On Friday afternoon, the Toronto Blue Jays designated outfielder Jesus Sanchez for assignment. The move was interesting, considering that Sanchez had played in 99 games for the Jays and had posted a .734 OPS. He's also just 28 years old and was still under team control. 

Typically, teams will elect to keep guys like that around, but evidently, the Jays decided that his defensive woes were not worth the added offensive upside.

Furthermore, it seems like the move is also a vote of confidence for rookie outfielder Brett Bateman moving forward. Bateman, acquired from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline, has been excellent. And he's tracking toward a very big role in 2027 as well.

Bateman went 3-for-4 in Friday's loss to the Baltimore Orioles, even hitting his first professional home run. He has 40 hits in the 29 games since joining the Jays. As noted by StatsCentre, that is the fourth-fewest games ever to reach 40 hits in Blue Jays history. Shea Hillenbrand and Bo Bichette both did it in 26 games.

Well, Sanchez is now out of the picture, so there's one less person to compete for time with. Furthermore, George Springer is headed for free agency and Myles Straw is likely to have his team option declined, meaning there's even less competition.

That leaves Bateman, Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger as returners moving forward. All three of those players are left-handed hitters, so the Jays certainly need a right-handed hitting option, but the point remains: Bateman is seemingly in line for a big role moving forward.

And so far, he's earned that opportunity heading into spring training.

But before anyone can worry about Bateman's future, the Jays have to continue to focus on the present. At 73-75, they are two games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the battle for the third and final wild card spot.

After the 7-4 loss against Baltimore on Friday, Toronto's playoff odds are down to 26 percent.

Saturday's game will begin at 3:07 p.m. ET as right-hander Spencer Miles opens a bullpen game for Toronto. He'll be opposed by hard-throwing right-hander Kyle Bradish, who is 7-13 with a 3.91 ERA.

The Orioles are 72-76 and three games back of Cleveland, just one game of Toronto. There are only 14 games left in the regular season.