Luke Maile to 10-day IL, Reese McGuire called up from Buffalo

The Injured List carousel continues for the Blue Jays, as just before their 3:07 pm ET start against the Rays, it has been announced that Luke Maile will take a stint on the 10-day IL and 24-year-old Reese McGuire will be taking his spot on the roster.

As reported, Maile pulled his left oblique during batting practice earlier today and McGuire, who was in Durham, NC for the Bisons game against the Bulls, will be taking a flight to Toronto as soon as possible. McGuire most likely won’t be here in time for any portion of today’s game, making Eric Sogard the listed emergency backup catcher in case Danny Jansen is unable to play for the entire game.

The 28-year-old Maile has seen only 120 plate appearances so far in 2019, sporting some very backup catcher on a bad team type of numbers. Hitting .153 with a .447 OPS is kind of what was predicted offensively from the backup this season.

But where he was able to get a significant portion of his 2.2 fWAR last season was his new and improved catcher framing. This season he’s on pace to match his defence from last year but his abysmal offence is weighing his total fWAR down to -0.3.

McGuire appeared very briefly in Toronto last season, for a total of 33 plate appearances and a total of 80 innings on the field. But in his short appearance last season, he was able to put up some impressive offence numbers. Hitting for a 146 wRC+ and a .914 OPS won’t be consistent but it’s some good showing from another catching prospect.

This year with the Bisons, McGuire has suffered offensively — a 72 wRC+ — but where he has improved since reaching the high minors is his walk/strikeout ratio. His 0.57 BB/K is the fourth-highest among catchers with at least 200 plate appearances in the International League.

It will be interesting how much game time McGuire gets to see with Maile out. Danny Jansen has been lighting it up both offensively and defensively recently, but this whole season has been labeled as a non-pressured environment to see what the young players can do and McGuire fits in there as well as anybody.