TORONTO — There was a little extra life around the Rogers Centre batting cages Saturday morning as Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and J.A. Happ stepped out of the Toronto Blue Jays dugout carrying pine tar, batting gloves and 32 ounces of lumber each.
That trio of Blue Jays starters will take the mound during Toronto’s three-game series in San Francisco this week, which means they’ll also be taking at-bats under National League rules.
The veteran Happ has pitched for years in the NL and been through this all before. But the 20-somethings Stroman and Sanchez have never taken an at-bat in the majors, and are relishing the opportunity.
"You grow up wanting to be in the big leagues as a hitter," says Sanchez, who played shortstop for his entire life until the Blue Jays drafted him as a pitcher. "At least that’s how it was for me. And now I get a chance. So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be cool."
"I miss it—I miss it a lot," added Stroman, who played second base at Duke University. "Obviously the first priority will be to get the bunt down if there’s guys on. But if not, I’m pretty excited to swing it."
And swing it they did Saturday morning, against Blue Jays third base coach Luis Rivera, who was throwing flat batting practice fastballs at around 60-mph. Blue Jays hitters stretching nearby heckled and jeered, especially when Stroman and Sanchez were in the box, offering constant commentary on the cuts the young pitchers were taking.
The young starters had fun with it, grinning and celebrating every time they made solid contact. They each hit a pair of pitches over the wall, and made sure everyone within earshot knew it had happened. Stroman even got an enthusiastic bear hug from Ryan Goins after his second long ball to left field.
"It’s pretty funny how they’re all amped up. They think they’re going to go out there and hit homers," Happ said after taking his cuts. "And maybe they will, who knows? They’re confident guys—that’s for sure. All I’d tell them is this game has a way of humbling people. So, we’ll just let the game play out and we’ll see. Either way, it’ll be fun to watch them out there. I love their enthusiasm."
Happ actually has hit a homer in the majors, off Josh Collmenter in 2011. He ambushed a first-pitch cutter and sent a no-doubter 387-feet into the right field bleachers. He got the ball back from the fan that caught it and still has it at home.
"I definitely got lucky with that one," he says, bashfully. "My first at-bat that day I flew out to the warning track, so they gave me the green light to go ahead and swing it. I was fortunate enough to run into one."
Last year, when the Seattle Mariners sent Happ to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the trade deadline, he knew there was a good chance his new team could be headed to the post-season and he didn’t want to be a liability. So he began logging daily sessions in the batting cages in hopes of improving his swing.
"I worked quite a bit at just trying to catch up, get up to speed and be reasonable up there," Happ says. "You’re so overmatched anyways, and then you’re out of the National League for a while and you aren’t hitting regularly, and then you jump back in and it’s really a challenge."
Happ went 2-for-22 with the Pirates down the stretch, with three sacrifice bunts and 13 strikeouts. He never did get to hit in the post-season as the Pirates were eliminated in the NL wild card game, but all that work showed during batting practice at Rogers Centre as he made hard, line drive contact much more consistently than his younger peers.
"I don’t know if I’d say I’m looking forward to hitting again," Happ says. "But it’s always interesting. I do like a lot of the things about National League baseball."
One of those is certainly a somewhat easier out against the opposition pitcher. Happ will get Matt Cain, who’s 4-for-53 since the beginning of 2014. Sanchez will get Jake Peavy, who actually has three hits in 10 plate appearances this season, but is a career .170 hitter.
But unfortunately for Stroman, Madison Bumgarner awaits. The Giants ace isn’t just one of the best left-handed starters in the game; he’s also an accomplished hitter who swatted five homers last season and has a .718 OPS in 177 plate appearances since 2014.
"I don’t even get that free out," Stroman says, nonplussed. "Bumgarner’s one of the better hitting pitchers in the game. Actually, he’s just a great hitter in general. But I’m excited. It’s going to be fun to get in the box against him."
Stroman hasn’t taken an at-bat of any significance since 2011, when he played both ways for Duke, making 30 starts at second base on the days he wasn’t the starting pitcher. He batted .250/.321/.358 in 120 at-bats that year, hitting 9 doubles and a pair of triples. He says he was an aggressive free-swinger at the time, one who looked to take scrappy at-bats and put the ball in play.
"I’m not going to put my weaknesses out there. You’re not getting the scouting report," Stroman says. "But I think I’ll be okay. I was ACC freshman of the year as a position player. So, I know what I’m doing."
The last time Sanchez took competitive at-bats was as a senior at Barstow High School six years ago. He hit .403 that season.
"I had a couple walk-off homers; a lot of two-homer games. High school was fun for me, I’ll just put it like that," Sanchez says. "I thought I could hit. I was only 17-years-old, but I had some pop."
Stroman and Sanchez, two of the more self-assured young men you’ll meet, haven’t been shy to let their teammates know about their acumen as hitters before they were drafted. The home runs they hit during batting practice only fed the fire.
"These guys, man—they think they can hit," says Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada, shaking his head with a grin. "I guess all pitchers think they can hit. But it’s going to be a lot different than what they’re used to. It comes out a lot quicker at this level. They might learn the hard way it’s not that easy."