CLEVELAND – The need to protect against a potential setback for Devon Travis plus the desire for speed off the bench led the Toronto Blue Jays to include Ryan Goins and Dalton Pompey on their American League Championship Series roster at the expense of Justin Smoak and Scott Feldman.
Francisco Liriano, ineligible to pitch until Saturday’s Game 2 as he works through Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol, was also named to a roster that includes 11 pitchers and 14 position players for the series against AL Central champion Cleveland.
Travis missed the final two games of the division series sweep of Texas with a bone bruise in his right knee, but manager John Gibbons said the Blue Jays feel the second baseman “will be fine.” But in the event of a flare-up, they didn’t want to be caught with catcher Russell Martin serving as the only backup.
“Devon’s moving good but he’s still a little hobbled,” said Gibbons. “If we get a lead late, we’d probably sub him out for defence [with Goins], something we didn’t do during the season but under the circumstances, we’ll see how he’s playing.”
In combination with the feeling that Pompey could score a key run or two coming off the bench late, Smoak ended up on the outside looking in.
“It’s not easy but Smoakie is easy, he gets it,” said Gibbons. He probably doesn’t like it but he gets the rationale behind it. Really, there’s no way we can take a chance of playing a game with no extra infielders. The fact that Goins can go over there and play first and I’m sure do a fine job, even [Jose] Bautista, allows you to do that. And really, there’s not a lot of pinch-hitting opportunities for Smoakie either, since Eddie [Encarnacion] is out there every day. You get in a tight game, even if you do hit him, if he gets on you’ve got to run for him, so now you’re burning two there.
“It wasn’t easy but we think it’s the right thing to do.”
The other debate was whether to carry Feldman in an eight-man bullpen, especially given some uncertainty around Liriano, who was struck by a 102-mph line drive from Carlos Gomez just behind the ear last Friday.
Gibbons described the left-hander as “very important” since he provides length and can pitch in leverage out of the bullpen.
“He’s feeling great, but it was just a week ago he got hit in the head, you don’t know if there any psychological effects to that, either,” said Gibbons. “We don’t think there will be, hopefully there’s not, but the fact that he’s back, he becomes very valuable to us.”
Liriano can’t pitch in Game 1 because he has to be inactive seven days after being subbed off the ALDS roster under MLB rules. The Blue Jays can’t start the next round with a sub to prevent teams from trying to manipulate their roster with the injury. The rule includes exceptions for catchers.
The Blue Jays were also concerned a different rule would have prevented them from subbing out Travis if he suffered a setback since he was named to the roster with a pre-existing injury.
Smoak, a potential power option off the bench, has just 24 plate appearances since September, collecting just one hit with five walks while spelling Encarnacion late in games defensively. Feldman can soak up innings in the event of a lopsided game, but he’s logged only three frames over four appearances since Sept. 4.
