TORONTO – Edwin Encarnacion’s back aches every day, it has ever since he returned from a right quad strain Aug. 15, and he remains cautious on the bases because of that leg injury, just in case, but by no means is he ready for this Toronto Blue Jays season to end.
Like so many others, he believed this campaign was destined for a happier ending. Like so many others, he’s struggling to accept that it’s not.
"It’s not a good feeling, you don’t want to go home right now – you play to win," the slugger said in an interview Friday before collecting two hits and a run scored in a 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. "You prepare your body in the off-season working the way I do to be in the playoffs, and it’s very disappointing for me to go home this early."
Disappointment is probably the theme of the final weekend for the Blue Jays, although frustration and anger over a season gone awry certainly can stake a claim there, too.
Encarnacion’s quad injury, suffered while beating out a double play to allow a run to score July 5 in Oakland, provided one of the pivotal turning points in his team’s demise, taking away the crucial complementary threat to Jose Bautista that helps underpin the offence.
That his loss came on the heels of Brett Lawrie’s broken thumb and while Adam Lind was playing on a sore foot that would later be found to have a fracture in it was crushing.
While the Blue Jays managed to tread water at 16-17 during the 33 games he missed, expecting him to come off the disabled list and play saviour was unfair, and the .518 OPS he posted in his first 12 games back was a slump a Blue Jays team running on fumes simply couldn’t afford.
They went 4-8 during that important time, part of a 9-17 month that ruined the season. Save for a too-little, too-late rally in September, it’s been doom and gloom since.
"We were playing great," Encarnacion thinking back to the 27-5 stretch through May and June he helped drive. "We had everything together – defence, pitching and hitting and we were in first place for a long time. Then everything switched up, when we pitched good we didn’t hit, when we hit we didn’t pitch and things changed.
"Now we have to focus on what we have to do to make this team go to the post-season."
Talk about that will dominate the weeks ahead, as the Blue Jays search for ways to make up the dozen or so wins they need to gain on the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East and the roughly five games they need for a wild card spot.
Encarnacion’s take?
"For me, I think, we need to put it together the way we did in May and June," he said. "(The front office) know what they need to get, it’s no secret, we need pitching as a part of that. We have great young talent on the mound now and they’ve been doing great, that’s what we need for next year, that they come the same way and see what’s going to happen.
"I can say we need this and we need this, but they know what we need to do. My part, I try to do the best I can do to help this team make the playoffs."
Encarnacion certainly did that in 2014, thanks in large measure to his majestic May, when he had 32 hits, half of them home runs, along with 33 RBIs and a 1.132 OPS over 30 games.
After the difficult couple of weeks upon his return from the DL, he’s recovered nicely in September, batting .307 (27-for-88) with six homers and 21 RBIs, and is now sitting at .271 with 34 homers and 98 RBIs for the season despite his lingering physical issues.
"Since I got here I had a sore back, and I’m not 100 percent right now but I’ve been playing," Encarnacion said. "I’m not taking BP to take less swings and play the games. I’ve tried to do the best I can."
The back issues have also meant that he’s played first base in only 10 of the 38 games since he returned, although Encarnacion doesn’t think that’s something that will carry over into next year.
Asked if being locked in at DH every day might help him stay on the field, he replied: "I think I can play first base every day, I can do both (first base and DH), I don’t have any problems. The thing that happened with my quad can happen to anybody, it had nothing to do with playing first base every day. I was running and it happened. My back (problems) right now is because of the long time I went without swings, and then I tried to come back quickly, and the swings I took is why my back’s bothering me. It’s not because I was playing defence."
An MRI last weekend in New York showed inflammation in his back but no structural issues to be concerned about.
Another thing Encarnacion insists he isn’t concerned about is that he helped orchestrate a salary-deferral plan during spring training to try and sign Ervin Santana. After being told by the then free-agent right-hander that he’d accept a $14-million, one-year deal, Encarnacion passed along word to GM Alex Anthopoulos and the plot was hatched.
Ultimately Santana signed with the Atlanta Braves despite a verbal agreement with the Blue Jays, but the whole episode showed how much Encarnacion, along with Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista, Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey, wanted to win.
"After (the deal fell apart) I never thought about that, I just tried to do whatever I can to make the team better," Encarnacion said. "Sometimes I tell (Anthopoulos about players) because I know what we need to make this team better. We needed a pitcher like Ervin Santana and we could bring him here, I told him we need to sign this guy, he heard me, he listened to me, he knows what he’s doing.
"I want to win, I don’t want to be on a losing team, I’m tired of that. I wanted to get the team better, that’s why I tried to bring guys."
The Blue Jays could have used them, and a healthy Encarnacion all season, as it turned out.