DUNEDIN, Fla. – On the second pitch of Devon Travis’s first Grapefruit League game of the spring, Brock Holt hit a slow roller toward the 3-4 hole that forced the second baseman to range to his left, stop, plant and throw for the out.
Tested immediately, Travis responded flawlessly, showing no reason for concern about a right knee upon which much hinges as the Toronto Blue Jays move toward finalizing their roster for opening day April 3.
"Crazy, this game man, that ball will find you every single time," he said afterwards. "It’s almost like I knew it was coming to me so it was nice to get that first groundball out of the way, and it felt good."
Travis also felt good after an RBI double to the gap in left-centre field that included a hard turn around the bag at first, and after rounding second to score on a Troy Tulowitzki base hit, and throughout five innings of defensive work.
Toss in the way Jose Bautista returned from a stiff back with an RBI double in the first; how Josh Donaldson dropped to one knee to backhand a Bryce Brentz grounder at third base, got up and threw across the diamond for an out in the third; and the strong throw Steve Pearce made after grabbing a Blake Swihart grounder to start 3-6-3 double play; and the Blue Jays saw plenty to ease their minds in a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Friday.
"We’re at the point through their progression where really, they’re on schedule in a sense," said bench coach DeMarlo Hale, acting as manager while John Gibbons is home for a few days. "You were able to see out there a group that during the season is going to be on the field. It was good to see."
While that is true, the more definitive markers won’t come until a few days from now, after Travis has endured the rigours he will face over consecutive days, and after Pearce has played the outfield on multiple days (he plays left for the first time Saturday).
Once the Blue Jays have a better read on where they stand, then the roster picture becomes far clearer.
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If Travis is ready to go for opening day, finding a way to keep the out-of-options Ryan Goins on the roster becomes a bit more complicated, especially if Pearce isn’t ready to play left field. In turn, Pearce’s status impacts Ezequiel Carrera and Melvin Upton Jr., and to a lesser degree Justin Smoak at first base.
The Blue Jays have been linked to outside options like Angel Pagan and Kelly Johnson in recent days but they seem more focused on who they have in place for now. They really like Goins and while he has some trade value and they won’t have to lose him for nothing, they’d like to find a way to keep him.
As all that plays out in the background, Travis keeps moving toward readiness, volume of work really the only remaining hurdle for him to clear.
"I feel normal, for sure," he said, adding later: "The biggest thing from here on out is staying on top of it. I feel good, I feel strong, my knee has been responding well, I just have to do a good job of staying on top of it, really, every single day, every single game. I need to get my rehab in, my recovery in. But as far as doing things out on the baseball field, I feel like I’ve done everything that they’ve asked me and I don’t know if there’s anything left for me to do. I think I can do everything out on the baseball field right now. Except for throw like Tulo."
That list bit was said with awe at the remarkable throwing ability of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, and the quip shows just how good of a mindframe Travis is in at the moment.
There have been a lot of hard times for him since he hopped off the field in the fifth inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series last fall, his knee in agony.
"I knew I was hurt, I wasn’t sure how bad," Travis said. "If I come out of a game, there’s something that’s wrong, that needs to be fixed. I knew something was messed up, that’s for sure."
A healthy Travis makes a significant difference in the quality of the Blue Jays lineup, and he’s the most logical candidate to bat leadoff. Between the freak shoulder problem that truncated his 2015 season and the knee issue that prematurely ended 2016, the 26-year-old with an OPS of .811 over 163 career big-league games has endured a lot over the past couple of years.
That’s why he called his five innings of work Friday, "a big step right there."
The next steps will be to keep doing it, and the Blue Jays are kicking around whether to bring him to Montreal or let him stay in Florida to play extended spring games so he can avoid the turf at Olympic Stadium.
The assessments of Travis will be regular and frequent.
"The best way we probably can look it is let’s see how he’s feeling day-to-day, how he reacts, how he bounces back (Saturday) and the next day," said Hale. "I think he will tell us a lot and we still have time to make that decision. As much as we look at when we’re breaking camp, April 3 is opening day."
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MAKING A CHANGE: J.A. Happ got his work in and felt good about his 5.1 innings of work Friday, but was most pleased with how his changeup played against the Red Sox.
He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts against a lineup mostly made up of the Boston bench and Pawtucket depth, throwing more changeups than he usually would to great effect.
"We were trying to see how it would play and I think we feel pretty good about it so we threw that quite a bit just to get some more live looks on it," said Happ. "But we used everything like we normally would and feel good overall about it."
Happ threw his changeup only 6.5 per cent of the time last year, by far his lowest usage of the pitch in his career. During his first stint with the Blue Jays in 2013, it was at 15.7 per cent, but he’s doesn’t have a target range for the offering this season.
"It all depends," he explained. "The hitters tell you how much you want to use it. If I’m throwing strikes, getting outs and changing their swing a little bit, then I’ll probably use it a little more. I felt like I was doing that, keeping them in between a little bit. Potentially, that could be beneficial for me."
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PRETTY PLAYS: Minor-league infielder Shane Opitz provided a couple of defensive gems in the ninth to help seal a 3-2 win, a couple of hits with diving plays.
First, he dove to his left to snare a Blake Swihart grounder, spun and fired from the ground for one out, and then he dove to his left on a Cole Sturgeon grounder up the middle and threw across his body for the final out of the afternoon.
"On the first one I had to take peek at second, trying to get that tying runner, but I didn’t have a chance so I went to first," said Opitz. "On the last one, I had just taken a couple of steps in the four-hole thinking he was going to pull it and of course he hits it up the middle, so I had to regain some ground."
Aside from playing the infield and outfield, Opitz has also done some work catching this spring.
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QUOTABLE: "You get into more intense games where the focus level is a little higher and there’s less margin for error and you get to play complete games early on, too. I’ve done that quite a few times already, where some of these guys haven’t played nine just yet. It helps in that sense." – Jose Bautista on gaining an edge by playing in the World Baseball Classic
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