So, having spent the last half hour unsuccessfully trying to get MLB.Com’s “free” spring training audio to work, I’ve given up on listening to the game, and resigned myself to following it ever so slo-o-o-wly on the Gameday feature, as Ryan Borucki quickly goes down 3-zip on three unearned runs to the Red Sox in Fort Myers.
Being stuck with Gameday is just so 2015!
This, however, gives me time to think about this past very strange offseason, spring training so far, and the season to come. It’s a perfect time for a prelude to “Baseball’s Back!”
Though it’s not yet officially spring, it sort of feels like it in Toronto, and it certainly looks like it, as we’ve had far more sun so far this month than you’d ever expect in March. And whatever snow we’ve had has quickly disappeared. One advantage of being retired is that if you’re not going to drive your car until ten in the morning at this time of year, the sun has already cleared your windshield for you.
There’s always such optimism in the air in the last few weeks before the season starts.
Like the cheerful woman with the Slavic accent, A___, who works at the pharmacy counter at our local Costco.
September before last, just when the Jays were driving toward their fateful one-game encounter with the Orioles in the AL Wild Card game (oh Edwin, where art thou?) I was picking up a prescription and noticed that A___ was wearing a faded Blue Jay t-shirt under her Costco jacket.
When I commented favourably on her attire, I quickly learned that, though she was a little hazy on the details of the game, the Jays were very much her team, and she was no less eager than me to hear that the Boys in Blue had pulled out another tight one.
So it goes with baseball fandom. Cheerful attentiveness to the daily ups and downs of your favourite team is all it takes to qualify as a member of the legion of Blue Jays’ fans around Toronto, Canada, and even the world.
A___ served me again at the pharmacy counter this morning, armed with her usual friendly smile. At the end of our transaction, as I was leaving the counter, I turned back to her and said, “only two weeks more to wait!” She knew exactly what I meant. That’s why I love being a baseball fan.
It really was a strange off-season, wasn’t it? Usually through the winter I’d check in to the main web sites each morning with some expectation that there might be a bit of tantalizing news to ponder, sometimes even involving the Blue Jays. But not this winter. Day after day, site after site, I checked, and checked, and there was nothing, or nearly nothing.
Okay, even last season you could see that the days of big contracts for station-to-station sluggers had come to an end. So waiting so long to see J. D. Martinez come off the table made sense. And no one can be surprised that Jose Bautista remains unsigned, apparently unwilling to accept any one-year at a million deals. But premium relief pitchers like Wade Davis not signing until the end of the year, and fine two-way players like Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain having to wait until spring training started to find new situations?
Conspiracy theorists have been quick to accuse the goombahs of MLB ownership of collusion to end the free-agent “madness”. In this case, I’m with the conspiracy theorists. Who’da thunk it, that there would be enough unsigned free agents to start a players’ union spring training camp for them?
The lack of free agent signings wasn’t the only thing that was rotten in the state of baseball. As Tony Clarke, the head of the players’ association, has been vociferously pointing out, there are an awful lot of teams out there who, under the guise of “rebuilding”, have been dumping salary—and stars—in trades for future prospects to the point where they have stripped down possibly competitive teams to put the cheapest possible product on the field this year.
And how would you feel if you were a fan in Miami, Pittsburgh, Oakland, or Tampa Bay, realizing that your team has dumped itself out of the running before Opening Day, without so much as a by-your-leave?
I’m still waiting for someone to point out that the team that handed out the biggest prize in the sell-a-star-a-thon, the Miami Marlins, who traded the awesome Giancarlo Stanton for the ordinary Starlin Castro and a couple of unproven kids to the New York Yankees, where he will join the awesome Aaron Judge in an unbelievable one-two punch, is run by none other than former Yankee icon Derek Jeter, who just happened thereby to shovel a bit of baseball gold over to his former team. Remember the days of the Kansas City A’s being the Yankees’ farm team? Here we go again.
