One year ago today the Jays made two moves that really didn't help:
- They traded cash to the Indians for Jayson Nix. I don't know how much cash it was, but the Indians got the better end of that deal. Jayson hit .169/.245/.309 in 136 at bats for us, before being sent down to Vegas. If you had any doubts that LV was heaven for hitters, Nix hit .270/.341/.515 there.
- And, on the same day, they announced that Jose Bautista would be playing RF, after spending all camp at 3B. Juan Rivera would play DH, after spending the spring standing in RF. And Edwin Encarnacion would play third after spending his time in camp DHing with the odd start at first base.
Some hack writer said:
Farrell said he is basing it on Edwin coming to camp down 14 pounds and being more agile than last year. Personally I think he is basing it on Rivera having the range of a garden gnome. As well Jose didn't look great at third in the few games I saw this spring. He doesn't make many errors but he doesn't cover a great deal of ground.
I think telling Bautista he is our right fielder for the next several years is a good idea. But the timing is wrong. Doing it at the end of spring training after playing him at third all this time, it just seems like the wrong time to do it. I guess if you think it is the right move you should do it, but it would have been better to give EE and Jose the whole spring to work at their positions.
Didn't it all work out so wonderfully? EE made roughly 27 errors in a week or so as the third baseman. Jayson Nix took over the job and, after having a good first few games, proceeded to be Jayson Nix for the next couple of months. Then they moved Bautista back to third for a bit more than a month, before Brett Lawrie finally took the spot. Brett got injured and the merry-go-round turned all the way back to Edwin.