In a stunning move that even Chris Cotillo failed to scoop, the Toronto Blue Jays have designated for assignment their long-time Official Pizza Pizza Pizza. The club has 10 days to trade, reheat, or toss out any leftovers. To replace Pizza Pizza, the Blue Jays signed Scarborough native Pizza Nova (see his Baseball-Reference page) to a three-year deal as the Official Pizza of the team.
Pizza Nova, 51, will become the pizza available in Rogers Centre for all home games and other events.
While I'm not a pizza scout, my experience tells me that this is a positive move for the Blue Jays. Like the signing of Dioner Navarro earlier this offseason, we're almost guaranteed an improvement in 2014 compared to what it is replacing. The Oven projection system (pizza gets soggy so is not compatible with Steamer) predicts Pizza Nova will be slightly above replacement level. It's not at an All-Star level like Pizzeria Libretto or Terroni, but Pizza Nova does come with a cute lazy-eyed mascot named Leonar-dough. It should really consider wearing a longer apron, although a highly-scientific study completed by Grant Brisbee showed that the lack of pants is not necessarily a problem.