Blue Jays designate Edwin Encarnacion for assignment

Yesterday the Blue Jays demoted Edwin Encarnacion to Triple-A after the 27-year-old third baseman had logged 2,314 plate appearances and six seasons in the majors, and this afternoon they designated him for assignment. Encarnacion is now off the 40-man roster and Toronto has 10 days to trade, waive, or release him, but my guess is that the Blue Jays either already have a deal in place or are very confident about being able to move him by the end of the week. If not, there really wasn’t much reason to drop him from the 40-man roster given that he has a minor-league option remaining and can safely be stashed at Triple-A. Toronto acquired Encarnacion from Cincinnati in last season’s deal for Scott Rolen, but injuries and mediocre hitting since the trade have no doubt lowered his value. He’s still just 27 years old, has plenty of power with 25 homers per 550 at-bats, and a .788 career OPS is solid for a third baseman, but the problem is that Encarnacion is a brutal defender there and that obviously became tough for the Blue Jays to live with as he fell into a 9-for-61 (.148) slump over the past month.