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Toronto Blue Jays prospect Bo Bichette is fully recovered from the broken hand he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in April. He is hitting .298 with three home runs and 19 RBI in 32 games played since being activated in Triple-A Buffalo. He is the next position player in line for a call-up to Toronto and is close to being ready.

The Jays have to decide when and if to call him up this year. They could easily justify a call-up and link his service time to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio. They could also easily justify waiting to promote Bichette until mid-April next season to control his service time like they were going to do with Guerrero Jr and get a full extra season of control. They could explain that they have Freddie Galvis and there is no available opening for Bichette right now. 

If I were running the Blue Jays, I would do all I could to find a trade for Galvis and/or Eric Sogard at the July 31 deadline. And if I was able to trade one of them I would immediately bring Bichette to the Major Leagues and continue the momentum of the rebuilding process. The issue of controlling service time for Bichette has been diminished by the fact that Guerrero and Biggio have already been called up. The value of his growth with his two buddies is greater than the control of his service time beyond theirs. 

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I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it was time to try something dramatic with Aaron Sanchez. My suggestion was moving him to the bullpen to start with and then changing his repertoire of pitches if necessary to protect his fingers from blisters and broken nails. The situation has only gotten worse since then. The Jays are rebuilding as a franchise and they are running out of time to rebuild Sanchez. He has lost his confidence and has bottomed out. If he was ever open to change, now is the time. 

If the Jays are going to be dramatic they could send Sanchez to the minors and defend that it has worked for other players (Lourdes Gurriel Jr.), but if that is a plan they only have until Sunday to do it without his approval. Once a player has earned five years of service time he can reject an option to the minor leagues. Sanchez will reach that threshold on Monday. 

I wouldn’t send him to the minors but I would put him in the bullpen and I would do it now. I wouldn’t let him start on Friday as he is scheduled. I would bring him for a one-inning stint on Friday night and again on Sunday and get him back to being aggressive. He is trying to avoid contact and miss bats rather than just attacking the zone, as evidenced by the 52 walks he has issued in his 87 innings of work this season. He has allowed the most walks in the Major Leagues. 

Going to the bullpen has helped pitchers in the past get back to throwing strikes. I would bring him in to games to start an inning. Schedule it Plan it. That way it allows him whatever time he needs to warm up properly. 

Then once he gets a few turns in the bullpen, I would start to figure out what else he can throw to protect his fingers from future injuries. Maybe he has to scrap his sinker and go to a four-seam fastball.  I can close my eyes and dream that he could become Charlie Morton of the Tampa Bay Rays, who reinvented himself from a sinker/slider pitcher to a four-seam fastball and curve ball pitcher. A transformation has to start with doing it differently. Time is running out for the 27-year-old right-hander. 

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Marcus Stroman left his last start with a left pectoral shoulder cramp, whatever that is. It is a bit of an odd injury for a right-handed pitcher. It seems like it isn’t anything serious but it was the right thing to do to remove him from the game. Even though it isn’t his throwing arm, the Jays didn’t want to take any chances that he could hurt his right arm while compensating for the pain in his left.

I am sure that Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro almost swallowed their tongues when the training staff was called to the mound to check on Stroman. They know he is their biggest trade chip at the deadline and they can’t afford him to be injured. It should also create a sense of urgency to move him in a deal as soon as possible. 

Obviously, interested teams are going to want to see Stroman pitch pain-free again, but it seems unlikely we will see that before the All-Star break. He was scratched from his start on Thursday night as he isn’t quite 100% yet. The next day he pitches, whenever that is before July 31, should be the last game he pitches for Toronto. The risk of him getting injured isn’t worth the reward of another quality start or two after the mid-summer classic in Cleveland. After his next start the Jays should tell teams that he will be moved in the next five days. This way Stroman is a priority and has to be pursued as a “Plan A” solution for other teams. It doesn’t let the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and others wait to see if the Washington Nationals and Cleveland are going to trade aces Max Scherzer and Trevor Bauer, respectively. 

One thing is certain for me, if Stroman doesn’t pitch for the Blue Jays before the All-Star break I would absolutely prohibit him from pitching in the All-Star game. If he can’t pitch on Sunday for the Jays, then he is not ready to pitch on Tuesday. He can’t play in an exhibition game , if he isn’t healthy enough to play in a regular season game. If Stroman is insistent on being allowed to pitch, then I would place him on the injured list which eliminates the possibility at all. The Jays could put him on the IL retroactively to ensure that he is eligible to be activated on the first game back after the All-Star break.

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Guerrero Jr isn’t an All-Star this year but he will be in Cleveland for the event. He was named as a participant in the Home Run Derby. It was an interesting decision by MLB to ask Guerrero to participate, especially because there are 176 hitters in baseball who have more home runs than his total of eight.  Certainly, marketing and name recognition went into the decision. Guerrero Jr was the game’s top prospect heading in to the season and fans everywhere have been waiting for him to arrive in the Majors. But with a $1 million prize going to the winner of the derby, I am sure there are plenty of others who would more entitled to participate.

