2016 Vancouver Canadians outfielder Josh Palacios has a new major league home.
The Washington Nationals claimed the 26 year-old from Brooklyn on waivers after he was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays April 11.
He was Toronto’s fourth round pick out of Auburn in the 2016 draft and spent part of his first professional season in Vancouver where he hit .355 with a .910 on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .955 in 28 games.
After progressing through Toronto’s minor league system, Palacios was called up by the Blue Jays on April 9, 2021 and went 4-for-4 with his first major league home run the next night against the Los Angeles Angels April 10. He wound up hitting .200 in 35 at-bats with the Jays.
Palacios had slashed .238/.333/.524 with two home runs and four runs batted in with the Buffalo Bisons to begin 2022 before being DFA’d by Toronto.
The nephew of former major leaguer Rey Palacios and brother of Cleveland Guardians farmhand Richie Palacios has been assigned to Triple-A Rochester, just 75 miles east from Buffalo so he will still see his former Bisons quite a bit.
The left-handed hitting Palacios hopes to join 2017 C’s catcher Riley Adams, 2015 second baseman Lane Thomas and 2016 righthander Patrick Murphy on the Nationals roster.
2016 Canadians righthander Zach Jackson faced the Toronto Blue Jays for the first time as a member of the Oakland Athletics Friday. He only retired Bo Bichette on a fly out, surrendering a double to George Springer and a run-scoring extra-base knock by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. He also walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. intentionally and Matt Chapman unintentionally in the Jays 4-1 win over the A’s at the Dome.
Jackson made it to the bigs with the Oakland Athletics to open the 2022 season. He was claimed by Oakland on waivers on December 20, 2020. Taken by Toronto in the third round in the 2016 draft out of Arkansas, the 6-foot-4, 230 pound hurler enjoyed a successful debut by pitching a shutout inning in Philadelphia April 9. He walked Rhys Hopkins on four pitches but rallied to get Jean Segura to ground into a double play and struck out Didi Gregorious in a shutout eighth inning.
Jackson joins 2017 righty Dany Jiménez and 2017 lefthander Zach Logue on the Oakland roster. Logue is up after catcher Austin Allen and pitchers Kirby Snead and A.J. Puk did not make the trip to Toronto. Those three were placed on the restricted list, likely for not getting vaccinated. Logue began the year with Triple-A Las Vegas after being traded by Toronto with Snead as part of the deal that sent Chapman north of the border.
C-Notes
On a final note, it was only until FutureBlueJays.com pointed it out that I had discovered that 2019 catcher Ryan Sloniger announced his retirement last summer. The Jays 38th round pick from Penn State that year batted .255 with a home run and 11 runs batted in over 13 games with Monty’s Mounties with his home run coming on Canada Day at Nat Bailey Stadium.
Sloniger was with Low-A Dunedin in 2021. His home run in Tampa May 9 was the game-winner. His final professional hit was also a home run in Lakeland June 12, one of four times he touched the plate that night. Sloniger’s final game came June 19 against Clearwater where he drew a walk and scored his final run. All the best to him in his future endeavours.
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