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The Blue Jays made a couple of cuts this morning, sending Wilton Lopez and Ramon Santiago to the minor league camp. Santiago has the broken collarbone, so it will be awhile before he plays, moving him is to save money. Lopez was supposed to make the team but he's looked terrible in his few spring outings.
Gibby is making it pretty clear that Josh Thole is going to be catching R.A. Dickey. As much as I hate it, I've decided to roll with it. The Jays are going to keep this idea that the only person on earth that can catch Dickey is Thole and we should forget the idea of anyone else ever doing it.
If they are going that way, Alex has to trade Dioner Navarro. I don't care what comes back, but we can't go into the season with three catchers. The idea of Navarro DHing only works if Edwin plays first and Edwin only plays first if his back is 100%. I can't see taking chances with Edwin health for the sake of having Dioner in the lineup.
Also Brendan Kennedy had this:
Gibby said ideally he takes 7-man bullpen north, but given options etc in 'pen + early off-days he may shortchange bench in April to take 8.
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) March 21, 2015
If they go with 3 catchers and 8 relievers, someone deserves to be fired. And Kennedy had this:
With service time a hot topic in MLB, Gibby said it's not a concern for #bluejays with regard to young relief hopefuls Castro & Osuna.
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) March 21, 2015
I think that Gibby and Alex know that if they don't win they won't be around long, so don't worry about service time. I've given into the idea of Castro making the team, as long as they give him enough innings. But Osuna....he better be in the minors, starting games.
It looks like Izturis won't be going north with the team. I think Devon Travis was going to get the second base job anyway. I'm guessing that Goins gets the utility role. Perhaps the Jays were already leaning that way. I don't think they were happy with Izturis range in the infield.
A couple of links:
The LA Times has a little bit that states to suggest that the Jays trip to Montreal, will continue to be an annual thing (as long as the Jays can continue to find teams that will play them there. The Dodgers have been asked to be out opponent next year.
The Dodgers might take another spring trip next season, and they are considering invitations from cities outside Arizona — most notably Montreal, where Jackie Robinson played for what was then the Dodgers' top farm team, the Montreal Royals. However, the Dodgers would be unlikely to participate in the annual Montreal exhibition games as long as they remain on the final weekend before the start of the regular season.
The Dodgers prefer to close their spring with the traditional Freeway Series games against the Angels, and they would be reluctant to fly from Arizona to Montreal and then back to the West Coast to start the season.
I doubt the Dodgers would go for it, but they do have a link to Montreal.
And Ken Rosenthal asks the question that has been in the back of all of our minds, is the crappy Blue Jays spring training facilities causing injuries. He talks about Saunders' run in with the sprinkler, the sort of thing that shouldn't happen and mentioned the Stroman injury.
Two sources described the turf as being in less-than-ideal condition. However, most with the team believe Stroman's injury was flukish and not attributable to the surface.
I think the Jays need to renovate their Dunedin spring home. We can't have players getting hurt.