Blue Jays announce hugely popular roster move prior to Oakland series

Fans and followers can finally rejoice, as Spencer Horwitz has officially been recalled by the Toronto Blue Jays. In a post on social media (X link), the Blue Jays announced Horwitz's promotion along with the corresponding roster move.

In a surprising twist, the Blue Jays elected to designate long-time infielder Cavan Biggio for assignment. He will be the roster crunch casualty this time around, as the club has chosen to roster Ernie Clement and Daniel Vogelbach instead of Biggio.

The promotion of Horwitz, the club's No. 17 prospect per Jays Journal's 2024 rankings, is a hugely popular move amongst fans of the team. He has been absolutely annihilating Triple-A pitching all year long and currently boasts one of the very best stat lines in the International League.

Blue Jays promote Spencer Horwitz

In 57 games this year for the Buffalo Bisons, Horwitz has 28 extra-base hits, including a league-leading 22 doubles, more walks than strikeouts and an impressive .335 batting average. His power still leaves a bit to be desired (four home runs this year), but he's reached double digits in the home run department in each of the past few years, so it can still come around.

On defense, Horwitz is a first baseman by trade but he's still seen sporadic time in left field and has even picked up a new position: second base. In an effort to expand his versatility, the Blue Jays have given him a shot at second and reports have indicated all around that the organization is pleased with what they've seen so far. In 87 innings across 11 games, Horwitz has just one error.

Last year, the Maryland native made a brief 15-game cameo appearance in the big leagues and did plenty to impress. In 44 plate appearances, he hit his first career home run, drove in seven runs and had an OPS+ of 102 in the limited sample. The way he's been torching the opposition in Triple-A this year clearly shows that he's ready for another go at the game's highest level.

Suddenly, the Blue Jays' experiment to put Vladimir Guerrero Jr. back at third base on occasion makes even more sense. It was unclear if he was secretly auditioning at third to boost his trade value, trying to get Justin Turner's bat going, or opening a spot up for Horwitz to come up and get consistent playing time. While Blue Jays management would never answer that question out loud, it seems that we've found it out ourselves now that Horwitz is big league-bound.

Biggio, 29, was a fifth-round selection by the Blue Jays back in the 2016 MLB Draft. He's one of the longer tenured members of this organization, so to see him DFA'd is a little bittersweet. This year, the utilityman hit just .200 with an 80 OPS+ prior to his designation. Since he has five years of big league service time, he has the ability to reject an assignment to Triple-A. His DFA means that he must've exercised that ability and denied the demotion.

The left-handed swinging Biggio can bounce around all over the diamond but has seen the vast majority of his playing time at second base and right field over the past few years. His versatility alone should be enough to warrant interest on the waiver wire before he clears waivers.