The first Blue Jays news in a while just broke and it doesn't exactly blow your (white) socks off. The Blue Jays claimed third baseman Brent Morel off waivers this afternoon from the Chicago White Sox. The 26-year-old right-handed hitter is a former highly ranked prospect who didn't pan out as expected. The California native has played 194 games over the past four years for the Sox, with 126 of those coming in 2011. Nearly all of his time in the majors has come at third base and he's considered a solid defender at the hot corner with a good arm.
Prior to the 2011 season, Morel was ranked as the second best White Sox prospect behind left-handed pitcher Chris Sale by Baseball America. They predicted Morel to be the starting White Sox third baseman in 2014, which obviously didn't work out as planned. He's never gotten on base enough to be an above average player, although he did hit 10 home runs during his lone full MLB season in 2011.
With four more years of team control, Morel projects to be a depth piece with the Blue Jays and might end up filling the role left by Mark DeRosa's retirement. He's better against left-handed pitchers so the team might be hoping that Morel hits well enough to platoon with Adam Lind, but that seems like a long shot.
Brendan Kennedy broke the news and as you can see, the Blue Jays now have a full 40-man roster:
#bluejays claim 3B Brent Morel off of waivers from the #whitesox. The #jays now have all spots filled on their 40-man roster.
Waiver news is better than no news I suppose.