Over at Drunk Jays Fans a reader named Scott commented on an article pertaining to AA's comments on the battle for left field by suggesting the following: (http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2012/03/14/anthopoulos-speaks-part-two-eric-thames/#comments)

"I don’t understand why they can’t play Thames, Snider, Lind and Encarnacion equally across the 3 spots (LF/DH/1B). That’s 120 games each. We all know the 3 starters aren’t going to play 160 games each so why not spread those 3 spots among 4 players? Snider plays 75% of the LF starts. Thames picks up the remaining 25% of LF and splits DH 50/50 with Encarnacion. Lind plays 75% of the 1B starts (including all the righties) and EE picks up the remaining 25% of 1B starts to combine with his DH duties. Everybody wins. If a couple months into the season someone is struggling badly you adjust the playing time or send someone down. There’s more than enough at bats to go around. This is also a form of preventative maintenance as all of these players minus Thames have suffered through injuries in recent years."

I think this can only help Lind's numbers as he showed glimpses of his formal self at the start of last season but seamed to wear down and be fighting injuries throughout the season. I feel like Lind is worth another half year of patience. In fact all four players have had injury problems over the course of there young careers. I would also argue that they have all shown enough potential to be starters on a contending team, but enough inconsistency or weaknesses to warrant playing 75% of the time. It also leaves the Jays with a pretty potent Pinch Hitter for late in the games. Snider could also relieve Bautista and Rasmus occasionally pushing his totals up closer to 500ABs. Let them each collect around 480 ABs over the course of the season but give each of them the rest necessary to stay healthy.

On the other hand I'm not sure if Thames is a long term option if he doesn't improve especially his patience and so more seasoning in Triple A might not be the worst option either. The Jays could send him down for one more year with Lawrie-like instruction to take more walks and give Snider an extended look.