ARLINGTON, Texas — The Blue Jays batting order will have a different look going forward, as Kevin Pillar has been dropped from the leadoff spot and replaced by Jose Bautista.
Catcher Russell Martin will fill in behind Bautista as the second hitter, with Josh Donaldson dropping to third. There’s also a flip in the four and five spots, with Justin Smoak taking over as the club’s everyday cleanup hitter, and Kendrys Morales dropping to fifth in the order.
“We’ll see how it works,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “We put [Bautista] up there last year and it kind of sparked us a little bit.”
This does mirror a situation from 2016, when Pillar began the season as the Blue Jays’ leadoff hitter and ultimately played his way out of the role. In mid-May, Gibbons started using Bautista as his everyday leadoff hitter, a move that lasted through June when the right-fielder got hurt and Ezequiel Carrera took over.
Gibbons’ memory serves correct — the move did spark the Blue Jays as the club went 18-8 from the time Bautista was moved to the top of the lineup to mid-June when he hit the disabled list. Bautista returned to the leadoff spot briefly at the end of the season, ultimately playing 40 games as Toronto’s No. 1 hitter and batting .239/.341/.459.
Bautista’s played the majority of his 2017 season in the three hole, serving 54 games in that spot while also getting 15 starts as Toronto’s No. 2 hitter. He says he’s happy to hit wherever the Blue Jays think he helps the team most.
“Whatever it takes to help us win games,” Bautista said. “And whatever it takes to do what [the coaching staff] believe puts us in the best position to win games daily. I think that’s everybody’s goal here. And I’m certainly no different. So, whatever we’ve got to do.”
While Bautista will no longer have the benefit of assessing the opposing starter’s repertoire from the dugout early in games, he says he won’t change his approach much as the Blue Jays’ leadoff hitter.
“I’m still going to go out there and try to do what I do. Hit the ball hard and hopefully get some extra bases,” he said. “And, if not, if I’m getting pitched around, hopefully I’m patient enough to take some walks. That’s the same thing I do in the three-hole.”
If you’re analytically minded, this lineup construction will make a lot of sense. Bautista and Martin have historically been very good players at getting on base, with Bautista boasting a career on-base percentage of .366 and Martin’s not far behind at .351.
Donaldson is a good fit anywhere you put him in the batting order, but it’s now much more likely he’ll be hitting with baserunners to drive in. Up until this point, he’s been batting behind Pillar’s career .303 OBP, and the bottom of the Blue Jays’ lineup before that.
And the Blue Jays will have added insurance behind Donaldson in Smoak, who has been the team’s best hitter this season. Smoak already has 20 home runs (12 of them solo shots) and it stands to reason that he’s now more likely to be hitting with runners on base. Of course, Smoak’s .300/.363/.601 batting line tells you he’s pretty good at getting on base himself, and doesn’t always need to clear the fences to drive in runners.
Beyond that, Morales will pose a significant power threat from the five-hole and, the Blue Jays hope, help drive in the four batters ahead of him, who all have on-base percentages of .333 or higher this season. Morales has quietly been a very strong hitter since the beginning of May, putting up an .897 OPS with 22 extra-base hits over his last 41 games.
The bottom half of the Blue Jays lineup will likely vary depending on pitching matchups, rest days, and streaks, but you can expect Troy Tulowitzki and Steve Pearce to be features in the sixth and seventh positions, with Pillar and one of Ryan Goins or Darwin Barney rounding out the bottom of the lineup.
How this all works out between the white lines remains to be seen. But this lineup construction is undoubtedly more optimal on paper than the batting order the Blue Jays were playing with prior.
“Time will tell — we’ll see,” Bautista said. “Certainly, the logic behind it makes a whole lot of sense. But that doesn’t mean that Kevin’s not capable of leading off. He certainly is. My take on it is sometimes from time to time you need a little change to shake things up and get people going. Hopefully this gets us all going, including myself.”
Pillar is the odd man out, dropping all the way to the bottom third of the lineup after playing 58 of the Blue Jays’ first 70 games as the club’s leadoff hitter. Earlier this season, it appeared Pillar had taken a massive step forward at the plate, batting .314/.369/.497 over 38 games through mid-May, which stood in stark contrast to the .266/.303/.376 line he put up last year.
But he’s struggled significantly from May 15 on, batting .165/.215/.283 over his last 30. Gibbons gave the centre-fielder a day off Wednesday — only his second this season — in order to clear his head.
“Looking back at the last few weeks, maybe if we move him out of [the leadoff spot] it’ll let him catch his breath a little bit,” Gibbons said. “It’s been a battle for him.”
The batting order demotion had to be a difficult pill for Pillar to swallow, especially after how well his season began. But the 28-year-old was realistic about why it happened, and is looking forward to turning his season around from the bottom third of the Blue Jays’ lineup.
“Of late, I just haven’t been getting it done,” Pillar said. “You need your leadoff guy to get on base. And I haven’t been able to do that. So, we take a step back from it and we regroup and get myself back going. And hopefully I’ll find myself back up there when it matters. But for now, it’s the best thing for me, it’s the best thing for the team. And I’ll get myself going again. I haven’t lost confidence in myself. It’s just been a rough period.”
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