St. Louis Cardinals' Aledmys Diaz scores during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, June 25, 2017, in St. Louis. The Toronto Blue Jays declined to tender contracts to infielder Ryan Goins and right-handed pitcher Tom Koehler on Friday, making them free agents.Toronto also acquired shortstop Aledmys Diaz from the St. Louis Cardinals for minor league outfielder J.B. Woodman.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Jeff Roberson
Republished December 02, 2017 - 4:48 PM
Original Publication Date December 01, 2017 - 5:56 PM
TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays declined to tender contracts to infielder Ryan Goins and right-handed pitcher Tom Koehler on Friday, making them free agents.
Toronto also acquired shortstop Aledmys Diaz from the St. Louis Cardinals for minor league outfielder J.B. Woodman.
Goins had spent his entire five-year MLB career with the Blue Jays and played 143 games for the team in 2017 while middle infielders Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki dealt with injuries.
The 29-year-old Goins hit .237 and had career highs in both home runs (nine) and runs-batted in (62).
Koehler, who was acquired from the Miami Marlins in a Aug. 19 trade, appeared in 15 games for Toronto and was used primarily as a long-relief pitcher. He finished his tenure with the Jays with a 0-2 record and 2.65 earned-run average over 17 innings.
Diaz, 27, hit .259 with seven homers and 20 RBI over 79 games with the Cardinals last season.
Toronto drafted Woodman in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft and he played for the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts in 2017, hitting .240 with seven home runs and 45 RBI.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version mispelled Diaz's first name.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2017