Mike Wilner has tweeted that John Gibbons has announced the Blue Jays opening day 25-man rosters. No surprises:
Catchers:
J.P. Arencibia
Henry Blanco
Infield:
Edwin Encarnacion
Adam Lind
Emilio Bonifacio
Maicer Izruris
Jose Reyes
Mark DeRosa
Outfield:
Melky Cabrera
Colby Rasmus
Jose Bautista
Rajai Davis
Starting Pitchers:
R.A. Dickey
Brandon Morrow
Mark Buehrle
Josh Johnson
J.A. Happ
Relief Pitchers:
Casey Janssen
Sergio Santos
Darren Oliver
Steve Delabar
Esmil Rogers
Aaron Loup
Brett Cecil
Jeremy Jeffress
Brett Lawrie and Dustin McGowan start the season on the DL, Brett retroactive to March 22.
I don't think there are any big surprises there. I figure Jeffress is likely to sent to the minors when Lawrie is back from the DL, unless he shows something great between now and then.
The two players that, back when spring training started, I didn't think would be on the roster are Aaron Loup and Henry Blanco. I figured Loup was going to lose out because he had options, but he was so great this spring that he jumped past Jeffress and Cecil on the depth charts. It didn't hurt him that Jeffress and Cecil weren't very good this spring.
Blanco, well I still don't like the idea of a 41 year old that hasn't hit since, well, little league. I'd rather have the younger Josh Thole, who is just coming into his prime years. I don't think a handful of spring at bats should change anyone's feelings about who the better player is. But I do see that if Arencibia will be catching Dickey, at least some of the time, I don't mind it as much. If Blanco was going to get 20% of the starts at catcher, I wouldn't be happy, but if he is going to be more like a normal backup catcher, getting 10% of the starts, I can leave with it. And Thole isn't far away if there is an injury. If there was an injury to JP, I'd much rather Thole get most of the playing time.
Anyway, what do you think of our opening day roster? Shall we start planning the parade?