I love the Home Run Derby. It’s a great even at the All-Star festivities. As a general manager, I wanted stars to participate, just not my stars. I worried about it causing fatigue for the second half of the season. I worried about the participant’s swing changing into an uppercut that could affect performance in regular games. That is what I worried about with a playoff contending team but when it come to a rebuilding franchise like the Jays, they could take all of my players. I would rather the youngsters get the experience of the big stage to help prepare them for the playoffs in three years. 

Guerreo Jr. had a Home Run Derby practice before the game on Tuesday. He launched baseballs into orbit over and over again. And it struck me, that for Guerrero, participating in the derby may actually help his swing. I saw a bit of a different swing from him while practising to hit home runs. The difference was in launch angle. Guerrero is more of a line drive hitter than a prototypical power hitter. He can hit plenty of home runs but he tends to swing level through the baseball. His average launch angle is just 6.7 degrees compared to the Major League average of 12.6 degrees. 

The reason home runs have gone up in baseball is that players now swing to hit the bottom of the baseball to create backspin causing the ball to get elevation and distance. The way they do that is by having higher launch angles in their swing path to the ball. It’s not a surprise that many of the top sluggers have the highest launch angles. Rhys Hoskins, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, leads all hitters with an average launch angle of 24.5 degrees. Former Blue Jay Edwin Encarnacion is third with a 23-degree launch angle. The best player in baseball is Mike Trout and his average launch angle is over 20 degrees. 

So, if the experience of participating in the Home Run Derby changes the young Jays’ third baseman’s swing a bit, it may very well be a good thing and could lead to more overall damage and production. 

Spitting Seeds

- Jays manager Charlie Montoyo has been ejected once in his young managerial career. The Reds rookie manager David Bell has already been ejected six times in his first season as a Major League manager. The all-time record holder for ejections is former Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox with 161. He accumulated those ejections in 29 seasons as a manager (25 years with the Braves, four years with the Blue Jays). At his current pace, Bell will break Cox’s record in the middle of his 14th season. If I was the GM of the Reds, I would tell Bell I hired him to manage the team, not collect fines for ejections. He has made a point to defend his players, now he needs to manage them. 

- The trade deadline this year has changed. There is only one deadline on July 31. There is no longer another trade period in the month of August where deals can be done once waivers have been asked on players.

The singular trade deadline will lead to more July deals being made. Teams realize that they can’t wait to improve themselves later. They have to make their deal in July or be left holding an empty bag. 

Considering that two months will be remaining in the season after July 31, look for teams to build their depth even if it means that they have to make room for acquisitions by sending young players to the minor leagues. No general manager wants to suffer injuries over the final two months of the season and not have adequate replacements in the minor leagues. 

- An amazing story among the All-Stars is that of Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell. In their Spring Training Preview on Pittsburgh, Sports Illustrated asked an anonymous scout who was the most overrated player on the Pirates, here was his answer: 

“Josh Bell can’t play. He’s not a good defender. He’s a big lump. He has bad agility, bad footwork. He can’t run. Supposedly he’s a big power threat, but he hit 12 home runs at first base. This is not a kid! This is his third year in the big leagues! I don’t think he’s got the ability to get better.”

It was a pretty aggressive statement by the scout. And at this point, it has proven to be pretty ignorant.  Bell has a .306/.380/.650 slash line with 25 home runs (T4th) and 78 RBI (1st). He is leading all of baseball in extra base hits as well. He has been a one-man wrecking crew for the Pirates. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer young man. He is smart, thoughtful and classy. He never overreacted to the unnamed scout’s comments. He used it as motivation. He is quietly proving him wrong and establishing himself as one of the most feared sluggers in the game. 

That scout better hope that his organization never finds out who he is, because he will lose his job. And rightfully so. 

-The horrible news of the passing of 27-year-old left-handed pitcher Tyler Skaggs of the Los Angeles Angels on Monday left his teammates and Angels fans in shock. Nothing can prepare an organization for such a tragedy. There is no roadmap for how a general manager is supposed to handle such a loss.  Engaging the players and staff and listening seems like it would be the best approach. The game against the Rangers in Arlington was canceled on Monday and the teams returned to play on Tuesday. It is hard to know what to do next. The natural reaction for the team is to want to go home and be surrounded by loved ones and to offer support to Skaggs’ wife and parents. The healing process will be long and different for everyone. The Angels are on the road through Sunday. That may actually be a good thing because it allows the team to be together and have nearly a full week of processing and connecting with each other to help get through the beginning of the grieving process. 

The reality is that the passing of the young pitcher impacted far more than just his LA teammates. He was originally signed by the Angels then traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks and then after two seasons traded back to the Angels. It is likely that every organization has at least one player who has played with or against Skaggs. They may have a player who played against him in amateur baseball in Southern California or worked out with him then the offseason. Each team has one degree of separation in some way shape or form. I would be checking in with my players, no matter organization I was running, to offer them support, in whatever way they may need it.