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By Jackson Roberts
Contributing Sports Writer
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The World Baseball Classic is an important tournament to anyone currently planning to participate. But what if one's performance in that tournament might also determine whether they stay with their current Major League Baseball team?
It's not an exaggeration to say that could apply to Toronto Blue Jays infielder Leo Jiménez.
After appearing in just 18 regular-season games for the Blue Jays and being left off the playoff roster last year, Jiménez is out of minor-league options, so he'll need to make the 26-man roster out of spring training to avoid being exposed to the waiver wire. But in the middle of that roster battle, Jiménez is heading to pool play in Puerto Rico to compete for Team Panama.
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Blue Jays manager John Schneider seemingly hinted that Jiménez's performance for Team Panama might matter even more than the things he does during spring training games.
“We’re going to be watching closely,” Schneider said, per Mike Wilner of the Toronto Star. “I think there’s upside to having it be pretty much game speed as opposed to two at-bats in Lakeland or whatever.”
Jiménez, 24, went 2-for-29 in the majors last season, good for a .067 batting average. He was solid in 63 games in 2024, though, with a near-average 95 OPS+, so clearly, something went sideways that the youngster believes he can correct.
Jimenez admitted "2025 didn’t go the way that I was expecting, that I had planned,” on the ”Deep Left Field" podcast from the Toronto Star. "But we just leave that stuff in the past and focus on this year, which is a big year for me.”
With Kazuma Okamoto, Andrés Giménez, and Ernie Clement locked into opening day starting roles, Jiménez appears to be in an uphill battle against Davis Schneider, who has options available but has been a reliable contributor for the Blue Jays in the last couple of seasons, for the final spot on the bench.
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