Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Dalton Pompey

A bad month can change your whole life.

Spring of 2015, Dalton Pompey was the hot prospect. He won the center field job out of spring training. It looked like he was about to start his MLB career. Then the season started and he had a bad month.

Well, it was more than bad. He hit .203/.276/.354. And he was taking his offensive problems into the outfield with him. It wasn’t good.

Meanwhile, Kevin Pillar was hitting and, better than that, catching everything that came anywhere near him. Pillar hit .273/.297/.398 that month and soon had Pompey’s job.

Timing is everything in life. In May Pillar hit .181/.237/.257. Of course, he was still making great catches in the field, but, had he hit like that in April, who knows how things might have turned out.

Anyway, since then, Pompey has been in the minors, minus September call ups to pinch run and steal bases. In 2015 he hit .307/.383/.421 splitting time between New Hampshire and Buffalo. Last year was a down year. He had some injury troubles, including a concussion. It took him a long time to recover from the concussion.

I figured, or maybe just hoped, that this was going to be his year. I’m not a big Ezequiel Carrera fan. I figure Pompey’s floor is about the best we can hope for from Ezequiel, but Pompey’s defense is better. I kind of like the idea of having a real base stealing threat. He seems like the sort of guy we are supposed to be wanting, athletic, exciting, younger, but the Jays don’t seem that excited about him.

Anyway, any chance of him making the team ended with the bad slide, stealing second, in the WBC game. I hope he recovers quickly, but a second concussion in a year is not good.

PECOTA predicts a .262/.336/.404 (which would be better numbers than they predict for Ezequiel) in 192 at bats. ZiPS isn’t as hopeful, .232/.299/.345 but that’s in 497 at bats. I’ll take the under in at bats.

Presuming the Jays send him down to Buffalo (and not just on an injury rehab), this would be his last option year. I’d love him to get a good long look, but I doubt he will get that. Right now, he’s got to get healthy, he has to show he’s healthy and then wait for his chance.

He’s 24. I still think he can have an MLB career, but I think time is running out for that career being with the Blue Jays.