Corey Patterson Added to Jays 40-Man Roster

Corey Patterson has been put on our 40-man roster, which pretty much means he's made the team. There would be no reason to add him to the 40-man if he wasn't going to make the team.

Apparently he is showing no sign of a concussion a day after being hit in the head with a Daniel Bard fastball. 

Patterson hasn't set the world on fire this spring, he is hitting just .220/.235/.300 in 50 spring at bats, but he can play good defense in all three outfield spots. With Scott Posednik's foot troubles he really didn't have much for competition for the fourth outfielder spot.

Corey had one of his best seasons at the plate last year for the Orioles, hitting .269/.315/.406 in 308 at bats so we really shouldn't expect too much from him but, a lefty batter, he has hit RHP a little better (.259/.300/.417) than LHP (.235/.267/.366) in his career so he could spell an outfield occasionally when we are facing a right hander. I'm not sure what will happen to him when/if Posednik is able to play. 

So right now our bench looks like Patterson, Jose Molina, John McDonald and someone, likely Mike McCoy who has been hitting this spring, .310/.367/.452, he has speed and he dropped two very nice squeeze bunts in consecutive games I saw. Unless the team decides to go with 8 relievers. I can't see that, I don't think there would be enough work for 8 guys in the pen, but if they want to keep David Purcey, I don't know that John Farrell would have that much faith in him. 

I'll admit to not being a big fan of Patterson's but as a fourth outfield he does have a lot of positives. Lefty bat, some power, good defense and good speed. He has stolen 205 bases in his MLB career and has been caught just 55 times.