Blue Jays continue roster transformation with latest roster move

The roster that Ross Atkins had put together for the 2024 season simply wasn't working. The Toronto Blue Jays entered the year expecting to be competitive, but at 33-35, they're in fourth place in the AL East, essentially out of the division race, and are 3.5 games out of the third Wild Card spot in the AL.

While the pitching has fallen short of expectations this season, the biggest reason why Toronto is where they are is because of their offense. The Jays rank 26th in the majors in runs scored entering play on Friday. Each of the four teams ranked below them are also under .500.

The Jays made a drastic switch ahead of the 2023 season, prioritizing defense over offense and that hasn't worked. They wound up starting to shift back in the other direction when they designated for assignment and eventually traded Cavan Biggio, a strong defender at multiple positions, and instead promoted Spencer Horwitz, a bat-first prospect.

The Blue Jays continued their roster transformation on Friday with the decision to recall Addison Barger and DFA Daniel Vogelbach according to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.

Blue Jays continue roster shake-up by DFA'ing Daniel Vogelbach

The Blue Jays signed Vogelbach to a minor league deal ahead of Spring Training and the nine-year veteran played his way onto Toronto's Opening Day roster thanks to a strong showing. Unfortunately, his hot spring did not transfer over into the regular season.

The 31-year-old wound up appearing in 31 games and slashed .186/.278/.300 with one home run and eight RBI. He only stepped up to the plate 79 times in his 2.5 months that he was with the team, but Vogelbach, for the most part, did not make the most of the few opportunities he was given.

He started to swing the bat better in late May and that even caused Toronto to deploy Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at the hot corner to get Vogelbach's bat into the lineup, but he ends his Blue Jays tenure hitless in his last 13 at-bats.

He can hit right-handed pitching well when right, but his limitations are glaring. He doesn't hit left-handed pitching, can't run, can't field, and isn't very aggressive at all at the plate. The Blue Jays were not maximizing his roster spot by sitting him on the bench more often than not, so they wound up replacing Biggio with the versatile Barger who, despite his struggles in his first big league call-up, is a better fit on this roster.

Barger has played in six different positions in the minor leagues including all four infield positions. He played three positions in his five MLB games earlier this season, including both corner outfield spots. He probably presents more offensive upside than Biggio did while offering similar defensive versatility (even if he isn't as good of a defender). As for Vogelbach, that move was long overdue. He has to hit a whole lot better than he did to hold a spot on an MLB roster.

Whether this changes anything for Toronto remains to be seen, but something had to change. Vogelbach certainly wasn't helping much with their offense, so letting him go couldn't have been too hard. Hopefully, Barger can spark things a bit.