What to do with Adam Lind?

We are into May and Adam Lind is hitting .193/.280/.301 with one home run and 7 RBI. Not numbers you want to see from you cleanup hitter, or anyone else in the lineup for that matter. He has had, perhaps, a little bit of bad luck, he's got a .227 BABIP and yet is hitting an ok amount of line drives, 19.7%. So he's had a little bad luck, but not all that much really. For the most part he is just not hitting.

He is taking some walks, 3rd on the team with 10, behind Jose and Kelly. And his defense has been good. Those would be points in his favor if was hitting ok.

The Jays owe him $5 million this year and next year, after that he has club options, it is going to cost us $2 million when we don't pick up his 2014 option, and we aren't. I can see anyway he'll convince the Jays that they should pick up his option for 2014. I understand they had to play him, at least to start this season, because he was owed $12 million. You have to see if we could get any value for that money. But I don't understand why he had to be the cleanup hitter going into this season, or, even if you felt he had to bat clean up to start the year, I really can't see why you would think he has to be there more than a month into the season. I think Adam has shown us all that the last two seasons weren't the outliers.

What can you do with him?

First he has to come out of the 4 spot. I get that Farrell likes having a lefty between Jose and Edwin. I like the idea too, if the left could hit some. If the guy in the middle isn't hitting, I'd rather have the two right-handers back-to-back If you want a left there, maybe try Rasmus or Thames. Neither are hitting great but both are doing better than Lind. If you think you have to play Adam, move him to the back of the lineup.

It goes without saying that Adam should never face a southpaw, unless the game has already been decided. Adam is hitting .136/.174/.136 against LHP, small sample size and all, but not being able to hit lefties isn't anything new.

In the long run, I'd think you'd want to move Bautista to first, and have Snider play right. Jose's range isn't what you'd like in RF and, I think, he'd be happy in a position where he is more into the game, I think it would suit his personality. That should be the long range plan, but I don't see them doing that mid-season. It seems like a lot of disruption to the team. I'd rather go into next spring telling Jose that this is the plan and give him spring to get used to the spot. I mean, you could play him at first occasionally this year, like we did with Lind a couple of years back. Playing him everyday? I'd rather get him ready for that properly. There is no way I'd just tell Jose he is moving, mid-season. If he said he was willing, that's a different thing, but if he expressed any hesitation I'd leave him.

For this year, I'd like to see them bring up Travis Snider and move Thames to DH, have Edwin play first, at least most of the time. I know Thames bat doesn't play at DH but it is closer to playing there than Lind's bat is playing at first. It would improve us offensively, figuring that Snider can't hit any worse than Adam. It improves our outfield defense. EE likely isn't as good defensively as Adam, but I don't think the difference would cost us a game.

We could call up David Cooper, but I don't think he would hit as well has Travis would.

What would we do with Lind? Trade him? I can't see it. No one is looking for a .193 hitting first baseman. Maybe I guess, Vernon's trade should teach me to never say never, but then Wells was coming off a pretty good year. Lind isn't. I'm thinking they Jays are going to have to just release Lind. If they did, I'd think someone would pick him up because he wouldn't cost anything. Either way, trade or release, we'll have to play most of the almost $12 million owed him.

Anyway, let's have a poll.....