Blue Jays designate Richard Urena for assignment

In order to free up a roster spot for Travis Shaw, the Toronto Blue Jays have designated Richard Urena for assignment earlier today.

Richard Urena has seen action in 91 MLB games with the Blue Jays over the past three seasons hitting .253/.300/.336 with two homers and three stolen bases in 263 plate appearances.

The 23-year old can play all over the diamond, however, Urena was out of options and would have had to break camp and head north with the team or be exposed to waivers at the conclusion of spring training.

Over seven minor league seasons, Urena sports a career .270/.311/.394 slash line with 43 home runs in 680 games. Urena was also expendable with the likes of Brandon Drury, Breyvic Valera, and Santiago Espinal still in the fold.

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Urena will remain in the organization if he passes through waivers without being claimed although there is a possibility a team takes a flier on Urena to fill a utility role on their roster.

At the beginning of the 2020 season, teams will see their active roster sizes increase in size from 25 to 26-man rosters. Teams will also be afforded the opportunity to carry 27 players during doubleheaders.

With the addition of Travis Shaw to the 40-man roster, the Jays have now added five new pitchers and one position player to their roster who were not around in 2019. The likes of Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson, Shun Yamaguchi, and Anthony Bass were all new adds to solidify the teams pitching depth for 2020.

Thus far Shaw is the only new position player added to the roster thus far, however, there has been much discussion about the team adding an additional outfielder.

As the roster continues to take shape, it is very evident that this team is much improved over the cast of players the Blue Jays ran out in 2019.