Pompey speeds toward post-season role
BALTIMORE— Dalton Pompey’s season has not gone as the 22-year-old Mississauga native had hoped, but the speedy outfielder could still play a pivotal post-season role for his hometown team.
Pompey broke camp as the Blue Jays’ starting centre fielder after an impressive cameo last September, but he struggled early and spent the bulk of the season in the minors, even falling at one point to Double-A before getting back on track with a much-improved second half.
He was recalled to the Jays earlier this month as big-league rosters expanded for the final month of the season, and while he has made just two plate appearances and played just four innings in the outfield, he has been utilized as a pinch runner to great effect.
“Shoot, he’s been perfect with it,” manager John Gibbons said before Tuesday’s game against the Orioles was rained out.
“He’s stole a few bases and every time he gets on he seems to score, so it’s worked pretty good.”
In seven pinch-running appearances, Pompey has stolen three bases and scored five times.
Monday night was his latest opportunity when, pinch-running for catcher Dioner Navarro, Pompey scored the game-winning run in the ninth inning on a soft squibber by Justin Smoak.
“He’s got a great first step and then he flies,” Gibbons said. “He’s helped us win a couple games.”
Given the success of the Kansas City Royals in last year’s post-season, when they employed an aggressive base-running approach and used a pair of pinch-running specialists in Jarrod Dyson and Terrance Gore, could Pompey serve a similar role for the Jays?
With his speed and defensive ability, Pompey could be favoured over Ezequiel Carrera for the fourth outfielder’s spot on the post-season roster; or the Jays could potentially carry both players on their bench and go with seven rather than eight relievers.
On Tuesday, at least, Gibbons sounded like Pompey had made a strong case to be included.
“I think every team needs one of those guys,” he said. “We’ve got some guys in our lineup that you need to run for.”
Smoak, Navarro, Edwin Encarnacion, Chris Colabello and Russell Martin could all be lifted late in games for pinch runners.
Pompey knows that could be his ticket.
“Obviously I saw last year with Gore and Dyson, those guys coming in late in crucial spots in the game,” he said. “They’re just as important as everybody else. If I’m able to fill that role, then great.
“I look forward to more opportunities where I can.”
Naturally, he’d rather be in the starting lineup but given where he was earlier this season, he’ll chip in however he can.
“Everybody wants to play,” he said.
“That’s why we’re here: we all want to play, we all want to be successful. But right now I understand my role is to help this team any way I can. And not just to be a good teammate but also, growing up just outside the city, I want to see this team win.”
Born between the Jays’ back-toback World Series victories — in December of1992 — Pompey was sometimes considered a good-luck charm by his American minor-league teammates for his connection to the city and its baseball glory years.
He cheered for the Jays growing up and once, as a teenager, brazenly told Vernon Wells he’d replace him one day. These days Pompey is humbler. “Never in my wildest dreams would I think I would be in this position, but I am, and I feel like I’m enjoying it for everybody that I played with, everybody that roots for the Blue Jays,” he said. “Just being from the city and seeing all the teams that have come and gone, to be there after 22 years when we clinch the division, go to the playoffs for the first time in a long time, is something that I’ll never forget.”