TORONTO \u2014 Outfielder Daulton Varsho, infielder Ernie Clement and backup catcher Tyler Heineman agreed to one-year contracts with the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday to avoid arbitration.<\/p>\n
Varsho’s deal was worth US$10.75 million, Clement came to terms at $4.6 million and Heineman agreed to $1.2375 million.<\/p>\n
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Pitcher Eric Lauer, the only other Blue Jays player eligible for arbitration, will have a hearing on his contract.<\/p>\n
Varsho, 29, was limited to 71 games last season due to shoulder and hamstring injuries. A Gold Glove Award winner in 2024, the defensive star hit .238 last year with an .832 on-base plus slugging percentage, 20 homers and 55 runs batted in.<\/p>\n
Clement, 29, became an everyday player with the Blue Jays last season, hitting .277 with a .711 OPS over 157 games. He hit nine homers and drove in 50 runs before shining in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
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The utility infielder set a Major League Baseball record with 30 post-season hits and had a .411 average. The Blue Jays reached Game 7 of the World Series before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Clement was an American League Gold Glove finalist at both utility and third base in each of the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
Lauer, 30, was a reliable member of the starting rotation in the middle of the year before returning to the bullpen late in the campaign.<\/p>\n
The left-hander, who pitched in South Korea and the minor leagues in 2024, was 9-2 with a 3.18 earned-run average over 28 appearances (15 starts).<\/p>\n
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Heineman hit .289 last season over 64 games as a backup for Alejandro Kirk. The 34-year-old had three homers, 20 RBIs and an OPS of .777.<\/p>\n
MLB players who don’t reach deals by Thursday’s deadline will have hearings scheduled from Jan. 26 to Feb. 13 in Scottsdale, Ariz.<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Outfielder Daulton Varsho, infielder Ernie Clement and backup catcher Tyler Heineman agreed to one-year contracts with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[3426,17431,5,377,2554,854,1497,6130,19,4,1791,282,70,2553,15820,30020],"class_list":["post-512750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-alejandro-kirk","tag-arbitration","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-daulton-varsho","tag-eric-lauer","tag-ernie-clement","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-the-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays","tag-tyler-heineman","tag-utility-infielder"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115863757186035432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}