DETROIT TIGERS — Optioned RHP Rick Porcello to Toledo (IL)
TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Optioned 3B Edwin Encarnacion to Las Vegas (PCL)
METS — Sent RHP Jenrry Mejia to Binghamton (EL).

Three demotions of interest here, including two young players who have bright futures and one six-year veteran who may be at the end of the line.

For Porcello, 2010 has been a major disappointment.  After a stellar rookie year, the Morristown, N.J., native has slid down the Tigers rotation and now out to Toledo.  It seems like hitters have adjusted the second and third time around the league and now Porcello needs to regroup and readjust.  His minor league track record suggests that he’ll be able to do it, but the list of second-year MLB flameouts is long.

Mejia didn’t figure into the Mets’ plans until his sizzling spring demanded that he break camp with the big club.  Comparisons to Mariano Rivera may have been premature, however, as he struggled with his command once the regular season bell rang, and this move to AA has him back on the original track, to build up starters’ endurance .

I always thought Encarnacion was a curious choice to replace Scott Rolen at third.  His free-swinging ways and merely adequate defense were bound to be exposed eventually, and this demotion seems to indicate that the Jays have given up on him.