The Blue Jays brought infielder
Rafael Lantigua back to the organization on a minor league contract, the team announced. Toronto also added infielder
Carlos Mendoza and confirmed previously reported agreements with
Jorge Alcala,
Eloy Jiménez and
Michael Plassmeyer. All five players receive non-roster invitations to big league camp.
Lantigua, 27, initially signed with the Jays out of the Dominican Republic during the 2016 amateur signing period. The righty-hitting utilityman played his way to Triple-A by the end of the 2022 season. He spent the next two full seasons with their top affiliate in Buffalo before qualifying for minor league free agency. Lantigua signed with the Phillies last winter and again played the majority of the year in the International League.
The 5’7″ infielder batted .230/.356/.330 across 495 plate appearances for Philly’s farm team. Lantigua walked at a 15.6% clip while only striking out 14.7% of the time. While that propped up his on-base percentage, he did very little damage on contact. He hit seven homers and had a .260 average on balls in play. There was probably some poor luck in the latter number, as his BABIP in the previous two seasons was much higher, but he did himself no favors by only making hard contact on a quarter of batted balls.
Lantigua received his first major league call in September thanks to an injury to
Edmundo Sosa. The Phils optioned him three days later without getting him into a game. They outrighted him from the roster at the beginning of the offseason. Lantigua has reached the majors but hasn’t gotten an opportunity to debut, which he’ll hope will arise with his original organization at some point in 2026.
Mendoza is also a smaller infielder whose game is built around getting on base. He’s a lefty bat who hit .287/.394/.409 with more walks than strikeouts in the Detroit system last year. The Miami native spent the majority of the season in Double-A. He can play second or third base but has no shortstop experience. Mendoza didn’t crack Detroit’s 40-man roster before qualifying for free agency at the end of his seventh season in the minors.
