Blue Jays trade infielder to Dodgers and trap him in massive infield logjam

Many players that have come and gone through the Toronto Blue Jays system during their MLB careers who have had lasting memories with the organization. But that doesn't happen for everyone, including a recent veteran infielder, whom the Blue Jays barely even got to know before he was ultimately traded away from the team.

On Tuesday, Toronto dealt former San Francisco Giants infielder Tyler Fitzgerald to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations. Fitzgerald had been designated for assignment by the Blue Jays last week when they had to make room on their 40-man roster after acquiring catcher Willie MacIver from the Texas Rangers.

Tyler Fitzgerald leaves Toronto to join the powerhouse of the NL West

In retrospect, it was just earlier this month when the Blue Jays traded for Fitzgerald from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations as well. So in effect, Toronto is getting back some of the cash that they gave away to San Francisco with the current Dodgers deal.

Fitzgerald’s tenure with the Blue Jays was practically non-existent as he failed to get into a single major league game in his three-plus weeks with the organization. He ended up seeing all of his action with the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons where he batted .150 with a .350 OPS, with just two runs scored, one double, one stolen base and a gaudy 14 strikeouts in six total games played.

He might have had a more prominent role in Toronto had they not added Lenyn Sosa in another trade just a week after the Fitzgerald one. With the redundancy created with both playing similar positions, along with the Blue Jays’ obvious preference for Sosa given the instant MLB playing time that he received following his trade, the 28-year-old veteran ultimately became the expendable piece.

In landing in Los Angeles, Fitzgerald joins a long list of former Blue Jays that have become a member of the Dodgers in recent years including Anthony Banda, Cavan Biggio, Kevin Kiermaier, Teoscar Hernández, Kirby Yates and Santiago Espinal to name a few.

By returning to the West Coast, the former Giants infielder will aim to rediscover the early success that he had with San Francisco when he broke into the league during the 2023 MLB season. More significantly, Fitzgerald will hope that his fate will be similar to the names above, as other than Espinal, all of those other former Blue Jays have ended up capturing a World Series ring with the Dodgers.

But it will be tough for that to happen for Fitzgerald since there is no great great path to playing time available on that team. The Dodgers currently employ Alex Freeland, Hyeseong Kim, Miguel Rojas and Santiago Espinal on the big league roster. Meanwhile, Mookie Betts, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández are on the injured list and all three of them would be preferred options in the lineup when they return.

It wouldn't be surprising if the stop in LA was short lived for Fitzgearald.

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