Second baseman Devon Travis is on his way back up to the Blue Jays, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter). He’ll finally make it back from shoulder issues that have kept him away from the club since late last July. Travis impressed in his first 239 big league plate appearances, putting up a .304/.361/.498 slash with eight home runs. Even if he can’t keep up that pace, there’s every hope that he’ll significantly upgrade a unit that owns one of the league’s least productive batting lines.
Here are a few more notes from the AL East:
- The loss of Carson Smith leaves the Red Sox in need of an additional quality pen arm, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald writes. That’s not to say there’s any particular rush to the trade market, which president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made clear would not be the case. But Drellich argues that the organization needs to begin lining up targets for the summer. Meanwhile, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford takes a look at a few possibilities who could be available.
- Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez suffered what GM Brian Cashman is calling a “cracked thumb” in last night’s action, Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre beat writer Shane Hennigan tweets. The 23-year-old is one of the game’s most highly-regarded backstop prospects, and seemed ready for a full shot at the majors after opening the year with a .290/.333/.529 slash in 147 plate appearances. Of course, the Yankees are all set at the big league level for the time being. The club will hope that the injury won’t take too big a chunk out of Sanchez’s season, but his outlook remains unclear at present.
Im envious as a Jay’s fan if u think the sox need more pitching since smith is gone. Right now, an injured smith who needs tommy John might be the fourth best pitcher option after osuna, Floyd and biagini.
I wonder if the Red Sox would be interested in moving a young bat for Vizcaino.
I Was thinking the same thing.
Forty-five minutes ago, media outlets were declaring: “BlueJays activate Devon Travis.”
The official Toronto Blue Jays news blast came into my inbox 15 minutes later:
“Blue Jays continue to bring Travis along slowly”
As a Blue Jay fan, this is a little desperate, though I understand not wanting to give Peredes a glove.
Or goins a bat…
After getting 2 hits last night, yes, they’re desperate for a spark.
It probably is a bit quick, but he was tearing it up on his rehab assignment, if he’s healthy he’s the best option at second base although Darwin Barney has done a nice job in limited action. The Jays need to figure out what they have very soon, if they have to start chasing four other quality teams in their division, it’s game over. Baltimore and Red Sox are already starting to pull away, chasing one team is one thing, chasing multiple teams is a tough row to hoe. There’s no way they are trading prospects for bullpen help this year, and the course of action will be trading pending quality free agents to retool for the years ahead. The have a very nice young core of players, and to add to that really is the way to go, free agents such as Bautista, EE, we bring some nice hauls of prime prospects, Smoak, Cecil, Storen, Chavez, Barney, Dickey, could all bring back some decent prospects as well.
No one is giving you anything decent for Smoak, Barney, Storen, or Cecil. Storen and Cecil have been dumpster fires this year and Smoak and Barney are nothing more than journeymen bench players. Bautista and EE are not getting you a massive haul either., ok hauls but nothing that jaw dropping. Both are free agents at years end so they only appeal to teams in the hunt and as of right now no team have needs for them and only a team desperate for offense on the cusp of contention would plug either of them into anything but a DH role.
Lol okay. Cecil has a track record, wasn’t pitching well this year, no. He was a dominant lefty last year, and if he gets back and on track, I’m sure you could get some lotto ticket prospects. Smoak, Barney, are nice bench pieces for a contending club, both play very well defensively and Smoak has a tonne of power. Dickey is a dependable innings eater, could be nice add for back end of a rotation, I never said you’d get blue chips prospects for them, but if a team has a legitimate shot and a decent farm and wants the player then, maybe. If you look at what prices were paid for the likes of Zobrist and Cespedes and pretty dam sure your going to get premium prospects for Bautista and EE, they would go right into the heart of any contending a teams order. Get a grip.
Smock would bring back a good bullpen prospect or quality utility player, and Cecil has been getting extremely unlucky thus far
Jays won’t be trading JB or EE no matter what happens this season, so please stop bringing that idea up. The other players you listed would not bring back any prospects worth trading for. This is a win now team, just relax and they will be back in the race soon enough.
It would be amazing if Travis could come back and play like he did last year. When you have 9 sluggers in the lineup they can’t *all* stink at the same time, can they?
Its been speculated for a while now that Joe Kelly could transition to the bullpen. With a rotation of Price, Porcello, Buchholz, Wright and (sooner or later) ERod, Kelly is on the outside looking in. If Kelly could adapt to that role he has a chance of being a real weapon in the late innings with that fastball, and his off-speed junk has improved in the last year or so. It is also noteworthy that both Tazawa and Uehara are free agents after this season, while Kelly won’t reach free agency until 2019, so he could be part of a long-term bullpen solution that they could spot start every now and then.
Depending on how Kelly fairs in his next few outtings, i dont really see him going to the pen. Buchholz is the weak link right now. My concern with Kelly as a late innings guy is that he walks people a lot. You want a guy thats pinpoint accurate in the late innings because walks could cost you the game.
Anyone else thinking Travis coming back earlier could be a sign that Tulo could be out a little longer than the Jays are letting on?
Why else bring him back earlier than needed with Barney, Goins
Yea that’s a definite possibility
Goins has all but punched his bus ticket back to Buffalo, and with the Jays’ bats struggling, it couldn’t hurt to get Travis some swings against real major league pitching.
Goins is a tough one for me. Sure his bat stinks but we all knew this already so we can’t really be surprised. I haven’t looked at the stats but I feel anecdotally his glove hasn’t been as strong this year as it was last, making his bat struggles even more amplified.
I can’t remember but does Barney have any experience at SS or are the Jays handcuffed into Goins there?
Not much, but he could handle it for a day here or there to spell Tulo. If Tulo was injured, then we’d surely see Goins back up at that point.
As an O’s fan I’d like to see the Blue Jays continue to let Paredes play the field. But honestly, I don’t know how long they can continue to act like he’s acceptable in the field. If a team can DH him, they’ll probably be happy. Hand him a glove and he negates a lot of what his bat brings to the game.
Don’t worry, he won’t be using a glove now that Travis is back. Just enjoy the Jays’ struggle while it lasts, they will be right back fighting for the division once the bats are back to the normal production.
I was surprised that the O’s waived Paredes. He was mashing in MILB. Don’t know the O’s roster well enough to know why they let him walk… Any idea?
If only Will Smith was his normal health self this season… Brewers could have been looking at a nice haul from the Sox.