The Toronto Blue Jays have announced that catcher Brian Serven and pitcher Paolo Espino have decided to hit the open market this winter.
Serven took on a bigger role with the Blue Jays after catcher Danny Jansen was traded by after being DFA'd at the end of the season as the Blue Jays acquired Tyler Heineman, Serven has opted to test the minor league market.
Serven developed a bit of a reputation as Bowden Francis's "personal catcher" in the second half of the season, but this was not enough to keep him around in the big leagues. The Blue Jays elected to acquire Tyler Heineman for the third straight season instead of keep Serven around, so the latter was DFA'd near the end of the season. -Trueden
Espino on the other hand comes as no surprise at all after only pitching 8.1 innings in the majors this season, finishing with a 8.31 ERA in that small amount of time but did manage better number in triple-A with a 4.88 ERA on the season.
Then there's Espino, who made it into just 8.2 innings for the Blue Jays. He made three appearances, including one start, recording three strikeouts and five walks, surrendering eight runs on 14 hits (8.31 ERA). -Treuden
These two moves come as no big surprise since the Blue Jays have mentioned quite a few times that they plan on putting out a much better baseball next year and if this is the truth, sadly neither Serven nor Espino fit into those plans.
It will be interesting to see who the Blue Jays end up brining in this winter.