Worth noting

The Blue Jays officially announced the hiring of Tim Leiper as the club's new first-base coach Wednesday afternoon. Leiper takes over for the retired Dwayne Murphy and receives a promotion after spending the past year as a special assistant to player development. The news first broke on Tuesday afternoon, but wasn't publicly confirmed by the club until the following day.

"At the end of the day, [manager John Gibbons] makes the final call on these," general manager Alex Anthopoulos said. "If there's someone I feel strongly about, we'll talk, but it's his staff. Tim came to the organization last year, has done almost everything in the game, high-energy coach, connects with players very well.

"He's also familiar with our staff and we feel like he's going to be a great fit for us. He has experience as a manager, as a coach, he has done everything in the game. We think he's an up-and-coming coach and we feel like he has a chance to have a long career."