Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis underwent surgery to “clean up cartilage” in his injured knee, manager John Gibbons tells Sportsnet’s Mike Wilner (Twitter links). While the procedure wasn’t unexpected, it only further underscores that Travis will be out “awhile.” Per Gibbons, the Blue Jays will go with a platoon of Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins at second base in the absence of Travis.
Toronto has yet to place a formal timeline on Travis’ absence, though the 26-year-old acknowledged last week that the new bone bruise and cartilage damage suffered in the same right knee that he suffered in the offseason would keep him out for an extended period. Travis expressed frustration to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi at the time, explaining that there’s no one incident to which he can tie the injury, which he initially felt after a lengthy flight from Toronto to Oakland.
Travis, who was acquired from the Tigers in exchange for Anthony Gose three years ago, has been a productive force for the Blue Jays when healthy. However, he’s struggled to stay on the field in each of his three seasons with the Jays. In 868 plate appearances with Toronto, Travis has batted .292/.331/.462, but he’s also averaged just 289 plate appearances and 71 games per season (including this year).
Poor guy. Just can’t stay healthy. Hope you get better soon Devon
In May he hit 16 doubles and 4 home runs. The guy was really turning it on and then he got hurt again.
shish kabob
Shame, good ball player and interesting fellow, but incapable of staying healthy. I don’t imagine that embarrassingly outdated turf in Toronto is helping. Jays, its 2017, enough with the turf.
They will never put grass in the Dome. The Jays brass have admitted as much as it will not work. I suggest trading travis to a grass field team as soon as he is back and healthy again. There is no way his knees will last on turf especially with the shifts and right field play of the 2nd base position these days.
Theyve been looking to installing a grass field but the costs associated with adding drainage ect, Rogers Corp may not want to spend the money when the rest of Rogers Centre is going through renovations in the next 1-3yrs.
The new turf was installed last year or the year before, and its described as “spongy” with individual artificial blades of “grass.” So the new stuff is a lot more cushioning than old turf. Every 3 or 4 years they replace the turf with new state of the art stuff because it compresses over time and becomes hard..
But yea real grass would be nice, And we do have a fully dirt infield which was installed in 2016, so that helps. Good point on Travis.
I genuinely feel bad for Jays fans in terms of their ownership. Rogers Communications has a net worth of $22 billlion, yet they operate the Jays on a tight budget. Grass? Rogers could afford to re-seed and construct drainage for all of southern Ontario. Worse, watching Rogers media coverage of the Jays is painful, rarely is their appropriately critical coverage – always with the rose coloured glasses. Rogers Communications are a bunch of cheap bast … individuals.
Saying Rogers has $22 billion does not mean the Jays have access to $22 billion. The team is an arm of the Rogers company and operates on money alloted by businessmen in suits. Businessmen in suits like money more than winning. Rogers is not a rich guy who wants his toy ball club to win so he can needle his similarly rich buddies. Rogers’ sole interest is taking your money.
… and the sky is blue – understood. From $22 billion Rogers can’t afford to pony-up some dough the Jays and their loyal fans deserve? Fans should expect more from their ownership.
There is a strong rumor that the only reason that the Jays have Bautista this year is that the Rogers Board of directors mandated to the Jays mgmt to sign him. That is approx 20 million that they didn’t have prior to the mandate. I wish that they had mandated them signing pitching at the end of last season. Just sayin.
The Bautista re-signing struck me as a PR move – agreed. Losing EE, Price, even Anthopoulos, likely spurred such a strategy. Again, Jays fans deserve more consideration from Rogers. The nickel-and-dime approach of the ‘we can’t compete’ Ricciardi era remains. Shame AA left, he seemed to ‘get it.’
AA knew how to go for it, even if all his deals weren’t successful. The current regime has the “longterm competative” strategy which means, like Cleveland, no championships during Shaprio’s lengthy tenure there since 2001. It took a change in leadership in Cleveland and a new strategy to come up with the big deals to get Miller etc, that allowed them a world series appearance. Let’s hope the Jays have a win now strategy implemented,becuase this team is built to win now, and will only get worse as it aging core declines without a new core to replace it.
Agreed. But, the current management in Toronto seems without a plan, much like you stated above referencing Shapiro’s time in Cleveland. I’ll say it again, Jays fans deserve better.
If the farm was barren, then yeah, you may as well go for it, you really have nothing to lose. But they have enough young talent that they can transition into a promising young team in 2-3 years. It made total sense for AA to go for it when he did because the core was younger and better, and had several years of potential contending in it. The core now is not nearly as good and has maybe 2 outside chances at a WS left in it. I’d rather give up those outside chances and build a stacked young team. I kind of hope the Jays sink before the deadline so they consider moving their veterans (JD included).
I think that is what is going to happen. As much as I am hopeful the Jays will rally and trade to go for it, my scouting eyes say no, they will fold and be sellers at the trade deadline.
still a good trade though. Gose is nothing.
Blue Jays go get Nate Orf of the Brewers or even Hernen Perez and you won’t be sorry
Yes, good trade. Gose turned out to be a bit of a headcase and, last I heard, I think he’s attempting to become a pitcher.
Gose has a 97 MPH heater. And from the left side, that is awesome. I don’t know if he has anything else or good control. He pitched before he was drafted. I hope he makes it back to the show as a pitcher.
c’mon what about Brett Lawrie? He has to be better than Goins/Barney.
kinda off topic but has anyone else noticed how well Justin Smoak has been doing this year?
.. good to see Smoak doing well.
Smoak is having a career year so far. Very miraculous. He didn’t do that when Seattle gave him 450-+ ab’s a year for 3 years. Makes me wonder. Good on him though. He has cut down his swing dramatically and reduced his leg lift. I hear he did some better eating as well. He has had great starts in the past and tanked in the 2nd half. Let’s see if he can keep it together. We don’t want another Michael Saunders performance. Smoak is all-star worthy at the moment.