TORONTO — Having added Justin Turner to their roster, the Blue Jays’ off-season is nearing completion.
Of course there’s always the possibility a late deal emerges, either in free agency or on the trade market, but for the first time all winter it appears this might be it (on paper, Willy Adames of the Brewers would still be a great fit, but for what it’s worth there wasn’t much traction on that front earlier in the off-season).
Since the Blue Jays have now completed most or perhaps even all of their off-season shopping, we now have a pretty clear sense of how their team will look, if healthy. But even so, some questions remain about how the players on this roster fit together inning to inning and game to game.
Here’s a closer look at those roster-related questions, the first few of which are interconnected:
1) How do the Blue Jays complement Kiermaier and Varsho from the right side?
Most of the time, Kevin Kiermaier and Daulton Varsho figure to start in centre and left, respectively, but there are still instances where the Blue Jays would benefit from support off the bench.
For instance, you’re trailing the Rays late and left-hander Colin Poche is on the mound. Both Kiermaier and Varsho have a lifetime OPS below .700 against lefties, so that’s a natural spot to pinch hit with a right-handed hitter (or two). The same logic applies when facing left-handed starting pitchers.
Thankfully for the Blue Jays, the first situation is pretty easy to address. If the Blue Jays need a pinch hitter, they’ll be able to choose from the likes of Davis Schneider, who mashed lefties last year, Santiago Espinal, who has historically excelled against southpaws, and whichever one of their catchers isn’t starting that day.
Then you make the pieces fit defensively, either by replacing the pinch hitter with a new outfielder or by moving players around — inserting Espinal at second base and shifting Cavan Biggio from second to left field, for instance. That much is pretty simple.
But taking a hit on defence for a few innings is one thing; doing so for an entire game is less appealing, and that makes the Blue Jays’ approach against left-handed starting pitching interesting. They faced left-handed starters 35 times last year, so it’s a significant part of their schedule.
There are some potential solutions — start Schneider in left, for example, or have Justin Turner cover third for a day while Isiah Kiner-Falefa slides to left and a catcher takes some DH at-bats — but none are especially clean. Defensive metrics didn’t love Turner last year and Kiner-Falefa’s best work comes on the infield.
This is where a platoon bat like Tommy Pham would benefit the Blue Jays. That’s easier said than done for a few reasons (cost and playing-time concerns among them), so this question might linger until the trade deadline, but this would be one clear way to upgrade the existing roster.
In the meantime, there’s opportunity internally, and the Blue Jays can survey the waiver wire and explore minor-league deals just in case.
2) What’s Davis Schneider’s role?
In his debut season, Schneider played 199.2 innings on the infield and 15 innings in the outfield. This summer, that could change.
As detailed above, the Blue Jays might need Schneider more in the outfield than they do in the infield. No one is expecting him to replicate Varsho’s defensive brilliance out there, but he’s played plenty of left in the minors, and if he can even provide average defence that would help the Blue Jays immensely.
With that in mind, it makes sense for the Blue Jays to give him get lots of corner outfield reps this spring along with his regular work at second and third.
3) How do the Blue Jays round out the bench?
While Schneider probably has to earn his spot on this team, he’s at least well positioned to break camp with the Blue Jays after posting a 1.008 OPS in his first 35 games last summer. If he does, that would mean 12 of the 13 position player spots are spoken for when everyone is fully healthy.
That leaves one spot for someone like Spencer Horwitz, the out-of-options Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes or another breakout performer. It’s also possible the Blue Jays look outside of the organization to make a minor trade or claim, with right-handed hitting outfielders likely high on the list of the team’s pro scouting department.
4) What role does Yariel Rodriguez play?
By far the biggest unknown for the Blue Jays: what Yariel Rodriguez can offer? Nearly a year removed from his last competitive game, it’d be reckless to count on him as a starting pitcher. But at the same time there’s little downside in stretching the Cuban right-hander out and seeing if he can do what quality big-league starters do: repeat his delivery, sustain velocity multiple times through a batting order and command multiple pitches for strikes. Not to mention little things like working with the pitch clock for the first time, holding runners and developing a rapport with his new catchers.
Depending on how all that goes, you either have a starting pitcher (the dream), a rotation candidate who needs a little time to build up at triple-A or an impact reliever for now who could start at some future date. In other words, there’s a lot of variance here. Not a bad problem to have with a live arm like Rodriguez’s.
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