Title: Blue Jays’ Playing Time Battles: Hitters
Date: January 21, 2016
Original Source: Rotographs
Synopsis: This article looked at playing time battles for the Toronto Blue Jays entering the 2016 season.
The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays owned baseball’s best offense no matter how you slice it. They outscored the next-highest team by 127 runs, they topped the league in home runs, they set the pace in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and their weighted runs created-plus of 117 was the league’s high-water mark dating back to the 2007 New York Yankees. The Jays will return their top eight players in terms of plate appearances from a year ago, plus deadline-week acquisition Troy Tulowitzki, so there’s little concern this won’t be an elite offensive outfit once again.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t question marks. The Blue Jays are set at six positions but have playing time at three spots up for grabs, plus a major batting order question to answer.
Left Field
When the Jays dealt Ben Revere for Drew Storen, it was a bet on the health of Michael Saunders, the development of Dalton Pompey, and the lovability of “Big Zeke” Ezequiel Carrera. Those are the Jays’ options in left – and occasionally center, to lessen the load some on Kevin Pillar – as they’re surely done with trying to run Chris Colabello out there and Anthony Alford is probably still a season away.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 