The Toronto Blue Jays re-acquired catcher Dioner Navarro from the Chicago White Sox for AA pitcher Colton Turner. He was hitting .210 with six home runs and 32 RBIs for the White Sox this season. Navarro became expendable with Alex Avila coming off the disabled list and the White Sox wanting to give catching prospect Omar Navarez more at-bats.
There has been no corresponding move on the Blue Jays roster. Toronto did announce that they will be releasing outfielder Desmond Jennings. Manager Kevin Cash said of Jennings:
“It was time, best for him, best for us going forward…Wish him the best with his career going forward. It was just unfortunate it didn’t work out. Couldn’t quite get him on the field as much as we’d have liked. We had to make a decision.”
Navarro gives the Blue Jays depth and a veteran presence behind the plate behind starting catcher Russell Martin. Martin has played in 105 out of the Blue Jays 127 games to date. Veteran Josh Thole who was backing up Martin is having the worst season of his career. He had been Martin’s only backup this season. Thole is hitting .151 with one home run and seven RBIs in 124 plate appearances.
Navarro returns to Toronto after spending the previous two seasons there. He hit .267 with 17 home runs and 89 RBIs in 712 plate appearances in 189 games. Navarro told WhiteSox.Com he was texting with an unidentified Blue Jay when the player asked him if he heard anything about the Blue Jays trying to re-acquire him.
"White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn explains how it all went down. “When I was explaining the trade, he was typing in, ‘Yeah, I just heard something,”. This happened as Hahn was giving Navarro the details of the trade. Hahn continued “He was a little surprised that he was getting moved, but appreciated the new opportunity to go back to somewhere where he was comfortable.”"
The Blue Jays are adding a quality player and good influence in the clubhouse. Toronto General Manager Ross Atkins said “He’ll fit right in with the clubhouse. And I think when we told the staff that he would be joining, they were extremely excited about not only what he meant as a catcher, but as a teammate.”
Navarro was starter Marco Estrada‘s personal catcher in his last stint in Toronto. Asked about that history Atkins said “Obviously, Russell Martin is a very good catcher and hard to take out of the lineup, but this just adds depth and another resource for ”
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Turner was pitching for the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Kings. He had stops with Class-A Lansing and high class-A Dunedin this year. He dominated A-Ball but struggled with New Hampshire. He had a 5.23 ERA in nine appearances over 10.1 innings with the Fisher Kings. The White Sox assigned him to the AA Birmingham Barons.