Blue Jays option Gose, send three others down

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays made another round of cuts on Monday morning by optioning outfielder Anthony Gose and re-assigning Mike Nickeas, Chris Getz and John Tolleson to Minor League camp.

Toronto now has 30 players remaining in camp: three catchers, eight infielders, five outfielders and 14 pitchers. One catcher, two infielders and at least one pitcher likely will be sent down within the next couple of days.

Gose is the biggest name in the latest group of cuts, but his departure hardly comes as a surprise. For the past couple of weeks, it has become a foregone conclusion that he was set to start the year in the Minor Leagues.

The 23-year-old remains one of the organization's top prospects, but still has a lot of work to do at the plate before he's ready for a full-time role at the next level. He strikes out far too often and needs to improve his on-base percentage, but his overall skillset is still very enticing to the organization.

Gose has game-changing speed on the basepaths and plays very solid defense in center field. In 313 at-bats at the big league level, Gose is a .240 hitter with a .294 on-base percentage.