Dunedin today: Spots available

DUNEDIN, Fla. – John Farrell spent much of last spring training trying to change the grip it and rip it culture in the Toronto Blue Jays offence, and this year his focus is on the starting rotation.

In particular, the sophomore manager wants to milk more innings out of his staff, which ranked ninth in the American League with 964.2 innings pitched in 2011, an average of just under six per outing.

"To me, that is the one area we’ve got to make the biggest improvement in," he said Tuesday.

"What our focus and emphasis will be in camp is to create a much more clear mindset that our starters’ intent is to go deep into the game. That stems from their physical work, that stems from being efficient and attacking the zone, and we’ve got the people here we believe will make up the 10-game difference in the standings."

The Blue Jays will sift through 10 starters this spring in search of the staff to deliver the goods. Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez and Dustin McGowan are the provisional favourites, but Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison, Chad Jenkins, Deck McGuire and Aaron Laffey are all nipping at their heels.

Offensively, Farrell and his coaching staff will continue preaching an aggressive style of baseball, but with more emphasis on taking an extra base and going first to third rather than just the stolen base.

Farrell would also like to see his hitters take more of a relentless approach in their at-bats, and avoid what he termed "predictable swings" that at times made them susceptible to breaking balls early in the count or in advantageous counts.

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SPOTS FOR GRABS: There are few jobs up for grabs this spring on the Blue Jays.

Veteran infielder Omar Vizquel will compete with Mike McCoy, Jonathan Diaz and Luis Valbuena for a utility man’s role, and there are several candidates for the final spot in the bullpen, but the most interesting competition is for the starting left-fielder’s job between Eric Thames and Travis Snider.

Thames impressed at the plate last year, but is a less well-rounded player than Snider, who has struggled to find consistency at the plate during his various stints with the club.

One interesting calculation is how much defence plays into the decision given how often GM Alex Anthopoulos mentioned the Jays’ porous play in the outfield last year and how detrimental it was to the pitching staff.

Snider likely has an edge there, but his bat will likely need to catch up to Thames a fair bit for that to matter.

"We’ll make the decision on which player makes us the best team," said manager John Farrell. "While they’re not the same, we’re going to factor what each player can do individually into the entire mix and what gives us the best 25-man roster when we break and head north."

TWO FOR KELLY: The Blue Jays used 10 different players in the two-spot of their lineup last year, and this season manager John Farrell is hoping second baseman Kelly Johnson takes the role and "runs with it."

"He’s had years when he’s been very good at getting on-base, to me that’s the most important thing, guys that can get on base at a higher rate in front of (Jose) Bautista, in front of (Adam) Lind, in front of (Brett) Lawrie, in front of (Edwin) Encarnacion," he said. "That’s where we’re looking to build it from."

Johnson has a career on-base percentage of .343, and posted a career best OBP of .375 in 2007.

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.