It was an equally strange off-season for our beloved Blue Jays. Though I suppose it was inevitable, given the fragility of Troy Tulowitzki, that the Jays would have to strengthen their backup infielding crew, I was yet profoundly saddened to witness the departure of Ryan Goins, the best Toronto shortstop that never, or almost, was.
It’s always more fun to watch players you know, and both Darwin Barney and Goins, in particular, despite his lack of starter status, were very much parts of the inner, younger core of the team. Goins’ contributions to the two playoff runs were legend, from sparkling plays in the field to clutch hits, even to contributing a brilliant inning of pitching in the (in)famous 19-inning Toronto-Cleveland marathon on Canada Day, 2016.
Most fans will remember the curve balls that Goins snapped off to work his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the eighteenth inning. What many of us have forgotten is that he threw his arm out with those 19 pitches and spent a month on the DL recovering from it, making real the idea of taking one for the team.
But baseball is a harsh business, as we’ve already seen, and we have to face the fact that being a familiar face and contributing to the team’s success carry no guarantee that a player will remain a fixture on a particular team. Witness the fact that according to MLB.Com the second best play of 2017 was awarded to then-Jay Chris Coghlan, for diving over a shocked Yadier Molina to change a DOA at the plate into the lead run for Toronto over the Cards back on July 25th last year.
But Coghlan was released by the Jays on August 12th, and currently resides in the unsigned limbo that so many players find themselves this spring. Yet every time they show the plays of the year, there he is, launching himself over Molina for his team. Even when you call up his player page on MLB.Com, there he is, in a banner photo, a Blue Jay soaring over Molina, fearless but untouched. It wasn’t enough, however, and so Coghlan waits, unsigned. It is a harsh business indeed.
As for Goins and Barney, Ryan has been signed by the Royals and is in their major league camp, and Barney is in the same situation with the Rangers. (Incidentally, Mr. “He’ll never hit” Goins is currently 12 for 31 with 6 ribbies for the Royals in spring training.) Each, then, carries into 2018 the chance to shine once again, and wouldn’t it be karma for them to do it against their former team?
What started as a quiet winter for our Blue Jays seems to have worked out well, and it is unquestionable that the team at this point looks considerably stronger than the 2017 version.
In the outfield, Kevin Pillar will be able to tend to his knitting in centre field, without having to compensate for the defensive deficiencies of Bautista and Steve Pearce. The arrival of the young, athletic Randal Grichuk from the Cards to patrol right is a definite plus, though it will take some time for the fans to forget the beloved Bautista. And the new left-handed platoon option for left field, Curtis Granderson, brings a veteran head and a wealth of experience. Not only that, but he has played far younger than his 37 years this spring, and when he is in left the Toronto outfield will get to more balls than it has in years.
Pearce still represents a deficit in the field, but if he’s healthy his offense will make up for a lot of minor deficiencies on defence. And should he go down again (he’s already missed time in the spring), the next up alternatives, Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Alford, both of whom have hammered the ball so far in Florida, ain’t too shabby as replacements., though Alford has just come a-cropper with a hamstring injury. In fact, if Pearce does suffer anything that gives him significant time on the DL, I wouldn’t bet on him holding on to his starting status on his return.
The infield was clearly the top priority for Toronto’s management this past winter. The obvious fragility of both Tulo and Devon Travis, and even the growing fragility of Josh Donaldson, meant that Toronto could not go into 2018 without having some serious reinforcements. Rather than dipping into the free agent pool, Toronto dealt off prospects, and not significant ones, to the Cardinals (again) for Aledmys Diaz, and to the Padres for Yangervis Solarte. Danny Espinosa, a recent free agent signing after being released by the Yankees, cost nothing.
My favourite acquisition, though not really a candidate for anything other than competing with Espinosa for the final spot on the roster, is the young South African Gift Ngoepe, who came from the Pirates for the proverbial player to be named later and some cash.
With Tulowitzki possibly headed for the 60-day disabled list, and manager John Gibbons committed to controlling Travis’ playing time, the four acquisitions should serve the team well. Diaz is already the presumed starter at short, and if he should return to his All-Star proficiency of 2016, who will notice Tulo’s absence? Solarte is most likely to be used to spell off Travis and Donaldson, as he’s not a great fit at shortstop, according to Gregor Chisolm’s recent commentary.
