Blue Jays sign Travis Shaw

Jon Morosi tells us that the Blue Jays have signed Travis Shaw.

It is a one-year deal. He’s to get a base of $4 million with incentives on plate appearances. He gets $175,000 more for 350 PA and then $125,000 more for each of 400, 450, 500 and 550 PA.

Shaw is a left-handed batter. He is 29. He played third, first and second (just 2.2 innings) for the Brewers last year. I’m thinking the plan is for him to play first for us, but be available to spell Vlad at third. We won’t see him in the middle of the infield unless there is problems

He didn’t have a good 2019, hitting just .157/.281/.270 with 7 home runs, 36 walks and 89 strikeouts but he was good in 2018 (.241/.345/.480 with 32 home runs) and 2017 (.273/.349/.513 with 31 home runs). Career, in 5 seasons, he’s hit .243/.327/.451 with 99 home runs in 592 games with the Red Sox (2 seasons) and the Brewers (3 seasons).

He’ll give Rowdy Tellez competition for at bats.

I don’t know if this means we would be out on Edwin Encarnacion. They might still want Edwin to platoon with him (since there is a 26 spot on the roster this year).

Rowdy is going to have to come into spring training hitting the ball hard if he wants to make the Jays.