Blue Jays Sign Matt Stairs

Wednesday, December 06 2006 @ 08:17 PM EST

Contributed by: Pistol

Jeff Blair reports that the Jays have reached an agreement with Matt Stairs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"I expect I'll be doing the same thing with Toronto that I've done most of my career: play a little first base, DH to spell off Frank (Thomas), and be a bat off the bench late in the game."

From that quote it doesn't sound like the Jays are filling the 4th OF role. If the Jays expected Stairs to play in the OF I would expect that he would have known about it.

The Jays bench at this point consists of John MacDonald, Jason Phillips, and now Stairs. Assuming a 12 man pitching staff this would leave one remaining bench spot. There's still a hole in the OF (if Stairs isn't playing there) and backing up 3B (MacDonald is the only player that can cover 3B) and there's only one bench spot left over. Given that I suspect that the Jays plan to use Stairs in the OF occasionally as it doesn't make a lot of sense otherwise. Unless there's another move Hattig would probably be the 25th player.

Is the early 90s version of Tony Phillips still available?

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