Blue Jays claim infielder Breyvic Valera off waivers, add 3 more players to training pool
Club still waits go-ahead from government officials to train, play at Rogers Centre
The Toronto Blue Jays continued to re-tool their roster thursday ahead of the upcoming MLB season, claiming infielder Breyvic Valera off waivers from the San Diego Padres and adding three others to its player pool.
Right-handed pitcher Bryan Baker, infielder Patrick Kivlehan and outfielder Josh Palacios were added to the pool of players who will be at the team's summer camp.
Training is supposed to begin Friday, with the 60-game regular season slated to start July 23 or 24.
Toronto had named 58 players to its pool earlier this week. Each team can have a maximum of 60.
The transactions page on the Blue Jays' website listed four players — right-handers Elvis Luciano and Hector Perez, third baseman Brandon Drury and centre-fielder Jonathan Davis — as being added to the 10-day injured list Wednesday, with the moves retroactive to June 30. All four of those players were on Toronto's initial player pool.
Valera, 28, batted .234 in 17 MLB games last season, splitting time between the New York Yankees and the Blue Jays. He hit his first career home run on the final day of the regular season.
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Valera has a .223 batting average over 54 career MLB games while playing for five teams.
The Blue Jays have yet to announce where they will be training and playing home games this season. They require special permission from the Canadian government to use Rogers Centre.
Players around the league reported to their respective camps Wednesday.
The Blue Jays asked players to report to their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., to begin the "intake screening and isolation process." They said they would either fly to Toronto after that or stay in Florida for training.
