Jun 9, 2017
Blue Jays must find an answer in left field
Toronto is getting very little production from a position that was supposed to belong to off-season acquisition Steve Pearce, Steve Phillips writes.
For a good part of the 2017 season, it has been difficult to evaluate the Toronto Blue Jays.
When a club has as many injuries as the Jays have had, one can’t really judge the quality and talent of the roster. The offence is disconnected when missing several starting players. When the starting rotation is missing multiple cogs, it affects the quality of the starts and can create a desperate offence and overworked bullpen.
In other words, when the roster is a mess it’s nearly impossible to accurately evaluate how a team compares to the competition.
Now that Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki are back in the lineup, general manager Ross Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro can start to gauge where the Jays are as an offence. However, the loss of second baseman Devon Travis to a knee injury compromises the club’s ability to manufacture runs.
The starting staff is getting healthier. The Jays had lost 60 per cent of the rotation to injuries (Aaron Sanchez, J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano). Happ and Liriano have been activated while Sanchez is still a couple weeks away. Toronto’s starting staff was supposed to be a real strength, but it’s hard to get outs when you can’t throw from the mound.
One area of concern is the production from left field. The Jays are ranked 14th in batting average and slugging percetnage and 13th in on-base percentage in the American League at the position. The seven players who have played in left have combined for five homers and 17 RBI. Only three of the seven players have hits while playing the position, led by Ezequiel Carrera (.248/.328/.303).
The defence has also struggled in left. The Jays are ranked 23rd in MLB in defensive runs saved at -5.9. Steve Pearce and Carrera have been particularly bad with their reads and routes.
The plan was to utilize a platoon in left with some combination of Pearce and Carrera. Pearce was recovering from an elbow injury when he signed and has never been completely healthy. He has only played in 27 games as was placed on the disabled list on May 15 with a calf strain. The Jays hoped that Pearce would emerge as the everyday player, freeing Carrera to move between all three outfield positions.
Whenever teams commit to a platoon at a position there is a chance they could get very little production. Players who are part of a platoon typically aren’t good enough to be everyday players. The club hopes to reduce their vulnerability in certain areas by limiting their playing time in those situations. If one or both of the players underachieve, production can be severely compromised.
The Jays haven’t had a true chance to evaluate Pearce, so I expect they’ll wait until he returns from the DL before they look for upgrades. That being said, I don’t think the Jays will go all-in on a starting left fielder, even if Pearce isn’t overly productive.
They may just add a more substantial portion to the platoon. That means a guy like Curtis Granderson from the Mets is more likely than his teammate Jay Bruce. Granderson struggles against lefties but could be a more impactful left-hand hitting option than Carrera. The price for Granderson will be much more affordable. It also likely means a slugger like Tigers’ slugger J.D. Martinez won’t be a Blue Jay. The cost would be too high and his acquisition would significantly diminish the role of Pearce, who they signed to a two-year, $12-miliion deal last off-season.
Jays must be patient with injury-prone Travis
As I mentioned, the loss of Travis also hurts. He was just coming around after a very slow start to the season. Unfortunately, the Jays have grown accustomed to his absence from the lineup as he hasn’t been able to stay healthy.
Toronto will once again use Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins in his absence. Both Barney and Goins have proven to be adequate fill-ins, but tend to get overexposed if they play more regularly. I don’t expect to see Toronto making a move for an upgrade or permanent solution. Travis is young, affordable and talented. He’s part of the present and future.
When a talented player like Travis gets injured this frequently it’s easy to get frustrated. Organizations bank on having a few young, affordable players perform at a high level in order to free up money to spend on more experienced impact players. Injuries throw a monkey wrench into that plan.
The worst thing an organization can do is to give up on a talented young player who is injury-prone. If the talent is there, the team has to wait for the player to get healthy. If a general manager moves on from an injured player and that player gets healthy and productive elsewhere, it’s not easily forgiven or forgotten by owners. As much as it hurts to wait, patience is the key.
Speaking of patience
Commissioner Rob Manfred has been forced to practice patience when it comes to some of the changes he would like to see implemented to the game. Remember, the commissioner can’t unilaterally implement changes on labour issues without the Major League Baseball Players Association’s consent. One such change is expanding the regular-season roster from 25 to 26, while limiting the expansion of September rosters from up to 40 players to just 28.
Baseball is the only sport that plays by different rules in the final month of its season. The expansion of rosters in September has been the practice in baseball because the minor-league season ends in the month’s first week. That allows teams to expand their rosters to make sure they have protection and depth for the remaining weeks.
