Pompey’s Jays career at a crossroads
News has filtered out that Mississauga’s Dalton Pompey is edging closer to full health and will begin a rehab assignment for the Blue Jays this week in Dunedin.
That’s certainly good news for Pompey’s legions of fans in Canada who have made the lanky outfielder one of the team favourites, based largely on his provenance and the fact that he is a good person with some impressive physical talents.
Unfortunately, the 24-year-old had his season partially derailed representing his country at the World Baseball Classic this spring when he suffered a concussion sliding into second base. Though he’s expected to return soon, that injury has put a damper on Pompey’s development.
As anyone not living in a cave now knows, concussions are a tricky business. There are no guarantees on how one’s recovery might go. This is a big year for Pompey, who has been up and down between Toronto and Buffalo the last three seasons.
He’s had flashes of success with the parent Jays club (. 222 BA, 3 homers in 59 games in the Majors), particularly with his speed on base, but the organization is waiting for him to take that next step, to prove that he can be an every day, starting outfielder in the Major Leagues.
And he might do that when he returns to Triple A Buffalo after his rehab is over and gets another call-up to Toronto.
But there’s a catch. And it’s a rather big one. Pompey may no longer be the club’s No. 1 outfield prospect. Two other players of similar age, Anthony Alford and Dwight Smith Jr., have climbed up the ladder in terms of the Jays’ outfield depth chart.
Pompey is 24 years old, as is Dwight Smith Jr. Alford is 22, and is the highest ranked Jays’ prospect (No. 34) by Baseball America next to infield phenom Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (No. 16). Smith and Alford have been called up to Jays this season on an emergency basis and both impressed manager John Gibbons, though Alford has gone on the DL with a wrist injury and will have surgery this week.
The bottom line is, Alford and Smith are having superb seasons and are showing more and more that they’re top-level Major League prospects. In 41 games in Buffalo, Smith is hitting .322 with five home runs and an OBP of .377. At Double A New Hampshire, Alford was hitting .325 with a OPS of .867 and a OPB of .411. His speed is comparable to Pompey’s. For a man of his size (6-1, 215), the former U.S. College football standout has amazing quickness and like Pompey can hit with power at times.
Pompey is signed for 2017 at $539,000. The Jays are still fairly high on him but, whether fans want to hear this or not, the best scenario for both the team and the player might be for the Canadian to move on.
The personable outfielder spoke at spring training this year about how much pressure there is playing in his hometown and how that pressure would almost certainly be lessened playing somewhere else, though he loves being with the Jays. But with prospects like Alford and Smith coming up, perhaps Pompey’s best shot to become a regular outfielder in the big leagues would be with another organization that doesn’t have quite the same depth in the outfield.
Pompey is a home organization’s dream. But he acknowledged in Dunedin this spring that if it means leaving the Jays organization to realize his dreams of being a regular starting outfielder in major-league ball, he may have to seek other ways of getting there.
Then again, if the Jays embark on a total rebuild, perhaps there’s room for all three outfield prospects. But it’s a dog-eat-dog business, and there’s always someone breathing down your neck. Or in this case, two guys.