MONTREAL — Think about where the Toronto Blue Jays stood at this time last year as spring training came to a close. The pitcher who was supposed to start on opening day, Marcus Stroman, was left in Florida after having a major knee operation. The club’s new everyday left fielder, Michael Saunders, was recovering from a knee surgery of his own, which would eventually rob him of nearly the entire season. The roster was full of rookies, featuring five players who were 22 or younger, including Roberto Osuna, Miguel Castro and Devon Travis, none of whom had ever played a game in the majors.
And look at where the Blue Jays are now. Both Stroman and Saunders are healthy and in the roles the club was hoping they would fill last season. Every single player on the 25-man roster has major league experience, with the exception of reliever and rule-five draft pick Joe Biagini. There’s only one player on the roster younger than 24 (Osuna). And Troy Tulowitzki, one of the best all-around players in baseball, is the club’s starting shortstop, playing next to the reigning AL MVP, Josh Donaldson.
“I feel a hell of a lot better today, I know that,” says Blue Jays manager John Gibbons during a long, wide-ranging interview in his office at Olympic Stadium on the morning of his team’s final spring training game. “This time last year, we had Osuna—didn’t know anything about him. We had Castro—didn’t know what the hell he was going to do. We had [Dalton] Pompey, Travis, [Aaron] Sanchez, [Daniel] Norris. I mean, that’s a lot of youngsters, man. We were really gambling.”
They really were. The Blue Jays rolled the dice on several occasions last season, both during spring training and at the trade deadline when general manager Alex Anthopoulos turned over 20 per cent of the major league roster. If all goes according to plan, there won’t be a need for such dramatics this year, as the Blue Jays roll into their season opener in Tampa on Sunday with one of the most stable rosters in baseball.
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Gibbons says this has been one of the smoothest spring trainings he’s encountered, and that his only concern coming into it—a potential lack of focus among his players—was quickly nullified by the determination and work ethic the Blue Jays brought to camp.
“After everything that happened last year, you always wonder how guys are going to show up and react,” Gibbons says. “But they were focused. You can just kind of sense that they want it, you know?
“If you’re not focused, you don’t concentrate on what you’ve got to do. Baseball’s such a laid back game—at certain times you’ve really got to lock in on things,” he continues. “You’ve got to be serious about it and you’ve got to lock in on your swing, make sure you’ve got that right. As an individual, you’ve go to do the fundamentals right. You know, sometimes guys get out there and get a little careless and just kind of go through the motions. But not this group.”
Of course, every team starts a new season with question marks, and while the uncertainty for the Blue Jays isn’t as obvious this year as it was last, it still exists. Firstly, the team’s depth is razor thin, even after team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins spent much of their off-season looking to stabilize that area.
The biggest benefit of that work can be seen in the pitching staff, where there are several capable starters waiting in the wings to step into the rotation if needed, such as Gavin Floyd, Jesse Chavez and Drew Hutchison.
But at certain positions the Blue Jays are still leaning over the edge of a cliff, such as shortstop and third base, where there’s a significant drop-off from the production of Tulowitzki and Donaldson, or catcher, where Russell Martin is the organization’s only legitimate everyday option.
A healthy Martin will be relied upon heavily throughout the season, which is a tough ask at a position where you’re involved in every single play. A former catcher himself, Gibbons knows this reality all too well, and says he’ll be closely managing Martin’s workload throughout the year. That means backup catcher Josh Thole, the knuckleball specialist, will see his fair share of starts with pitchers other than R.A. Dickey.
“You know, Russell, he’s at that stage of his career where you have to protect him a little bit because you want him strong. But it’s tough to do because he makes a huge difference for you on the field,” Gibbons says. “The position he plays beats you up pretty good. And he’s been doing it for a while. So, we’ve got to be smart. To get a day or two off, it might not always make a lot of sense, but it’d probably do him some good. Just to keep him strong for this year and even the next few years. Because, he plays hard. And it’ll beat you up.”
