Dalton Pompey deserves a chance to make the postseason roster

Dalton Pompey began the 2015 Blue Jays campaign as the starting centre fielder and quickly played himself out of a job. After one month, the likeable Canadian had worn out his welcome with bad at-bats and some poor defensive miscues. He was swiftly cast away with fellow rookies Miguel Castro and Daniel Norris in the early May purge of young guys who were given massive responsibility and failed to live up to the massive expectations. After a month in Buffalo, Pompey was demoted again to New Hampshire to get the young player away from the bright lights and "Canada" as Alex Anthopoulos put it. Once there he finally kicked it into gear playing against lower competition and had a .405 OBP in 31 games. Again after just a month he was moved, in this case back to Triple-A Buffalo and a step closer to a return to Toronto.

This time he really didn't mess around. An 11-game hit streak announced his reemergence as the top prospect that everyone in the Toronto organization had hoped for and it looked like the Mississauga native would reclaim his major league roster spot in no time. Unfortunately for him, the Blue Jays made some moves in July including the addition of Ben Revere that made the urgency to bring Pompey back up all but disappear. No longer were Danny Valencia and Chris Colabello making a mockery of the Rogers Centre left field, which was good news for the Blue Jays and bad news for young Pompey.

When the squad took off on their crazy August run, Pompey looked to adopt the right mindset:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Think BIG picture.</p>&mdash; Dalton Pompey (@DaltonPompey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaltonPompey/status/630786894465339392">August 10, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The picture has become a bit clearer now thankfully as September has rolled around and rosters are expanding, opening the door for a long-awaited return:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Christmas came early!</p>&mdash; Dalton Pompey (@DaltonPompey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaltonPompey/status/638561289275490304">September 1, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For a man that hit .327 with an OBP of .414 in his last stint with Buffalo (42 games), the promotion is well-deserved and would have come a lot earlier if not for the Blue Jays deadline moves. Now the challenge for John Gibbons becomes getting Pompey into games without disrupting the rhythm of a surging ball club. The unfortunate truth is that Kevin Pillar has cooled off a lot since his early summer breakout and a hot-hitting Pompey could easily supplant the fan favourite within the next few weeks. In addition, Ezequiel Carrera has never found much of a permanent place on the roster and could find himself off of it completely by October.

With the postseason only five weeks away, the Blue Jays have a task they haven't had to worry about for the last two decades! Finding out the best 25 players to put on the playoff roster. In the midst of a division race, the time to work on that task is unfortunately now. While every Blue Jays fan (not the post-trade deadline Blue Jays fan mind you) is pushing the sexy idea of Roemon Fields making the playoff roster as Toronto's version of Terrance Gore, it seems much more efficient to use that roster spot on Dalton Pompey if he isn't going to be the one starting in the outfield. That way, the team doesn't have their hands tied by a player who should never appear at the plate in Fields, but there's still a presence of speed on the roster. Pompey is 25 out of 35 on stolen base attempts this year after all.  To quell any further speculation on the topic, Pompey can still be added to the playoff roster despite missing the August 31 deadline because of the option to "replace" the injured Maicer Izturis who is on the 60-day DL.

With such excitement surrounding the Blue Jays as of late, it's easy to throw caution to the wind and just ride with the roster that's currently getting it done. Thankfully we know Alex Anthopoulos won't fall prey to the hype and will continue to work on ways to better his team. Based on where things stand now, it'd be hard to not give Dalton Pompey a few starts over the course of the coming weeks to see if he's more prepared for the major league environment than he was when he made the team out of spring training. With five bench spots likely up for grabs in the playoffs, it's hard not to back the Canadian outfielder for one of them. What a wonderful problem to have.