TORONTO – Coming off the field in the second inning, Darin Mastroianni heard Las Vegas 51s manager Marty Brown barking at him.
Had he done something wrong? Was he in trouble?
“He was telling me he was tired of me, to get on a flight and go to Toronto,” Mastroianni recalled with a big grin on the Rogers Centre field before his big-league debut with the Blue Jays on Wednesday.
“It was kind of a fun way to find out.”
The centre-fielder was recalled to fill a void with Colby Rasmus needing two or three days to rest a jarred wrist, according to Blue Jays manager John Farrell, and newly acquired second baseman Kelly Johnson not due to see action until Thursday.
Johnson’s absence left Mike McCoy, the club’s only backup option in centre field, to play second base, with Mastroianni covering for Rasmus. In a pinch Mark Teahen can play second, but his experience there is limited to three big-league games.
A move will need to be made when Johnson joins the team Thursday, and it appears that Mastroianni and catcher Brian Jeroloman are on the bubble.
Rasmus’s status will play a key role in the decision. Right now the Blue Jays don’t think a trip to the disabled list will be necessary.
“How long this goes is reliant on the time needed for Colby,” said Farrell. “We fully anticipate Kelly to be in the lineup (Thursday) so that gives Mac the flexibility to go back to centre field, so those are the moves that are pending.
“There’s a chance Darin stays a while, but Darin’s also understanding that this has the potential to be a short-term situation as well. We’ve just got to get through these next couple of days with Kelly arriving and Colby.”
Either way Mastroianni ended up the beneficiary, earning the call two days before his 26th birthday.
Brown’s playful yells Tuesday set up a wild 24 hours that included a tear-filled phone call to his parents in Huntersville, N.C., another joyous call to his girlfriend, and a wild scramble from Cashman Field that kept him from savouring the moment for a while.
“I was in such a panic to go, I had three hours to get to the airport to catch the flight, so I was rushing around trying to get to the hotel, pack my stuff up and get everything ready to go,” he said. “It took until a couple of hours into the flight here to think, man, I’m going to Toronto, this is pretty cool.”
A 16th-round pick in 2007, he’s described as a self-made player, a good defender with speed on the bases and an ability to get on base.
He’s split time between triple-A Las Vegas and double-A New Hampshire this year while struggling through a hamstring injury that only recently allowed him to hit 100 per cent with his legs.
In a combined 112 games, he’s batting .266 with a .353 on-base percentage, three homers, 35 RBIs, and 28 stolen bases in 37 attempts.
“It’s been an interesting year, a lot different than I expected,” he said. “I didn’t expect to struggle as much as I did offensively early in the season, I had some flaws in my swing which hopefully have been corrected, and I’ve swung the bat much better of late.
“Bouncing around, it’s just baseball, I got to play every day so you really can’t complain too much. The hamstring injury hampered me a little bit, I missed almost a month on the DL, that affected me stealing bases, playing defence, but it’s nice to feel like I have my legs underneath me and I can use them again.”
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SNIDER WAITS: Outfield prospect Travis Snider underwent an MRI on his right wrist in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and both he and the Blue Jays will learn of the results during a follow-up exam Thursday.
“He’s got inflammation in his right wrist and until the doctor gives us the result from that exam and the MRI, he’s dealing with pain,” said Blue Jays manager John Farrell. “It’s from use, it’s not from an incident of some sort, or one singular event that caused the issue.”
The wrist problem is the latest setback in a difficult season for Snider, who was demoted to triple-A Las Vegas for the second time this season earlier in the month to make room for Brett Lawrie.
He had been hitting well with the 51s before his wrist flared up, leading to an 0-for-14 slide with seven strikeouts over three games. Snider missed the next two contests before getting examined Tuesday.
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JOHNSON SIXTH: John Farrell intends to bat Kelly Johnson sixth in place of day-to-day Colby Rasmus on Thursday when the second baseman makes his Blue Jays debut.
Johnson will slide in between Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie, maintaining a right-left alternation in the lineup.
Farrell said the sixth hole will be re-evaluated once Rasmus is ready to return.
