A new breed of speed for Jays batting lineup
DUNEDIN, FLA.— Last season the Blue Jays used 10 different players in the first two spots of their batting order, searching in vain for a spark to ignite the team’s offence. This year will be different. Just as soon as they were acquired, Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera were inked into the top of the Jays’ lineup, just ahead of sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, creating an all-Dominican top four.
In Reyes, the Jays have a bona fide leadoff hitter for the first time in a decade. The three-time stolen base champ and winner of the 2011 NL batting title gives the Jays a speedy switch-hitter with a high contact rate and solid on-base percentage.
Cabrera, who can also swing from both sides of the plate, has the potential to hit .300, steal 20 bases and hit in all situations.
But there are also big questions about both players.
For Cabrera, the looming concern is how he performs without the aid of performance-enhancing drugs. He was hitting .346 and on pace to contend for the batting title last season before he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was suspended for 50 games. Even when he was eligible to return, the San Francisco Giants left him off their post-season roster before going on to win the World Series.
How much will Cabrera’s performance fade?
Jays’ GM Alex Anthopoulos would be happy if he was just as good as he was in 2011, when he hit .305 and added 18 home runs. But nobody knows how far back Cabrera was doping.
If he plays like he did in 2010, when he hit .255 with just four home runs, it could be a problem for the Jays.
For Reyes, the biggest concern is how his multi-million-dollar legs hold up on the Rogers Centre’s artificial turf. Reyes was healthy all of last season but has battled hamstring issues throughout his career. In an off-season meeting with beat writers, Anthopoulos said his research showed turf tended to be harder on knees and ankles, but no worse for hamstrings. That said, even a minor injury to Reyes’ prized wheels would significantly hamper his effectiveness.
The upside is both players could be the ignition to a dynamic Jays’ offence if Reyes and Cabrera can consistently set the table for the meat of the Jays’ order. For Reyes, who has hit in the leadoff spot in more than 85 per cent of his big league at-bats, the key to batting first in the order is simple. “Just get on base, no matter how.” If only it were that easy. Last year, the five players the Jays used in the leadoff spot combined for a paltry .294 on-base percentage, the second-worst in the entire order. That’s backwards. Ideally, a leadoff hitter should be, if not the best, among the top three on-base guys in a lineup. “You need to find a way to get on for the big guys behind you,” Reyes said. The big guys behind him are, of course, Bautista and Encarnacion, two of the game’s premier power hitters, either of whom could con- tend for the home run title. “With those guys behind me I know if I get on most of the time I’m going to score a lot of runs,” Reyes said. “When I score a lot of runs, that’s going to put this team in a great position to win every single day.” Beyond giving Encarnacion and Bautista more opportunities to collect RBIs this season, if Reyes and Cabrera are having success at the plate it should residually benefit the sluggers by ensuring they receive more appetizing offerings from the mound. “The more people I have on base and the better that Edwin and Adam (Lind) are hitting, the more good pitches I’m going to see.” The idea of one batter “protect- ing” another in the lineup is one of baseball’s ongoing debates. But for Bautista there is no doubt.
“If I’m going up to the plate with nobody on all the time and Edwin and Adam aren’t at their best, then I’m not going to see any good pitches. . . . Everybody helps each other out in the lineup by either getting on base or hitting the ball well.”
Encarnacion is also looking forward to having Reyes and his speed hitting in front of him. He suggested that pitchers will be reluctant to throw off-speed pitches or balls in the dirt knowing Reyes is a threat to steal every time he’s on.
“You want to be quick to the plate because you don’t want him to steal a base,” Encarnacion said. “So yeah, that’s exciting. I’m going to see more pitches now.”
Reyes said his baseball idol has always been Derek Jeter, a fellow shortstop who has spent almost his entire 17-year career batting in the first or second spot in the New York Yankees’ lineup, posting a .382 career on-base-percentage.
“When he hits he just wants to get on base, no matter how, to put himself in scoring position for his team,” Reyes said. “That’s the kind of player that I want to be like.”
Reyes became a switch-hitter when he was 16, in order to make himself more marketable to majorleague teams.
“My manager told me back in the Dominican: ‘You’re skinny. If you have a little speed, it’s going to be better for you if you switch-hit.’ ”