Wednesday Bantering: Blue Jays roster thoughts

Since I don’t want to talk about Roberto Osuna, let’s talk about the roster, and things that might happen between now and the end of the season.

Let’s start with guys who are injured:

• Curtis Granderson: Apparently he was running yesterday and he’s about ready to play. I guess that he would DH for a bit before playing outfield, or that’s what I’d do with him. Of course, I like the idea of Alford and Pompey playing as much as possible. They both play good defense and, well, I think it’s time to see what they can do.
• Aledmys Diaz: They told us he was out of the walking boot. They are saying that they will reevaluate him in a week or so. He’ll likely go for a few rehab games at that point. I’d be as happy to keep Gurriel at short anyway.
• Randal Grichuk: It will be close to the end of May before he is ready to play. And I’m expecting the team will send him for ‘rehab’ and keep him in rehab for as long as the rules allow.
• Troy Tulowitzki: Who knows? His 60-days will be up at the end of the month. They say he can start ‘baseball activities’ soon. I don’t know when or if he will be back.
• Steve Peace: On the DL with an oblique strain. I haven’t seen any suggestion of a time table for him to be back. It’s safe to guess he won’t be back this month.

Let’s talk about some other guys at random:

• Devon Travis: Devon is hitting .185/.185/.222 after 6 games in Buffalo. It’s pretty simple, he won’t be back until he starts hitting. It might be awhile.
• Kendrys Morales: Who thought he’d be this bad? Hitting .148/.239/.272 at the moment. Since his 2 home run day, back on May 1, he’s had 1 hit. 1 hit. A single. In 28 at bats. It seems like the 2 home runs made teams underline the ‘DO NOT THROW KENDRYS FASTBALLS’ line in the scouting report. I can understand why. The question of how long the Jays will continue to keep him around if he doesn’t start hitting is an open one. I have been thinking he’d stay with the team until sometime in June, but 1 single in 28 at bats might have the team rethinking that. Of course, the answer might be he’ll be gone when Pearce comes back. Without Pearce, Morales is, nominally, the backup first baseman. Of course, the answer to when they release might be when they call up.....
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr: I thought there was zero chance that he would get called up this year, mostly for reasons of control, would you rather have him at 19 or at 26? But he’s hitting .392/.446/.657. That’s a video game line. The club is saying all the right things about developing him at third base and not being in a rush to get him up. They have to say these things. I don’t see anything wrong with bringing him up to DH. The Blue Jays, at one time, did that with their top prospects. John Olerud, Fred McGriff, Carlos Delgado played DH their first season with the team. The team felt it was a good way to introduce them to the majors and let them just focus on hitting. I still agree with the idea. They can say he has to play third to help his development, but I believe working out at third, while DHing (maybe playing some games at third), with the best coaches in the system helping him, is a good thing. If the best coaches aren’t in Toronto, we are doing things wrong.

I still doubt he’ll be up soon, and, actually, I’d like to see him deal with a slump while in AA ball. I know it is weird, but I’ll like to see him go through a bad stretch, just be see how he deals with it. I think there is little chance he’ll be up before mid-season. But who knows?

• Marcus Stroman: He has a 7.71 ERA. Should he still be in the rotation? It is a number that doesn’t belong in a major league rotation. I don’t know what’s going on with him. His fastball is a tiny be slower (92.2 mph, compared to 93.3). I don’t think that’s a big deal, lots of guys are a little slower early in the season. Aaron Sanchez is averaging 93.4 on his fastball, after 94.9 last year. I don’t think that’s the problem.

I don’t know what’s the problem. I keep looking at his numbers with the bases empty (.247/.333/.312) and with runners on (.351/.402/.597) and wonder if it is small sample noise or if he’s having trouble out of the stretch or if it is just when things start going downhill they continue to go downhill.

Should we send him out? I really don’t think so, I don’t see that we do well unless Marcus does well. I think we just have to ride it out and hope he figures it out. If he doesn’t we aren’t going to win and if he is in the minors we aren’t going to win

• Deck McGuire: If we are going to call up another pitcher, I’d like to look at Deck. I’d like him as long reliever in the pen, or, if we need a starter, I’d like to give him a shot. He’s having a nice start to his season, 3.68 ERA in 4 starts. 22 innings, 15 hits, 11 walks and 23 strikeouts. He went 8 innings in his last start, 2 earned, 6 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. I’m curious to see him and I think we need a long reliever. Jake Petricka isn’t giving us anything we don’t already have in the pen. Sam Gaviglio is pitching well too.

You thoughts?