525 million in 2019 and likely wouldn’t be due much of a raise, I thought he would likely return.

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Travis is another story, and no one should be surprised that the Blue Jays are moving on from the popular second baseman, even if it’s a bummer to see his career go this way so far. He’s battled a wide variety of knee and shoulder problems over the last couple of years, and it’s hard to envision him being a healthy and productive MLB player at this point. He will have the option to accept his assignment to Triple-A, but don’t be surprised if Travis seeks another opportunity elsewhere, especially with the amount of middle infield talent that’s coming in Toronto in the next few years in addition to what’s already arrived.

The good news is that the Blue Jays now have the flexibility to bring in at least two more players that will need to fit on the 40-man roster, and they likely wouldn’t have made the decision with someone like Tepera if they planned on standing pat.

It remains to be seen what Ross Atkins and the rest of the front office have played for this off-season, but we know one thing for sure: the connection to the last playoffs teams is now completely wiped from the roster.