A position of strength
The Springer deal was just the start for the Jays.
The Blue Jays scored more runs than all but two teams in the American League in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but they allowed more runs than all but four. That combination had them sneak into the one-time-only expanded playoffs as the eighth seed, though they were knocked out before even getting their feet wet.
Over the winter, the front office did some good work to try to improve both run production and run prevention. Here’s a look at the position player side of things:
The big fish, of course, is George Springer. The Jays snagged the best free agent available this winter, with his six-year, $150-million (U.S.) contract being the most guaranteed money for a player in club history and the longest term they’d ever given a free agent. Springer becomes the focal point of a very strong lineup and gives the Jays the best combination of offence and defence they’ve had in centre field since Vernon Wells’ glory days.
Springer will always be linked to the 2017 Houston Astros, the team that cheated its way to a championship. He was the World Series MVP that year, blasting five home runs and posting a spectacular 1.471 OPS in the seven-game win over the Dodgers. Of course, he also went 3-for-26 the series before, so the garbage cans weren’t magic. Springer, unlike some of his other ex-teammates, had his best year by far post-trash can, posting a .974 OPS and belting a career-high 39 homers in 2019 despite missing a month with a hamstring injury.
His 2020 numbers — small sample size caveats apply — were very similar to what he did in ’17, which would suggest that he’s much more than a creation of the elaborate cheating system that his Astros employed. We’ll find out over the next six years.
If Springer comes as advertised, and given his last couple of seasons (and his pedigree — the guy was drafted 11th overall) there’s no reason to believe he won’t, the Jays will take a major step forward in both run scoring and run prevention. Springer is a terrific centre-fielder, though a notch below Kevins Kiermaier and Pillar, and allows the Jays to move their worst defensive outfielder, Teoscar Hernandez, to the DH spot where he can complete his transformation into the Edwin Encarnacion of the ’20s.
Hernandez came into his own last season, batting .289/.340/ .579 and blasting 16 home runs in just 50 games, winning a Silver Slugger award. Yes, it was only 50 games, and it’s often folly to try to draw conclusions from last year’s shortened season, but when you combine those numbers with the second half of 2019, in which Hernandez posted a .939 OPS with 18 home runs, a clearer picture begins to emerge. Using him as the designated hitter improves the defence, since his big throwing arm doesn’t make up for his lack of range. It also plugs up that spot, though, which might make life difficult for Rowdy Tellez.
Tellez has the advantage of being a left-handed hitter, something the Jays’ regular lineup is lacking, but the disadvantage of sharing a position with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — since it appears Cavan Biggio will wind up at third base barring an incredibly impressive spring showing at the position from Guerrero, who spent the off-season reshaping his body.
Tellez’s 2020 numbers looked great. He hit .283/.346/.540 — almost the same as Hernandez — but here’s where the small sample argument kicks in. In truth, Rowdy had a phenomenal two weeks. He hit .370/ .434/.674 from Aug. 26 until a knee injury ended his season 14 days later. Outside those two weeks, Tellez managed just a .224/.284/.448 line. That’s almost exactly what he did in his disappointing 2019 although, to be fair, his strikeout rate dropped from 28.4 per cent to a pre-hot-streak 16.2 per cent, which is encouraging.
Still, the jury is very much out on his ability to be a regular contributor, which likely means the Jays have to decide between Tellez and Guerrero sharing first base and DH with Hernandez going back out to right field, or Hernandez DHing with Randal Grichuk in right and Tellez mostly on the bench.
The other major addition to the position player corps is Marcus Semien, who finished third in AL MVP voting in 2019 at shortstop in Oakland, but took a step back in 2020 and will be asked to shift to second base, a position he hasn’t played since he was a rookie in 2014. As a shortstop, Semien had a rough start to his career, but he improved with the glove and put up 26 defensive runs saved over the 2018-19 seasons before slipping back last year, a drop-off that can be attributed to a side injury he dealt with for most of the first half.
Semien’s offensive numbers took a significant dip from his breakout 2019 (.285/.369/.522), but following an 0-for-10 immediately after returning from his injury he put up a .787 OPS the rest of the way, then hit .407 over Oakland’s seven playoff games.
Semien’s arrival sends Biggio to third or, if Guerrero is able to play there, turns Biggio into the Zobristic Swiss Army knife the Jays have always seemed to want him to be, with the potential to start at six different positions around the diamond.
However they roll out, this is a position player group that should be significantly better on both sides of the ball than the Jays fielded last season.