Gimenez, Blue Jays test infield changes in victory over Orioles

TORONTO — In the wake of the MRI that revealed Bo Bichette’s left knee sprain, John Schneider invited Andres Gimenez in for a chat the infielder had been expecting. The Toronto Blue Jays were weighing options to cover the star shortstop’s absence, and they wanted to how the three-time Gold Glove second baseman felt about potentially sliding over. After all, he’d risen the ranks as a shortstop and had 84 big-league games at the position, so if they could “optimize” his abilities as someone Schneider described as “probably the best infielder in Major League Baseball,” it was surely worth a look.

“He was just really honest with me,” Gimenez said of their chat. “We put some points on the table and he decided to put me at short. I just needed time for practice to get my arm in the right spot because it's way different (throwing) from second than short. It's a longer distance and I had to get my arm ready. I feel fine in practice, so let's see.”

The experiment began Friday night with Gimenez’s first start at shortstop since July 12, 2022 — he played six innings there June 26 at Cleveland when Bichette was at DH, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was hit on the hand and Ernie Clement moved from short to first — and he played clean on a quiet night during a 6-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. 

Gimenez looked smooth picking a 107.6 m.p.h. rocket from Samuel Basallo in the fifth and turned a clean double play in the seventh started by Louis Varland after he snared a Colton Cowser comebacker.

Otherwise, it was an uneventful evening on the left side of the infield behind Chris Bassitt, who was dominant over five innings of one-run ball while striking out six, and five relievers before a crowd of 34,376.

“I trust him at any position — he's a Platinum Glover, so I'm not too concerned where he is in the infield. I just want him in the infield,” said Bassitt. “We're really blessed to have not just him, but Ernie's unbelievable, Vladdy's obviously really good, too. We're blessed with a really good infield.”

Bassitt used that infield to record eight of his 15 outs, with four of his strikeouts coming in his final two innings. He was only at 75 pitches when he came out of the game, a manager’s decision the right-hander supported with the Blue Jays in the middle of 13 games in 13 days on a day when physically he wasn’t at his best.

“Just that time of year, things don't feel great,” he explained. “It’s making sure we're the healthiest going forward and making sure, honestly, that we're healthy through October. We have a long way to go. We know we have a long way to go. It's just how can we be smart and, obviously, Schneids has final say on all those things on where he kind of draws the line, knowing truly how we feel.”

The bullpen made a night of scratch-it-out offence stand up, as Trevor Rogers allowed a single unearned run — collected when Davis Schneider walked and scored after Guerrero’s single to the right-centre-field gap was booted by Cowser — over five innings, before Myles Straw’s go-ahead RBI double off Dietrich Enns in the sixth and Clement’s RBI single in the seventh.

Daulton Varsho’s two-run double and Guerrero’s RBI single in the eighth provided some late breathing room as the Blue Jays moved to 85-62. They remain atop the AL East by three games over the New York Yankees (82-65), 4-1 winners over the Boston Red Sox (81-67), who are now 4½ games back.

“We've been there, we’ve done it," Straw said of the Blue Jays' faith that their offence will eventually put up runs. “We've got the guys in the lineup and if it's not the right guy in the lineup, we've got the right guy on the bench to fill in. The whole roster, as it stands, is really, really good and they're all prepared to do what we've got to do.”

That applies to Gimenez sliding over to shortstop, as well, and how much run he gets there is, for the moment, unclear. John Schneider said he really likes him and Clement “on the left side” together, although the Blue Jays won’t always be able to run with that configuration when Addison Barger is on the dirt.

Against the lefty Rogers, Barger sat with Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who had two hits and scored a run, starting at second and Clement at third. They can also run that infield on days Barger is in right field, but when he moves in to the hot corner, John Schneider will need to how to align Clement and Gimenez, who conceded that moving to shortstop “is going to take you out of your comfort zone.”

“Something that I've learned is it's good to be out of your comfort zone and more important for me is helping the team, because it gives Schneider more flexibility in the lineup and the matchups,” he added. “I'm happy to be helping the team in this way.”

Bigger picture, Gimenez playing some games at shortstop also gives him and the Blue Jays a preview of what the possibility could look like moving forward, should Bichette, a pending free agent, sign elsewhere. The club is expected to try and retain him and he’s expressed a desire to remain, but Gimenez offers a potential contingency should they not align in the winter.

Asked how he’d feel about a permanent switch should one be needed, Gimenez replied, “I don't know. Unfortunately, we don't have one of one of our best players on the team right now. We have to move forward and try to find a solution. I'm not thinking too far ahead. That's a really good question. Just not ready for it. But let's see how it plays out.”