Blue Jays add Catcher Luke Maile off Waivers From Rays

The Blue Jays have claimed catcher Luke Maile off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays. Maile, who’s 26 years old and was drafted in the eighth round of the 2012 draft, was designated for assignment by the Rays back on April 2.

Maile has played in 57 games at the Major League level with Tampa Bay, slashing a pretty bad .227/.252/.361 line over 161 plate appearances. When he was drafted, Maile was regarded for his power and was projected to move to either first base of left field because he wasn’t particularly good defensively as a catcher. But over his time in the minors, that kind of flipped around. Now, Maile is regarded as a strong defensive catcher, but hasn’t found his stroke whatsoever offensively at any professional level, posting a .221/.302/.314 slash in the minors.

What does this mean? Not a hell of a lot. The Jays have 39 players on their 40-man roster right now, with the release of Melvin Upton, so they won’t have to DFA anybody themselves. Maile will join Juan Graterol and Mike Ohlman as catcher depth at the Triple-A level, giving them solid insurance is Russell Martin is injured or Jarrod Saltalamacchia isn’t good enough.