Blue Jays eager to get offensive jolt from returning Travis

Devon Travis talks to Barry Davis about the long road of being called back up to the Toronto Blue Jays.

NEW YORK – Moments after fielding an Adam Moore grounder and throwing to first base for the first out of the eighth inning, Devon Travis was called into the Buffalo Bisons dugout by manager Gary Allenson, with Jio Mier sent out to take his place. The Toronto Blue Jays second baseman was confused. Wasn’t he supposed to play all nine innings at Columbus on Tuesday night? Had he misread the schedule?

“I got back to the dugout and I looked at Slick and Voon (Chong, the athletic trainer), and was like. ‘What’s going on?’” Travis recalled Wednesday after being activated from the disabled list. “They said, go the locker room, hang out and we’ll let you know in a few. I go and obviously check the game, I have it in the back of my mind that I could be going back up, and I looked and saw that (Troy Tulowitzki) came out. I was not excited to find out about that. They told me at about 11:30 p.m,, and I’m just so happy to be back.”

The Blue Jays, eager for someone to inject some life into their moribund offence, were happy to welcome him back, too. While Travis was nearing activation from his rehab assignment, capping a long and trying 10 months that included two shoulder surgeries, a bout of tightness in Tulowitzki’s right quad sped up the timeframe.

Tulowitzki is only expected to need a day or two – “He told me he woke up a little bit sore, but much better than he thought it might be,” manager John Gibbons relayed – so the Blue Jays optioned reliever Pat Venditte to triple-A Buffalo to clear a roster spot.

Once Tulowitzki is ready to go, an infielder will be swapped out for another reliever, likely lefty Aaron Loup, who’s thrown back-to-back scoreless outings on rehab for Buffalo. “Everybody says he feels good and they say he looks good,” said Gibbons. “He’s been a part of this, I’m sure you’ll see him sometime in the near future, I would think.”

More pivotally, the Blue Jays get Travis back now, and if he’s anything remotely near the player who posted an .859 OPS in 62 games last season, his return makes for an impact add. Consider that through the first 47 games, the club’s cumulative .585 OPS at second base ranks second last in the majors, only ahead of San Diego’s .456.

Still, it would be unfair to hang saviour expectations on the 25-year-old, whose shoulder woes started with Brandon Moss comebacker off the collarbone last May and only started moving toward resolution following November surgery to repair a condition called os acromiale, where bones fail to fuse naturally.

Months of recovery and rehab followed, and his activation Wednesday, meant he’d return to the majors at Yankee Stadium, where he made his big-league debut last year.

“Maybe there’s a little more emotion for this one because this has been tough, maybe the toughest 10 months of my life,” Travis said when asked to compare the feeling then and now. “I’ve never in my life had to deal with so much doubt. Not that I doubted myself, but really doubted the fact that I could come back and even swing a baseball bat again. For the first three months I wasn’t able to lift my arms over my shoulders. All those things, like having two working arms, I have grown to appreciate. Countless hours of grinding, mentally and physically.”

That challenge made Travis even more grateful for the opportunity before him.

Much in the way Marcus Stroman used the downtime from his knee injury last year to grow personally, Travis found more perspective and appreciation for all he has.

“I’ve definitely learned that this game goes on, whether you’re here or not,” he said. “Every day you have the opportunity to come to a baseball field and put on a uniform and live your dream to play a game for a living is a blessing. I’ll never take anything for granted again.”

Travis went 11-for-36 in nine rehab games and physically he feels right where he needs to be. The Blue Jays plan to run him out regularly and though he was batting eighth Wednesday, the expectation is that eventually he’ll move into the leadoff spot.

How quickly that happens will depend on his ability to control the strike zone, a key element of the game but something that can be challenging with so much time off between at-bats.

“That’s the No. 1 thing I’ve been focused on,” said Travis. “You’re so excited to be out there and you see pitches and you want to prove to yourself you can hit every pitch. Learning to get back in that groove of looking for strikes and not extending your strike zone … that’s something, especially at this level that I have to put a lot of emphasis on because that’s my game.”

Those skills are ones the Blue Jays have been waiting for.

“Hopefully he looks good and is swinging it because he’s got a chance to be a good hitter in this league for a while, at least from what we saw last year,” said Gibbons. “When he got injured last year he was leading our team in home runs and RBIs. Maybe he’ll give us a jolt. We could use it.”

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