BUFFALO — Devon Travis is now in a different baseball environment, one that the Toronto Blue Jays hope is better suited to help him emerge from a deep slump. Unfortunately for the second baseman, though, some things remain the same.
He joined his Buffalo Bisons teammates for batting practice prior to Thursday’s game at Coca-Cola Field against the Syracuse Chiefs, but that was the only time he was expected to take the field. He wasn’t pencilled into the starting lineup because the triple-A club is following the same plan the Blue Jays deployed with Travis before his demotion on Sunday: He’ll play two straight games, followed by a day of rest.
Travis wants to distance himself from that schedule, which was devised in an effort to keep the 27-year-old healthy and fresh for the entire campaign.
“Being able to avoid the two-on and one-off would be a short-term goal,” Travis said. “I understand why it was in place. I completely am with it. But obviously, I look forward to moving past that one day and hopefully down here I can get into a little bit of a groove and be able to play a little bit more and be a little more consistent, so I won’t be in this shape when I get back up.”
Injuries have dogged Travis through his four-year major-league career — he has surpassed the 100-game mark only once — and his 2017 season ended in June following surgery to repair cartilage damage in his right knee. Now fully recovered, the issue isn’t his health, but rather prolonged offensive stagnation.
Travis is batting .148/.212/.246 with 18 strikeouts in 61 MLB at-bats this season. He hasn’t generated as much hard contact as years past and has been pounding the ball into the ground at an alarming rate — his 62.8 per cent ground-ball percentage is fourth highest in baseball among hitters with at least 60 plate appearances. So far with the Bisons, Travis collected just one hit in nine at-bats across two games.
Does Travis think the handicap of only playing two out of every three games has prevented him from getting into a rhythm?
“I never would admit that, cause that would just be an excuse,” he says. “I just wasn’t myself. That’s it. But I’m definitely looking to avoid that when I do get back [to Toronto].”
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Travis went through similar struggles at the outset of last season and is drawing confidence from the experience of turning that around. He slugged a measly .195 in 83 plate appearances through the opening month, but on May 1, Travis collected two hits off Yankees right-hander Luis Severino and rolled from there, mashing four homers and 16 doubles with a 1.019 OPS over the next 26 games.
He had more plate appearances in the first month of 2017 compared to this season and believes a correction will come with more reps.
“More at-bats would be good,” says Travis. “I only have [61] at-bats. That’s not too much to really go off of. I expect more out of myself through 61 at-bats, but it’s definitely something I look to turn around with more at-bats, for sure.”
Bisons manager Bobby Meacham hasn’t had a chance to chat much with his new player, who has been spending plenty of time in the batting cages with hitting coach Corey Hart, but is impressed with the energy that the established big leaguer has added to the clubhouse. The last time Travis played a minor-league game was during a rehab assignment in May 2016.
“It’s tough to make that adjustment,” Meacham said. “I’ve been in his shoes before, when you get sent down. But he’s been great. He’s been supportive of his new teammates that he’s inherited.”
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