TORONTO – Injured sluggers Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Nolan Reimold could return to the Toronto Blue Jays without rehab assignments, manager John Gibbons said Wednesday, while Brett Lawrie will rejoin the team as a third baseman when he’s ready.
All four players are making rapid progress, with the possibility that a few of them might be ready to go next week. Once they all return, the looming roster crunch will eventually leave Juan Francisco, Dan Johnson, Anthony Gose and one of Ryan Goins or Munenori Kawasaki fighting for one bench spot.
As things stand, Lawrie’s return to the hot corner full-time (“The way the team is right now I’d say that,” said Gibbons) means Jose Bautista can lock back into right field, Encarnacion will reclaim first base, with Reimold getting work as a fourth outfielder and right-handed DH complement to Lind.
That would seem to leave Kawasaki and Goins competing to serve as the left-handed portion of a second-base platoon with Steve Tolleson. Once that gets settled, the Blue Jays would need to settle on whether they want Francisco’s all-or-nothing power, Johnson’s keen eye and quality at-bats or Gose’s superb defence and game-changing speed on the bench.
A trade could change the calculus, but either way the next 7-10 days are an important evaluation period for everyone on the roster’s fringes.
“It’s hard to say which direction we’re going to go because (Encarnacion and Lind) will eliminate first base, basically,” Gibbons said. “We’ll see, we’re not sure yet.
“Until Eddie and Lindy come back, we’ll try to get Johnson and Francisco some at-bats. But (Francisco) has got to heat up. Kawasaki has been playing good, we want to give Goins a look.”
Whatever the case, the Blue Jays certainly seem ready to aggressively push the return of the middle of their lineup. On Sunday, GM Alex Anthopoulos suggested Encarnacion and Lind could start rehab assignments as soon as this weekend, but Gibbons’ comments Wednesday suggested a shift in thinking.
“They may not even go on rehab assignments when they’re ready to go. We’re not sure yet,” he said. “If we need them, we need them.”
Encarnacion last played July 5, Lind on July 7 and Reimold on July 11, so bringing them back without rehab assignments and asking them to hit the ground running is a tall task. Lawrie, whose finger was broken June 22, has been out longer and skipping rehab isn’t really an option.
“Realistically (Lawrie) is probably going to get one,” said Gibbons. “But the other guys, if they come quick, as someone said a minute ago, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?”
Those measures do not include moving Bautista to third base and slotting Lawrie in at second.
“You’re probably not going to see that,” said Gibbons. “(Bautista) is a right-fielder. He can go over there (to third) and play a couple of games, but I don’t think you’ll see that.”
