NO SPRING IN HIS STEP
Ailing Jays slugger missing swings
DUNEDIN, FLA. As he prepares for perhaps the most important season of his career, Edwin Encarnacion concedes this spring has hardly gone according to plan.
With free agency beckoning at the end of this year, Encarnacion wants to put together a big season, both for himself and because the Blue Jays are in win-at-all-costs mode in 2016. Unfortunately, he’s had trouble getting on the field for any sustained stretch of ground.
First, he was grounded by an abscessed wisdom tooth that had to be extracted. He missed more than a week of camp because of that and when he returned, he immediately suffered a minor oblique pull. Now 10 more inactive days have gone by. Friday, he finally faced some live pitching in the batting cage and by Monday, he’ll see his first game action.
“It’s good it happened now and not in the season,” said Encarnacion. “I’ll take it now and hope I stay healthy all year.”
Over the next eight days, Encarnacion has to get enough at-bats to have him ready for the season opener in St. Petersburg a week from Sunday.
Encarnacion is philosophical about the number of at-bats required to hit the ground running.
“The game is not easy,” he said. “And you really don’t ever know how it’s going to go. Sometimes you get 50 at-bats in spring and then the season begins and you go 0-for-20. Other times, you only get a few at-bats in spring and you start hitting right away when the season starts.
“The most important thing for me is to get through this next week and be healthy. If that happens, I’ll be ready for the season. If you’re not healthy it doesn’t matter how many at-bats you get. It’s not easy. The only way to find your swing and your timing is to go and play. You just have to play. Sometimes it comes right away, sometimes you struggle.”
Encarnacion said the time he missed because of the abscessed tooth set the stage for the oblique strain.
“I didn’t swing a bat for more than a week because of my tooth and then when I came back the strain happened right away when I started swinging. Now I’m past the treatment stage. I make sure I’m all warmed up before I go outside so my muscles are hot before I start to swing.
Gavin Floyd had thrown maybe 10 pitches in the top of the first inning of a Triple A pre-season game Friday afternoon when he turned and looked out at what must have seemed an apocalyptic storm brewing on the horizon.
“All of a sudden you see this black wall of cloud, then the wind picked up and the siren went off and now it’s ‘Whoa!’ ” said Floyd. “‘Is this going to be a tornado or what?’ It was severe whatever it was.”
By the time everyone fled to shelter, Floyd had thrown only 14 pitches on a day when he was hoping to throw 85. Moments later, he went into one of the batting tunnels and completed his work in a simulated game, warm and dry, while the storm raged overhead.
“I was able to get some good quality work done,” said the veteran, who is competing with Aaron Sanchez and Drew Hutchison for a job in the Jays starting rotation.
“I was trying to simulate a game as closely as possible, using all my pitches, trying to hit different locations, using the slide step as if there was a runner on base.
Floyd threw 71 pitches indoors to get his pitch count for the day up to 85.
“That’s the main point, to get my pitch count up and do it by getting quality work. I was getting after it. We had some hitters standing in. It wasn’t just like a blank canvas. To get to 85 pitches was the main point, but I was able to get a lot of quality work in while hitting that level.”
It’s expected the Jays will announce their full rotation any day now. Until then, all Floyd, Sanchez and Hutchison can do is wait and hope.
“I’ll just continue to go out there and do what I do and when the time comes, they’ll tell us where they want us,” he said with a shrug.
SECOND LEFTY NOT ESSENTIAL
Ideally, with Aaron Loup out of the mix for a bullpen spot on the opening day roster as he tries to recover from a forearm strain, the Jays would fill his spot with another left-hander. As of now, Brett Cecil is the only lefty in the pen but manager John Gibbons would like to have two lefty relievers.
“That would be ideal, but I’m not adamant about it. We’ve got some righties who can get lefties out anyway. We’re not locked into (two lefties). (Randy) Choate and (Pat) Venditte are two of the lefty candidates. We haven’t seen a lot of Choate, but Venditte has pitched very well. We’ll see where that goes, but it’s not something we absolutely have to have.
Other candidates are Ryan Tepera, Arnold Leon and Steve Delabar — all righthanders.
The most important thing for me is to get through this next week and be healthy.
If that happens, I’ll be ready for the season.
EDWIN ENCARNACION