The Blue Jays have signed CJ Stubbs to a minor league deal, as per the catcher’s MLB.com profile page. The contract apparently doesn’t contain an invitation to Toronto’s big league Spring Training camp, as Stubbs wasn’t included on the Jays’ list of spring invites released earlier this week.
A tenth-round pick for the Astros in the 2019 draft, Stubbs was cut loose by Houston in May 2024, and he then quickly inked a new minor league deal with the Nationals. This stint in the Nats organization resulted in Stubbs’ first taste of Major League action, albeit a small one — Stubbs’ MLB resume consists of a single game, as he went 0-for-3 while starting behind the plate in Washington’s 2-0 win over the Marlins on September 1. Starter Andrew Alvarez was also making his big league debut, and Stubbs guided Alvarez (over five innings) and four Nats relievers to a two-hit shutout.
This noteworthy game didn’t result in any more playing time for Stubbs, and he elected minor league free agency after being outrighted off Washington’s 40-man roster in late October. Alejandro Kirk and Tyler Heineman are locked into the Blue Jays’ catching duties, but Stubbs’ cup of coffee in the Show is still enough to make him the only other catcher in the organization with any MLB experience. Depending on whether or not the Jays add any other catching help on a minors deal, Stubbs currently projects as the first call-up if Kirk or Heineman got injured.
The 29-year-old Stubbs doesn’t have a ton of experience even at Triple-A, as he has 45 games and 145 plate appearances over parts of three seasons with the Astros’ and Nationals’ top affiliates. He has hit .222/.366/.453 with six homers over that small Triple-A sample, and Stubbs has a career minor league slash line of .206/.315/.396 over 1854 PA. Stubbs has hit 72 homers in the minors and even stolen 52 bases (out of 20 attempts), but he has struck out in 648 of his 1854 PA.