This evening, the Blue Jays declared that Brian Serven, their catcher, had been outright sent to Triple-A Buffalo. Serven was placed on waivers, but Toronto had not disclosed this information before. It seems that they removed him from the roster covertly last week. This officially reduces their 40-man roster to 39, but Toronto will still need to sign Yariel Rodríguez, which will increase it back to 40.
Serven was only claimed by Toronto two weeks ago off waivers. This winter, he has been traded between several organizations. A former Rockies fifth-round selection, Colorado designated him for assignment in the first few days of January. After making a claim, the Cubs DFA’d him a week later. Toronto adopted a similar tactic and will keep Serven after managing to keep him unclaimed.
Over the past two seasons, the Arizona State product has appeared in 73 MLB games. At Denver, he mostly served as Elías Díaz’s backup catcher, logging 228 plate appearances at.195/.248/.314 respectively. At the Triple-A level, Serven has 534 plate appearances to his belt. There, he boasts a slash line of.238/.305/.450, which included a.199/.241/.331 in 38 games played a year ago.
In his MLB career, Serven demonstrated above-average pitch framing numbers. He’ll remain with the Jays as a depth catcher off the roster, and he’ll probably be invited to the major leagues for Spring Training. The only catchers left on the Jays’ 40-man roster are Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen. If neither Jansen nor Kirk need to spend any time on the injured list this offseason, Serven stands a solid chance of being reselected to the MLB team.
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