The Eve of Roster Reconstruction
The dominos are starting to fall. Where are the Blue Jays, and who will they be tomorrow?
There’s nothing quite like pulling together your trade deadline “preview” on the day before the auctioneering ends. And moreover, it’s all the more richer for having put it off on that day until after a 20K bike ride and a heat-induced nap.
Still, your fan blogger pal has some notions and whims about what’s about to go down with the Blue Jays’ possible acquisitions. What they should get and why.
And damn it all if I’m not racing a lot harder to get this out than I did on my bike earlier.
Let’s start with a bat. (Now, just hang on…)
Look, of course the Blue Jays need pitching. Every blessed and wretched team in the history of baseball needs more pitching. So we’ll come back to that.
(And seriously, if I had a dime for every time someone replied to a tweet in which I mention acquiring a position player with “But can he pitch?”…well, I’d have some very heavy pockets at least.)
What has bothered me at times with the roster construction of the current Blue Jays are the two spots on the bench that are currently occupied by players with very specific, somewhat arcane roles. Bradley Zimmer is very good at being a late-inning defensive replacement and occasional pinch runner, and Zack Collins is a happy dude who can hang over the railing and wait for some calamity to befall one of the actual big league catchers on the roster.
But can you imagine…if either of them…needed to start?
It’s strange to say this, but having Zimmer and Collins on the roster is an extreme luxury, and one that the Blue Jays likely won’t be able to afford if they are in a competitive battle down the stretch to get into the playoffs.
This became especially clear this past week when both George Springer and Bo Bichette needed to take a day off on the same day. That lineup gets really pretty short very quickly when you’re having Collins DH out of the ninth spot in the order.
Yes, when all is well, there’s a pretty solid one-through-nine that provides the Blue Jays with one of the elite offences in the game. But it doesn’t take many IL stints or maintenance days before you begin asking a lot more of the fewer players in the lineup.
So who do you need, and where and when would they play?
Most obviously, the roster needs some Springer insurance. George is a gamer and a delight, but much as he did last year, he is pushing his way into the lineup when his body isn’t ready to perform as needed. Springer’s winces-per-plate-appearance have shot up like the pain from his elbow shoots up on a daily basis into his arm and up his spine.
At some point…something might just give.
In a pinch, the Jays could roll with Raimel Tapia in centrefield, but how comfortable are you with that eventuality if it is for several weeks in the middle of a pennant chase, or even the playoffs? And moreover, does that elevate Zimmer to being your fourth outfielder, and not just the defensive specialist?
And what about the rest of the roster? The Blue Jays likely have more than enough catchers to get them through the season (depending on what happens with Gabriel Moreno in the next 24 hours), and the DH spot seems to have many candidates on any given day.
But start playing the game of who steps in if such-and-such player goes down, and you find yourself pencilling in Cavan Biggio’s name in an awful lot of places to compensate.
Imagine losing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for any amount of time. You probably assume Biggio slides over to first. But then, who is your backup at third or second? And if you lost Vlad AND Matt Chapman for a few days, you’re moving Biggio to second so Santiago Espinal can go to third, but who has first? Lourdes? Which moves Tapia up again, and now we’re one overenthusiastic wave of hello from Springer away from Zimmer being a starter.
And never mind the minors, because the next three position players available to the Jays at the moment are Otto Lopez, Vinny Capra, and Leo Jimenez, who seems like a swell player for the Northwest League, but isn’t ready to the biggest big league games of the year.
Maybe you shouldn’t plan for the worst when managing your roster into the most meaningful part of the schedule. Maybe this has been a really long-winded way of saying “Go get Ian Happ!”
Regardless, as Ross Atkins finds either major or marginal talent to fill out some of the lumpier parts of the bullpen and rotation, he should have his eye out for one more bat.
Preferably left-handed. With some versatility.
Then how about…?
Mike Yastrzemski. If the San Francisco Giants start to pull their team apart, the Jays could use an outfielder who bats left, can play centrefield or either corner, can come off the bench or play every day, and as a fine bonus, he has a few years of control remaining.
Sure, that’s a reason for the Giants to keep him, but if they decided to not go down the road of multiple arbitration processes with a soon-to-be 32 year-old, you could maybe find a way to pry him loose.
And if Carlos Rodon comes with him, so much the better.
A modest proposal for the back of the rotation
While we’re thinking ahead, and making some assumption that there is a significant starting pitcher to be added to the roster, it raises the question of what happens at the back of the current rotation.
Ross Stripling has done more than we deserve to ask of him since Hyun-jin Ryu went down for the season. But he’s also shown some wear as teams get some additional looks at his crafty repertoire.
Meanwhile, Yusei Kikuchi remains enigmatic, and it’s almost impossible from one start to the next to have any expectation of what you may get from him.
Should the Jays add some extra pitching in both the rotation and the bullpen, a possible solution for how to handle these two pitchers is to allow them to work as a scheduled tandem.
You can give them the benefit of scheduling themselves to be ready, and maintaining a routine, while maybe asking for just three-to-four innings from each.
If one pitcher matches up better against an opponent, you let him go first, with the other ready to tag in when needed. If one blows up early, you’ve still got the benefit of a guy who can give you length ready and prepared to go.
Now, such a scheme assumes there is another pitcher in the Jays’ bullpen who can go multiple innings on any of the other four days. And a disaster day for any of the other starters could blow this plan out of the water, although maybe you have Max Castillo ready to jump in if necessary.
It’s a thought. At least a notion. No worse than a whim.
Other stories from Uncle Tao
It’s a good week old by now, but I think that most of my most recent piece at Sportsnet still stands up.
The Blue Jays are about to 16 of their next 22 games on the road, mostly against tough opponents, so this thought might resonate:
It’ll be messy at times. There will be frustration and bad days along the way. But all of that only serves to build the tension, raise the stakes, and make the push towards the post-season that much more impassioned and memorable.
A final thought
We’re under 24 hours from the trade deadline as I’m about to hit send on this, so in the inimitable words of Samuel L. Jackson in the best Jurassic Park movie: Hold onto your butts.