Blue Jays sign INF Josh Fuentes to a Minor-League deal

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 24: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Josh Fuentes #8 of the Colorado Rockies prepares for a game against the New York Mets at Citi Field on May 24, 2021 in New York City. The Rockies defeated the Mets 3-2. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 24: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Josh Fuentes #8 of the Colorado Rockies prepares for a game against the New York Mets at Citi Field on May 24, 2021 in New York City. The Rockies defeated the Mets 3-2. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Earlier this evening, the Toronto Blue Jays announced on Twitter that they signed infielder Josh Fuentes to a MiLB deal with an invite to Spring Training.

Originally undrafted out of college, Fuentes signed with the Colorado Rockies back in 2014 as a free agent and spent the next six years working his way through the Minor Leagues. Through 646 MiLB games, Fuentes owns a .289 batting average and a .810 OPS through 2431 at-bats.

The righty-hitting infielder out of California made his MLB debut with the Rockies early into the 2019 campaign, spending a few weeks with the active roster before being optioned back down to AAA. He would be a September call-up and would finish the regular season with the Rockies, owning a .632 OPS through 24 games.

The Toronto Blue Jays announced that they have signed infielder Josh Fuentes to a minor-league deal with an invitation to Spring Training.

Over the next two seasons, Fuentes split his time between the big leagues and AAA (alternate training site in 2020) and was never able to fully secure a spot on the roster. From 2020 to 2021, Fuentes earned a .247/.274/.374 slash line with nine home runs, 50 RBI, and a .648 OPS, appearing in a career-high 94 games with the club last season.

Defensively, Fuentes has split his time mostly between first and third base at the Major League level (417.1 and 472.1 innings), amassing a .993 and .964 fielding percentages respectively. He was mostly used as a bench player during his time with Colorado, as well as in pinch-hitting scenarios or defensive replacements. The Missouri Baptist alum elected free agency this past offseason.

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Fuentes joins the Blue Jays camp as additional depth for the infield and joins the internal competition when it comes to filling out the bench on the active roster. He joins a list that includes non-roster invites in Greg Bird, Gosuke Katoh, Nathan Lukes, and Mallex Smith as well as 40-man roster candidates in Otto Lopez, Santiago Espinal, Reese McGuire, Raimel Tapia (former Rockies teammate), and Josh Palacios, with just a couple of weeks left to go in Spring Training.