The Blue Jays won’t be going back to Jose Bautista at the hot corner after designating Edwin Encarnacion for assignment on Monday. Manager Cito Gaston said Tuesday that Jarrett Hoffpauir would take over as the everyday third baseman, with Bautista remaining in right field.
It’s a huge break for Hoffpauir. Formerly a second baseman in the Cardinals system, he put up solid numbers on an annual basis, yet he was given just 12 at-bats at the major league level before being dropped from the 40-man roster last winter. The Blue Jays claimed him off waivers and watched him hit .328/.378/.532 for Triple-A Las Vegas.
Of course, that was Las Vegas. Hoffpauir was batting .383/.434/.670 in one of the best hitting environments in the minors. In road games, he was at a far more modest .275/.323/.400. Two-thirds of his extra-base hits came at home.
Hoffpauir’s big chance comes just days after he turned 27 on June 18. He’ll probably have only a few weeks to establish himself, given that the Jays expect Travis Snider back after the All-Star break. With Snider back in the outfield, the Jays would have more incentive to use Bautista at third.
Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN on opening day

Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.
Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.
“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”
Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.
Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.
“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.
Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.