On Devon Travis

I thought I’d put out the question: What do you think Devon Travis’ future is with the Blue Jays?

I’ll admit am slow to come around to the idea that he might not be our second basemen for the future. Back when he was first up with the Jays, he seemed to be the kind who could hit .300 without trying. Nice line drive swing, maybe not a lot of homers, but good doubles power. Maybe he didn’t control the strikezone, but he would take enough walks to keep the pitchers honest.

And defensively, he was good enough. Turned the double play quick. Maybe stood in there too long occasionally. Maybe it would have been better for him to come up a couple of years later, after the league made rules against taking out the 2B on the slide at second.

Three years later, Travis doesn’t seem to have the same ability to ‘fall out of bed and hit .300’. I don’t know if it is all the injuries. I don’t buy the idea that he was having trouble getting into a groove because of the 2 days on. 1 day off thing. I think excuses are just excuses. If you want to play more hit better. Add in that his ‘doesn’t control the strikezone’ has downgraded to ‘almost never walks’ and he doesn’t look like a future star anymore.

Add in his defense, maybe because of the injures, maybe because he isn’t hitting and we focus on it more, doesn’t look as good as it did two years ago. His defensive a seems to have downgraded from averageish to below average.

The bottom line is he has to start hitting or we have to start looking for a different second baseman.

If/when Josh Donaldson returns, I’d think you would have to move Yangervis Solarte to second as the ‘everyday second baseman’.

As it is, I’d rather give Lourdes Gurriel Jr. a good long look at the spot. He looks to have the range to play second. And there is enough power there that he might end up being a very good piece in the batting order.

Devon is in a tough spot. There is a wave of middle infielders on their way up the system. If Devon is going to be our second baseman in the future, he’s going to have establish himself in the spot now. And it isn’t happening.

If he doesn’t establish himself at second, I don’t know what the Jays can do with him. He doesn’t have much trade value. If Donaldson returns from the DL, if nothing changes, I’d don’t know that Travis wouldn’t be the one going down to make room for him.

I also don’t know if Travis is really 100% healthy. Knee problems can linger. I don’t like to call players injury prone, there have been many players to start their career with injury troubles who have gone on to have a long good career, but he’s going to have to prove he can stay healthy (not that that really matters unless he shows he can hit well enough to hold a spot in the lineup).

Anyway, I thought I’d ask, what you think will happen with Travis over the next couple of years?