Blue Jays officially announce five minor-league signings

The Toronto Blue Jays officially announced the signing of five players on minor-league contracts for the 2020 campaign.

The Blue Jays signings include Joe Panik, Ruben Tejada, Ryan Dull, Caleb Joseph, and Patrick Cantwell. The five deals include invites to spring training and all were previously released by various media outlets with the exception of Cantwell who has spent the last three seasons in the Jays organization.

The 29-year old Cantwell saw action in 22 games with the Buffalo Bisons last season hitting .217 in 80 plate appearances. He serves as organizational depth and could split time behind the dish with Caleb Joseph in Buffalo.

Joseph is limited offensively but is well regarded as a defensive receiver in terms of pitch framing and throwing out runners. The 33-year old played 20 games with the Diamondbacks last season hitting .211 in 41 plate appearances. Joseph has 422 MLB games under his belt with all but 20-games with Baltimore hitting .223/.270/.350 with 31 homers and 4.5 WAR in 1255 career at-bats.

The Jays also brought reliever Ryan Dull back into the fold, the right-hander split last season with the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Athletics. In 11 games, he sported a bloated 12.79 earned average in 12.2 innings of work in 2019. Dull will in all likelihood begin the season in Triple-A as a bullpen depth arm.

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The team also brought on veteran infield depth with the likes of Panik and Tejada. Panik has an opportunity to be the 2020 version of Eric Sogard if he can make the team out of spring training. Panik is still just 29-years of age and spent last season with Giants and Mets seeing action in 142 games hitting .244/.315/.336 with 28 extra-base hits including five home runs in 491 plate appearances.

Tejada spent the majority of last season in the Mets minor league system hitting .333 in 75 games. The 30-year old has 9-years of major league time on his resume and owns a career .250/.324/.317 line.

All five signings are low-risk, depth acquisitions that could bode well at some point during the 2020 campaign especially the Panik signing.