I’m hoping that the team decides to carry seven relievers, because that could open a spot for Ngoepe as the insurance infielder. He’s clearly got a slick glove and a good arm, though he doesn’t have the at-bats yet at higher levels to be able to assess how well he will hit.
Regardless of whether he breaks camp with the team, Ngoepe is one of the great good news stories of the globalization of MLB. He and his younger brother Victor, who was also signed by the Pirates and remains in their minor league system, are the first players from South Africa to be signed by a professional baseball team.
Their origin is the stuff of legend. Their mother was the clubhouse attendant for the Randburg Mets, a professional men’s baseball team in South Africa, and part of her compensation for her work was that she and her two sons were allowed to live in the team clubhouse, so the boys literally grew up in a ballpark. Gift eventually played for Randberg, and then was signed out of an international camp in Italy by the Pirates.
Ngoepe has received a lot of playing time with the Jays this spring, and from his comments John Gibbons appears to be a fan. As Ryan Goins’ career has shown, there is often significant playing time available for a great glove who can occasionally contribute at the plate. Nothing against Espinosa, who went 4 for 4 in his first game with Toronto, but I can only hope that Ngoepe’s good-news story continues.
The catching appears set, with Russell Martin backed up by an oft-criticized Luke Maile, whom many of the chatterers knock for a weak bat. These woud be the same people who dismissed Goins as a weak bat. But a second catcher’s first job is to be a good catcher with experience. If he hits much at all, which I think Maile will do if given enough plate appearances, it’s a bonus. Deep insurance for the catching is provided by the rapid development of prospects Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire, and, going a little deeper, Max Pentecost.
The relief corps was considered solid enough, with slots allocated to Roberto Osuna, Ryan Tepera, Danny Barnes, and Aaron Loup, and a number of impressive Young Turks like Tim Mayza, Matt Dermody, Luis Santos, and Carlos Ramirez in the mix, that the team felt confident in dealing Dominic Leone, after his breakout 2017, to St. Louis for Grichuk. Since that deal, the acquisition of solid veterans Seung Hwan Oh, Tyler Clippard, and the surprisingly resurgent Canuck John Axford, has made it likely that the four youngsters will be allowed to mature in Triple A without being pressed to deliver at the major league level.
Remembering that the weak-hitting Torontos made hash of Jaime Garcia late last season when he came over to the Yankees, I wasn’t immediately impressed with his signing by the Jays. But taking the longer view, picking up a veteran lefty with a career ERA of 3.69, a guy who was mentioned in trade-deadline talks for the last several seasons, to be the number five in the rotation isn’t much of a gamble as long as he stays healthy and gives them a reasonable number of quality starts. With Marcus Stroman, a so-far healthy Aaron Sanchez, J. Happ and Marco Estrada ahead of Garcia, the Toronto rotation would rank, one to five, among the best in the league, if not in both leagues.
That leaves the open book of Joe Biagini to consider. The team has definitely worked him as a starter this spring, and he clearly stands in as the first into the rotation if one of the first five falters. He could see some early work if Stroman’s minor injury is slow to heal. If not, he’s headed to Buffalo to settle into the starter’s routine the team thinks he’s more suited to.
So, what have we got, with two weeks to go until Opening Day? Solid pitching, both starters and bullpen. Good defensive catching, and as much pop as an aging Martin and an under-achieving Maile can provide. Competent, if not slick infield defense, a little rougher with Travis at second, but a little weaker at the plate with Travis on the bench. Slick fielding, occasional pop and perhaps decent contact in the outfield. Major-league quality reserves behind the starting eight.
Is it enough in the wild west of the AL East? Depends on the Yankees’ rotation, and how Boston performs under new manager Joey Cora. If the east fills both wild card slots, one of them should be Toronto, in my book. If you make the wild card, it’s a crap shoot from there, and who knows?
Let the games begin. Let’s go, Blue Jays!
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