When healthy, players like Martin, Tulowitzki and Donaldson are as dependable as they come. But Gibbons is eager to learn more about the contributions some of his less established regulars can make this season, such as Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Goins and Kevin Pillar.
Pillar, among the best defensive centre fielders in the game, will be one of the more interesting case studies to watch this season, as he begins 2016 batting leadoff for the Blue Jays.
The 27-year-old brings an aggressive approach to the plate and swung at 40.9 per cent of the pitches he saw outside the zone in 2015, nearly 10 points above the league average. He walked in just 4.5 per cent of his plate appearances last season—the lowest rate of any Blue Jays hitter save for Darwin Barney who went to the plate only 26 times—which is how he ended up with a .314 on-base percentage at the end of the year.
That’s not exactly what you’re looking for out of a table-setter at the top of your batting order. Of course, Pillar will tell you his lack of walks is a product of the lineup he plays in, which is flush with world-class hitters all around him. If an opposition pitcher’s going to work around one of the Blue Jays hitters, there’s very little chance they’re choosing Pillar.
“Shoot, if I was back there catching or on the mound pitching, and I’m looking at the gauntlet behind [Pillar,] I’m thinking you better go after this guy,” Gibbons says. “Because you definitely don’t want to be facing those other guys with him on base, that’s for sure.”
To that point, Pillar’s ability to affect the game when he’s on base is one of the primary factors that led Gibbons to choose him as his leadoff hitter, aside from his club’s lack of ideal options. Pillar quietly has some of the best legs on the team (he stole 25 bases last season) and he’s impressed the Blue Jays coaching staff with the reads he’s been making on the base paths this spring.
Gibbons remembers one such situation earlier in camp, when Pillar hit a leadoff double before Donaldson bounced a grounder to shortstop. Pillar got a great jump on the play and took off for third base, making it there easily on a ground ball that would have kept most baserunners anchored to second.
“He’s probably the only guy on the team who could go to third on that play,” Gibbons says. “I remember, the shortstop came in, thought about it, and then just took the out at first. Kevin’s probably the only guy who can advance on that play. And now you’ve got a guy at third with one out, and you can score in a hell of a lot of different ways.”
The Blue Jays manager also says he’s seen Pillar make encouraging adjustments at the plate this spring—”I see a much better swing; much better balance”—which leads him to believe his centre fielder will be able to do more this season with all those swings he takes.
There’s no doubt Gibbons would like Pillar to be more patient at the plate, especially in the first inning. One of the reasons why it’s so crucial for a leadoff hitter to take a handful of pitches in his at-bats is to allow the players hitting behind him and watching from the bench to gather information about that day’s starter. But it’s not easy to ask a player like Pillar, who’s always been a free-swinger who piles up hits, to change his approach.
“Guys still have to play to their strengths. That’s what got them here,” Gibbons says. “I’m sure there’s going to be some times when I’m sitting over there going, ‘damn it, I wish he worked the guy a little bit more.’ But it’s also my job to tell him in any particular at-bat, ‘hey, work this guy a little bit more.’ Depending on the situation the inning before, what happened to our pitcher, that kind of thing.”
So, sure, there are question marks on this team. But the kind of uncertainty the Blue Jays are dealing with is the kind you don’t mind having. Worrying about managing the workloads of your many star players or the patience of your leadoff hitter is vastly preferred to starting a season with several major injuries and more than 20 per cent of your roster never having been here before.
Any way you look at it, the Blue Jays are in a far better position going into 2016 than they were at this time last year. That’s a pretty good thing when you’re defending your first division title in 22 years.
“We’re in it to win. These guys saw the excitement and everything that they generated in Toronto and everywhere in Canada last year. They thrived off that. That’s how you make your name in this business. You make your name by winning something,” Gibbons says. “And, really, the way we played this spring was a carry over. We’ll run with that. If we need to make some changes, we will. But it’s a much different feel this year than I’ve ever had here.”
