Whose slow start worries you most?

Almost all our Blue Jays hitters have gotten off to a terrible start. I was trying to figure out which of them I’m truly worried about, and which I’m thinking ‘players have slumps, the slump will end’.

We only have two hitters who are hitting well, who are hitting better than we would expect: Freddy Galvis, who has been just super with the bat, hitting .333/.381/.641 with 3 home runs (tied with the team lead, who though that might happen). And Richard Urena, hitting .350/.381/.500, in just 20 at bats, but I’ll take the good where I can get it. I’ve always been a fan of Urena, I think he could have a good MLB career.

Guys not hitting:

• Danny Jansen: .156/.206/.188. On the plus side he’s striking out only 20.6% of the time. I’m not terribly worried about Jansen, he has a lot going on with his defense and working with all the pitchers. He’s thrown out 40% of base stealers. Some pitches have gotten past him that likely shouldn’t have, but that’s going to happen, and he seems to be working at it. So with all the other stuff going on, I can understand the slow start with the bat. And he’s making contact. I’d like to see a little hard contact but I’m thinking it will come. I do worry that he’s only had a couple of walks.
• Justin Smoak: .200/.294/.333. 1 home run. 26.5% strikeout rate. I would have loved Smoak to get off to a great start to help his trade value, but that doesn’t seem to be his way. Dealing with a neck problem isn’t fun. I wish we still had the shorter minimum time to sit on the Injury List. I’m not all that worried about him, but I’d feel better if he was healthy.
• Lourdes Gurriel, Jr.: .129/.182/.194. 1 walk. No home runs. Until yesterday I hadn’t seen him hit a ball hard, but yesterday he hit one off the wall. And the steal of home was so much fun. He seems to be a streak hitter. I’m hoping he’s about to start a hot streak.
• Brandon Drury: .163/.200/.233. 2 walks. 42.2% strikeout rate. He had such a good spring. Maybe he had such a good spring because pitchers are working on their fastballs in spring and he’s better at hitting fastballs. Maybe it is because he has hot and cold streaks. But, yeah I’m worried that this is who he is, maybe because we don’t have any history to with him.
• Teoscar Hernandez: .179/.298/.256. He has 7 hits and 7 walks. Walking 14.9% and striking out 21.3%. He’s doubled his walk rate and dropped his strikeout rate by a third. These should be good things. But he hasn’t hit the ball hard, and he’s here to hit the ball hard. It really does look like he is working on his eye at the plate and it likely will take him some time to find the balance. He looked better in the outfield until yesterday when he dropped that fly. I’m kind of worried about his bat, but I think we have to give him a couple of hundred at bats and see if it comes around.
• Randal Grichuk: .190/.261/.476. 32.6% strikeout rate. Signed the big contract, had the very good game the next day, and since then he’s hit .143. He is swinging the bat so hard and at every pitch, no matter where it is. He had a crappy start last year too, and pulled out of it. I think he’s smart enough to figure out what he’s doing wrong. I’m only slightly worried, mostly because he has the big contract and the voice in the back of my head worries that he might mess himself up trying to prove he’s worth it.
• Billy McKinney: .219/.342/.281. 13.2% walk rate. 21.1% walk rate. At least he is getting on base. We don’t have much history with him, so it is tough to tell if this is what to expect from him or not. He seemed to take to the idea of lead off hitter and tries to work the count. I would like to see him get a lot of at bats so we can see what we have.
• Rowdy Tellez: .200/.355/.440. 25.8% strikeout rate. 12.9% walk rate. He’s got the fourth best numbers on the team. Actually this is much what I’d expect from him, if you add 40-50 points to his batting average. Charlie’s been sheltering him from left-handed pitchers (he’s only had 2 at bats vs. lefties), which I understand, but, as the season goes on I’d like to see him get more playing time against them. It isn’t really fair to include him on this list.

I’m going to skip Luke Maile, Socrates Brito and Alen Hanson since they’ve only had a dozen at bats each.