DUNEDIN, Fla. – Josh Donaldson strode through the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse Wednesday afternoon like his right calf strain wasn’t a thing, only the wrap around the afflicted area hinting at an injury.
“I feel great,” he said during a brief exchange of pleasantries.
Things seem to be getting better quickly for the all-star third baseman, although that isn’t likely to change his timeline much, as caution remains the order of the day. But the improvement reinforces the club’s feeling that the injury “isn’t going to be that big a deal,” as manager John Gibbons put it.
The extra rest for Donaldson may have been in the team’s plans anyway, as Gibbons also revealed Wednesday that Troy Tulowitzki will be rested for the first week of spring games as a way to manage his workload. Aaron Sanchez won’t start a Grapefruit League game until March 9, with J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada and Francisco Liriano also getting pushed back a bit, although not quite that far.
Marcus Stroman, who’ll pitch for the United States, and Jose Bautista, who’ll suit up for the Dominican Republic, will start the spring as usual to prepare for the World Baseball Classic. But with some extra at-bats and innings available out of the gate, the Blue Jays will be able to give extra work to their part-time players and the depth layer of players beneath them, helping them start the process of creating an organizational pecking order.
“That’s what you use spring training for but there are some new faces,” said Gibbons. “Being this early in camp, naturally we’re going to watch these guys and starting forming our opinions, but it’s still too early to start focusing on, OK, if we’re going to need someone for a week, or something.”
With Devon Travis’s status for opening day still somewhat in question because of knee surgery and Steve Pearce, the club’s first choice for left field, making progress in his throwing program after September elbow surgery, this is also a time for the Blue Jays to watch others at second base and left, too.
In that vein, infielders Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins, outfielders Ezequiel Carrera and Melvin Upton, versatile non-roster invitees like Jake Elmore and Gregorio Petit and prospects like Richard Urena and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., will be particularly important in the coming weeks.
Not only will they be helping to cover the Grapefruit League games that start Saturday against the Atlanta Braves, but they also need to ready themselves for a number of different possibilities.
“Everyone’s trying to prepare their mind and their body for whatever role they think they might have,” said Barney, who played five different positions for the Blue Jays last season, including pitcher. “For me, I try to prepare my body to play every day. Even when you’re not playing, you just have a different role that day, so I want to be able to play every single day when that time comes if someone goes down and they need me, and my body can hold up. The way spring training works is that you don’t play every day, so it’s the perfect place to prepare your mind and your swing and approach to not getting at-bats every day.
“Spring training kind of plays into that utility guy’s role.”
In all, Barney appeared in 104 games last season, helping cover Travis’s absence with Goins, plus filling at short, third, left field, and on the mound during the 19-inning Canada Day loss to Cleveland (he got hung with the L).
Should Travis not be ready in time for opening day, Barney would likely get the primary at-bats at second with Goins in the mix, although Pearce has played some second as well and could be a candidate there if he’s not ready to throw from the outfield.
A gifted defender, Barney slashed .269/.322/.373 in 306 plate appearances to contribute on both sides of the ball.
“When I first made the transition to not playing every day and your role is dictated on that day, and the game, and what happens, it was tough,” he said. “I was so used to routine and getting to work, getting to work that I never sat back and watched the game to get into the flow, I was always getting loose or doing something like that. Learning how to slow the game down when you’re not playing is something that helped me so when that time came, I wasn’t going into the game without a feel for it. That comes with time and age.
“It took a year or two of tinkering with this role to figure that out.”
Carrera, meanwhile, could end up platooning in left with Upton, at least for a period of time, if Pearce is limited in the field. The 29-year-old slashed .248/.323/.356 over 310 plate appearances but also delivered a number of timely hits for the Blue Jays down the stretch.
His numbers were also hampered by a left Achilles injury he tried to play through in the middle of the season that eventually landed him on the disabled list, but the view of him is that he’s a prototypical fourth outfielder who can handle an extended stretch if needed.
“I’m trying to build off the confidence I had and the opportunity I had last year,” he said through interpreter Josue Peley. “I’m always ready, I’m always prepared to play every day. I don’t change my routine whether I’m going to play a lot or not, I just try to stay focused and ready.
“I came to spring training really ready to play and to take advantage of whatever the team is going to ask me to do. I just came here focused and ready.”
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Elmore and Petit are in all likelihood bound for triple-A Buffalo where they’ll be available in the event of an emergency, while Gurriel and Urena are on the radar but are expected to need more time in the minors.
The depth is comforting for the Blue Jays, beyond the known commodities they have at the big-league level.
“Barney’s been with us a little over a year, his game is pretty polished. I did see improvements last year in his approach at the plate and I think he was better because of it,” said Gibbons. “’Z’ has been here a couple of years now, and he is what he is, he’s very good coming off the bench or playing part-time. He can sit for a couple of weeks, come out and he proved time and time again he can lift the team up a little bit, give us that spark. And ‘Go-Go’, I just want to see a little more consistency with the bat but he’s still one of the better defenders in baseball.
“Those guys have been around long enough, we feel good about them.”