Travis takes one for the team
Struggling second bagger demoted to make way for relief reinforcement
Devon Travis is a poster boy for hard luck and harder knocks.
Oodles of talent wrapped up inside an often fragile and treasonous body. Also, to just about everybody, the dearest Blue Jay in the clubhouse, Mr. Sunshine for all his injury woes.
So, there were pangs of regret when manager John Gibbons called the second baseman into his office on Sunday morning: Buffalo, you.
With his bullpen running on “fumes” and adjustment possibilities in the infield, management really had few better alternatives. Simultaneous with the recall of reliever Carlos Ramirez, already on Toronto’s 40man roster, Travis was the odd man out, his option to Triple A protected from the waiver wire.
Though the struggling — at the plate — Travis must have taken the slow overland route because he wasn’t in the lineup Sunday against Pawtucket. Expected to meet ’n’ greet his new teammates in their away game at Scranton on Monday.
“Naturally he’s disappointed, but there’s not a more professional guy in the clubhouse,” said Gibbons. “He understood the reasoning. But … we don’t think it will be long term.”
Reasoning: Travis is a one-dimensional a second baseman. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., recently summoned, is more versatile and started at second against Texas in the series finale. When Josh Donaldson is reactivated from his shoulder rehab, Yangervis Solarte could slide from the hot corner to second if required. At the moment, however, regular catcher Russell Martin is the only backup infielder: Solarte at third, Gurriel at second, Aledmys Diaz the everyday shortstop and Troy Tulowitzki, this past week, resuming baseball activities in Florida following surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels.
“We definitely didn’t want to do it, but we’re strapped in the ’pen right now,” Gibbons told reporters. “Those guys are pitching a lot and really, the thinking behind it is, (Travis) is strictly a second baseman and Gurriel, you can put him anywhere. We don’t think it will be long term by any means, and it’s not going to hurt him to go down there and get his bat going. But it basically came down to, we got to protect the bullpen a little bit.”
After a cautious spring training with belated game action — Travis on the cusp of recovering from yet more off-season surgery — the 27-year-old has clearly been trying to find his swing, eye and comfort zone at the plate. A career .282/.322/ .447, his slash line through April was a dismal .148/.212/.246 in 66 plate appearances, with carefully managed off-days to help buffer him from further ailments. The litany of hurts that drastically restricted his roster inclusion runs the gamut from shoulder inflammation to a surgically reduced large cyst, a freaky non-fused bone in the shoulder, bone bruises and stray knee cartilage.
His regular days off will continue in Buffalo.
“I think that he needs that,” said Gibbons. “I think he needs to string a few more games together, that will help him. But we’re still going to be cautious with that.”
Of course, sending Travis down was also the easier option while big-ticket veterans such as Randal Grichuk and Kendrys Morales continue to labour in the batter’s box. They can’t so seamlessly be pulled off the roster, which dragged Travis down.
“Yeah, obviously, what’s your point,” Gibbons semi-snapped when the equation was posed. “Your point is, you want to be in the front office.” Harrumph. “Every year going in, you’re aware of who has options, who doesn’t and things like that, and it always happen. Somebody suffers because they have options.”
All this, of course, is the result of an overtaxed relief corps. The group’s collective ERA heading into Sunday was 2.21, best in the American League. But they’d thrown 852⁄ innings through 3 Saturday,11th in the AL. However, they’ve been doing it with only seven arms to accommodate a chunkier outfield. Nobody wants to see Teoscar Hernandez backpedal to Buffalo.
All of that, of course, is the cascading impact of disappointing performances from threefifths of the starting rotation — Marcus Stroman out of whack, both Marco Estrada and No. 5 Jaime Garcia long-ball generous. Toronto’s starter ERA was 5.39 over145 1⁄3innings. Only on three occasions had Jays starters gone into the seventh (twice) or eighth inning.
Gibbons had Ramirez warming up in the sixth on Sunday, but called upon Ryan Tepera in relief instead.
“The bullpen, they’re tired. If something happens tomorrow. we’re going to need (Ramirez) for a few days.’’
The 27-year-old right-hander – a converted outfielder — made his major-league debut with Toronto and was impressive, giving up just six hits in 162⁄ innings or relief work 3 while striking out 14 and posting a 2.70 ERA. Prior to that, Ramirez had thrown 372⁄ in3 nings in the minors without allowing an earned run.
Thus far this season, restricted by an elbow issue, Ramirez had pitched only six innings, allowing four runs on two hits while striking out a half-dozen.
“He hadn’t hit his stride yet,” said Gibbons, “but he had a hell of a year for us last year and looked good in September, so we’ll see.” Ramirez, who now plumps out the ’pen to eight arms, assured reporters that his elbow is just fine.
“My elbow has got better and I was just trying to get back to rhythm. My spring training was kind of the start of the (regular) season, so now it’s feeling better.”
With September ’17 under his belt, he’s not so wide-eyed this time ’round.
“It’s baseball, wherever you go. Here is a little bit difficult because you’ve got to make your pitches and do your thing, but it’s baseball wherever you go.” Some go up, some go down.