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Blue Jays roster news

Miguel Castro
Miguel Castro
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Anthopoulos and John Gibbons gave some hints on how the they are leaning as far of the roster.

  • Alex stated that Aaron Sanchez will start.
  • Daniel Norris and Marco Estrada are still competing for the last rotation spot.
  • Gibby said that Miguel Castro will make the team until he gets injured, seemingly daring the baseball gods Not a good idea in my view.
  • Gibby says he prefers Edwin Encarnacion at first and Dioner Navarro at DH, at the moment. I really think that Navarro will be traded, the Jays do need another good arm, or two, for the bullpen. And having Edwin at 1B seems to be asking for more back problems. I don't see that Navarro is a good enough bat to do anything that might cause extra risk of an injury to Edwin.
  • Alex said that they might look 'outside the organization' for a first baseman, perhaps trying to light a fire under Justin Smoak.
  • Gibby seemed to suggest that Russell Martin won't be catching R.A. Dickey, which bugs me. It looks like they are thinking of going with 3 catchers on the active roster.
  • Adding to the roster troubles, Alex hinted that they might go with an 8-man bullpen, at least to start the season, if Michael Saunders is on the DL. It still sounds like Alex is afraid to lose someone that is out of options. I don't see worrying about losing Kyle Drabek. If we have 13 pitchers and 3 catchers....there isn't much room for spare parts.
  • Gibby said that Devon Travis has a good chance of making the team, that if Travis wins the second base job, then they don't need a platoon partner. I wonder if there is a chance that Maicer Izturis doesn't make the team.
  • Gibby has said some things about hoping Ryan Goins has figured out how to hit.
  • Joe Siddall talked to Jeff Blair this morning, saying that Martin can't catch Dickey, that he doesn't like how Steve Delabar looks (other than he has his velocity back) and that Justin Smoak has looked terrible at the plate. That last one I'll agree with. Beyond not hitting, Smoak just hasn't seemed to have a good swing yet this spring. But I'd be waiting until the last week to decide if he's not making the team.

It bugs me that Siddall and so many of the Jays media (and Gibby) seem to think that no one other than Josh Thole can possibly catch RA. Many catchers have caught the knuckleball before, giving up a roster spot for a guy that really can only catch Dickey is a waste of one of the 25 spots.It seems that if any ball gets past Martin it is a message that Martin can't catch Dickey, but knuckleballs get past Thole too, but when that happens, they just shrug it off.

Halfway through camp and we still have way too many question marks.  I hate the idea of using a handful of spring at bats and innings pitched to choose so many roster spots.