Blue Jays spring training: Pitcher, position player, prospect, newcomer to watch

Jenn Smith

Blue Jays spring  training: Pitcher, position player, prospect, newcomer to watch image

The Toronto Blue Jays enter the 2018 season with a bit of an identity crisis. After two straight American League Championship Series appearances, last season’s 86-loss campaign was fraught with frustration and disappointment, a year plagued by injury and sub-par performances. It became glaringly obvious that the Jays had multiple holes to fill if they were to have a chance at returning to the postseason.

The Red Sox, Astros and Cleveland Baseball Team appear poised to once again dominate the American League. With the Yankees adding the reigning National League MVP in slugger Giancarlo Stanton and the Angels being the chosen destination of Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani, the path to the postseason is littered with legitimate contenders. The Jays find themselves in somewhat of a no-man’s-land, attempting to bridge the gap between aging players with cumbersome contracts (not to mention a former MVP on an expiring contract) and star prospects Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Anthony Alford while still keeping open the window for contention.

MORE: Blue Jays spring training: When, where, Grapefruit League schedule

The Jays’ front office managed to raise the floor at several key positions and are most certainly in a better position to withstand injuries to position players and relievers, despite having not made a flashy offseason transaction. That, however, may not be enough to win a coveted wild card spot. As currently constructed, Baseball Prospectus projects the Jays to finish the season with just 78 wins. A lot has to go right for the Jays this season if they are to return to the promised land.

It is spring (training), however, and with spring comes a renewed sense of optimism and opportunity. As you get set to enjoy your first Blue Jays sightings of spring, here are some players of note on whom to keep an eye.

Pitcher to Watch

The primary reason that Baseball Prospectus is so down on the 2018 Blue Jays is the starting rotation. It is concerning that the Jays head into Spring Training with Joe Biagini slated to be the fifth starter (although there are several free agents still available whom the Jays could still sign), and one wonders if Marco Estrada can manage a season without back or personal issues.

The key, however, to the Jays making a legitimate run at the wild card spot is Aaron Sanchez.

 

The 2017 season was an absolute disaster for Sanchez, who made just eight starts due to a lingering blister problem that shut him down for good in mid-July. Sanchez resumed throwing in December – he had also sustained ligament damage to his right middle finger - and is confident that both issues are behind him. Sanchez is said to be healthy entering spring training, but it will be interesting to see how the Jays handle his workload. There is quite the difference between throwing bullpen sessions and pitching in live games. It will be a balancing act between ensuring that Sanchez is ready for the season without risking injury before the season even begins.

MORE: Blue Jays sign Craig Breslow to minor league deal

A thirty-start season by Sanchez (both Steamer and Baseball Prospectus project he’ll make 23 starts) would put the Jays in a much better position to win those thirty games than if they were started by whoever is the next man up. If Sanchez can escape spring training unscathed, it could mean that he has managed to make whatever adjustment was necessary to make the blister issue a thing of the past.

Position Player to Watch

A clear focus this offseason was to insure against injuries to middle infielders Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki, as evidenced by the acquisitions of Yangervis Solarte and Aledmys Diaz. Both Travis and Tulowitzki missed the majority of last season and will need to take things slowly this spring training (although it seems entirely feasible that Tulowitzki may not begin spring training on time). But, while both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus have projected Tulowitzki to play in at least 100 game this season, the two projection sites are split on Travis.

Fangraphs has Travis making 407 plate appearances in 2018 while Baseball Prospectus takes a much more cautious approach, projecting the almost 27-year-old to get just 195 plate appearances.

 

Unlike last spring training, however, health is not the only thing to look for when evaluating Travis. In the 50 games he managed to play last season, Travis was a below-average major-leaguer on both sides of the ball. After hitting above .300 with a wRC+ over 100 and WAR above 2.0 in each of his first two seasons with the Jays, Travis hit just .259/.291/.438 with a wRC+ of 89 and was worth just 0.6 WAR.

In the past, this would not have sufficed, given that the backups to Travis were Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney. Now, however, there exists a decent backup in Solarte and future competition in the form of Richard Ureña.

Neither are in a position to do battle with Travis for the starting job, but should Travis be unable to start the season on time Solarte will be the Opening Day second baseman.

As they do with Sanchez, the Jays’ training staff will have to closely monitor Travis as he makes his way back from knee surgery. He is notoriously a slow-starter in spring, so that won’t necessarily be an indicator of injury or future performance. One might have reason for concern, however, if he is unable to find his swing – and his glove – as the spring progresses.

Newcomer to Watch

Randal Grichuk has some very big shoes to fill.

The 26-year-old is poised to be the everyday right fielder, taking the place of bat-flip hero José Bautista. Grichuk is preceded by an all-or-nothing reputation: he packs plenty of power, but has a penchant for striking out plenty. At a bare minimum, the free-swinger ought to be able to provide greater offensive value than did his predecessor last season. Fangraphs projected Grichuk to slash .241/.293/.487 with 25 home runs, but to have more strikeouts (138) than hits (102) over the course of 462 plate appearances. For context, Bautista hit a paltry .203/.308/.366 with a career-high 170 strikeouts in 686 plate appearances last season.

 

What will be interesting this spring is whether Grichuk’s offseason preparation will have any impact on his performance. Well aware of his limitations, especially after hitting a career-low .238 last season, Grichuk bought a pitching machine and took a vision training course to work his eye muscles. The objective is to retrain the eyes to process visual information more quickly, which for a baseball player could mean the difference between laying off a bad pitch or swinging for the fences – and often coming up empty.

All the more interesting is that Bautista’s agent recently announced that the free agent had been marred by vision problems of his own last season. Whether or not that’s the reason for his subpar performance, it does provide an interesting backdrop for Grichuk’s dive into ocular retraining. Given that, as things currently stand, he is the Jays’ biggest pickup of the offseason, one hopes that Grichuk can prove to be a more valuable offensive player than what he has demonstrated in the past

Minor-Leaguer to Watch

We all got a glimpse of Teoscar Hernández when the outfielder was called up in September. His eight home runs set a record for the most by a Jays’ rookie in September, but he also struck out in 38 percent of his plate appearances.

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Given the glut of outfielders, in particular the acquisition of Grichuk, Hernández is currently slated to begin the season in Triple-A Buffalo. If he were to have a strong spring training, however, he could provide the Jays’ brass with a reason to trade one of their other outfielders. Given that Steve Pearce, who is currently set to platoon with Curtis Granderson in left field, has only one year left on his contract, it is possible that he could be moved and Hernández take his place.  

The improved depth means the Blue Jays will have several interesting roster decisions to make as the spring wears on, and there is still the possibility they will add a fifth starter and move Biagini to the bullpen. Several questions have yet to be answered, and hopefully the next month will make clear at least some of the answers. In the meantime, baseball has returned and, with it, hope of a new beginning.

Jenn Smith