The Blue Jays announced they’ve reinstated Teoscar Hernández from the injured list. Toronto has an extra active roster spot for today’s doubleheader against the Guardians, so no further move was necessary.
Hernández is back a little more than three weeks after landing on the shelf with a mild oblique strain. The star outfielder had played in only six games before going down. He’d collected six hits and a pair of walks in 23 plate appearances, a strong start to build off his middle-of-the-order output of the previous two seasons. Between 2020-21, Hernández compiled a .295/.345/.538 slash line. By measure of wRC+, that was the 26th-best production on a rate basis in the majors (among those with at least 500 plate appearances).
That kind of hitting would go a long way towards solidifying the Jays’ offense among the league’s best. Toronto’s lineup has been middle-of-the-pack through the season’s first month, a disappointing outcome considering the talent on the roster. That’s at least partially attributable to oblique strains for both Hernández and catcher Danny Jansen.
While the former has been out of commission, Raimel Tapia has stepped into the primary outfield. That hasn’t gone well, with the offseason trade acquisition limping to a .212/.227/.282 line in his first 90 plate appearances with the Jays. Pushing Tapia back into a depth role behind the starting outfield of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., George Springer and Hernández should be a dramatic upgrade on offense.
Toronto has also faced a heavy dose of the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros in the first month and still has a respectable record. That said, it is a bit concerning with their batting average with runners in scoring position, Hernandez hopefully can provide a bit of protection for Vladdy that’s been sorely missed.
Hopefully Hernandez will serve as a spark plug igniting the underperforming team offense.
Him batting 4th is what the lineup is missing, Vlad has been pitched around every time he’s up to bat with a man on.
Sure he’d be a big boost to the offense if he was IN THE LINEUP today. He can’t at least DH in game 1?
Yes can’t agree more. It’s so sad how with that poor performance this spring of the lineup scoring runs that we have to depend so much on Tapia and especially Zimmer. Zimmer has proven to be an automatic out and has struck out in almost half of his plate appearances! Doesn’t even put the ball in play much of the time!
Naturally Tapia puts up a big game today. Go figure.
Well, if you limit his appearances to favorable pitching matchups the numbers should go way up, at this point in his career he’s really not a full time outfielder.
The Blue Jays should have never traded Grichuk. He is an excellent 4th OF who could have easily replaced 70% of Teoscar’s offensive output while he was out. I know a lot of people thought he was overpaid but his contract was reasonable. I’d much rather have Grichuk than Tapia as my team’s 4th outfielder.
At this point me too. Wasn’t honestly a fan of Grichuk.. But boy was I wrong. I’d much rather have Grichuk over Tapia after seeing Tapia. Yeah, cant speak for every jays fan, but me personally, guess I definitely took Grichuk for granted for what he offered to the team. I don’t think it makes a major difference though for this years club, but again, we probably would’ve benefited more having Grichuk over Tapia. I think Jays will be fine soon enough with the bats though, guys are about to hit their stride as a whole imo.
Blue Jays would have been better off keep Grichuk. Didn’t like the trade when it happened.
Toronto needs another bat. Right now, without a real DH a lot of poor hitters will be getting too many AB’s.
The lineup already had holes at C and 3B, a third hole, which is what they have now is too much. A real bat for the DH spot is needed.