It seems reasonable, except for the fact that some teams may call up three or four players while another may add 10 or more. This disparity can affect the integrity of the competition, especially in an extra-innings game. The club that can afford to call up more players has an advantage. Plus, all of the additional in-game moves slow the pace of play and add to the length of games.
Manfred had hoped to entice the union to agree to September limitations with a guarantee of one extra roster spot for all 30 teams for the entire season. The union didn’t bite.
I believe the union would consider the following solution: Clubs can expand their roster in September, up to a total of 40 players as is the current rule. But managers would have to stipulate which 25 players from among their total are active to be used for any given game. This would allow flexibility while maintaining the integrity of the rules and the game. Teams would be competing on a level playing field. Large-market teams who can afford to call up more players won’t gain the competitive advantage of their more expansive roster.
The only question would be whether players deemed inactive for a September game would receive service time. The union would demand it. If I was the commissioner I would grant the service time. It’s a worthwhile trade to maintain the integrity of the game and increase the pace of play.
Schmidt comes across as out of touch
Former Phillies great Mike Schmidt criticized current Phillies centre fielder Odubel Herrera on a Philadelphia radio this past week. Effectively, Schmidt said that Herrera wouldn’t be a guy to build around as a leader on the team because of the language barrier (Herrera is Venezuelan) and Herrera’s “antics on the field” (his flair for the dramatic).
Schmidt said that since Herrera doesn’t speak fluent English, he can’t sit with four or five of his teammates and talk about the game or hold his teammates accountable. He also believes that Herrera is the type of player that other teams despise because of his celebrations on the field. The former third baseman came across as completely out of touch.
Firstly, players no longer sit around after games drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and talking like they did when Schmidt played. They’re on their phones or tablets and leave the park fairly quickly.
Secondly, players can communicate even when they are not fluent in the native language. English-speaking players can go to the Winter Leagues in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico and be leaders. Numerous Japanese and Korean players have made an impact in the majors, just as English-speaking players have done in Asia. Ichiro never addresses the media without an interpreter but has impacted many teammates over the years.
What Schmidt failed to recognize is that if English-speaking players can be leaders for a team, including for the players who don’t speak English, that logic would dictate that leadership can happen in the other direction, as well.
Schmidt followed up his insensitive comments with one of those lame athlete apologies. You know the type: I’m sorry a misrepresentation of my comments may have offended somebody.
To add insult to injury, Boston broadcaster Jerry Remy said during a Yankees-Red Sox game on Tuesday night that he believes that interpreters should not be allowed to accompany a pitching coach or manager for a mound visit to support communication to a non-English speaking player. He said that players should just learn “baseball language.” Remy’s play-by-play man, Dave O’Brien, pointed out that the interpreter aided in explaining the nuances of the instruction that was being given. Remy wasn’t impressed.
The reality is that there is no advantage gained by the interpreter going to the mound. It’s only an aid to avoid a disadvantage that could be caused by a misunderstanding. In 2013, every club voted to approve the mandatory policy that teams provide translators in the first place, including the team that employs Remy. In fact, two former Red Sox pitchers had interpreters go to the mound over the past couple of years.
To his credit, Remy did apologize in a much more acceptable fashion than Schmidt.
Spitting Seeds
- Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen stole third base on Tuesday night in a game against the Baltimore Orioles. He slid in hard with his spikes up fairly high, knocking the glove off the hand of Orioles third baseman Manny Machado. Machado suffered some cuts on his hand and had to leave the game with wrist soreness. McCutchen’s slide was every bit as aggressive as Machado’s a few weeks earlier, when he took out Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Credit the Orioles for handling this better than the Red Sox. McCutchen, like Machado, had no malice of intent in his slide, even though it was a bad slide and led to an injury. The Orioles know McCutchen is a stand-up guy and therefore didn’t seek retaliation. Machado deserved the same level of respect with Boston.
- Speaking of Boston, former Blue Jay starter David Price is having a tough go of it. He’s defensive with the media, feeling like he’s been wronged in some of its coverage. He is now only available to talk to the media after games in which he starts. One thing I know is that picking a fight with the media is a losing battle. They always have the last word. Price should reflect on the saying his former manager Joe Maddon once posted on the bulletin board in the clubhouse: “If you don’t like it, play better.”
- How bright is the Yankees future? Catcher Gary Sanchez and outfielder Aaron Judge have combined for 50 homers and driven in 114 runs between them in just 169 games. Those two young players are going to get better. Add in Gleyber Torres, the young shortstop they acquired from the Cubs for Aroldis Chapman last year, and the growth of starter Luis Severino and you have a familiar formula in the Bronx. Remember Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Andy Pettite? As Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”