Jays play it safe, Travis iffy for opening day
DUNEDIN, FLA.— It’s been a long, slow road back to health for Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis. Each morning he spends time working with the team’s peak performance staff, trying to accelerate the healing process on his bruised right knee. But as with hearts and egos, bones heal at their own pace.
Recall that in Game 1 of last October’s ALDS against the Rangers, Travis suffered a bruised knee that kept him out for the rest of the series. He was activated for Game1of the ALCS against the Indians, but aggravated the knee and was replaced on the roster by Justin Smoak.
On Nov. 18, Travis underwent minor surgery to repair cartilage damage in the knee, but that left the bone bruise to heal on its own. As with Michael Saunders and his meniscus tear in 2015, those bruises around joints heal at their own pace.
“I don’t know when he’s going to be back and ready to go,” manager John Gibbons admitted. “It’s one of those things, if it costs him a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season, so be it. As long as we get him back and he can still get a full year in. I expected him, to be honest, to be a little bit further along than he is, but we’re going to be cautious with him. Don’t read anything into that.”
Expect Travis’s first action, if he does make it back onto the field in March, to be at minor league camp instead of in Grapefruit League action. The same method of utilizing minor-league games to enhance the preparedness of major-league players, getting extra at-bats and innings pitched, will be in force for many among the Jays’ comeback group. Gibbons also suggested that Steve Pearce, who has thus far been restricted to DH duty, has been targeted for action in the field on March 19.
“(Kendrys) Morales is going to need a lot of at-bats,” Gibbons began. “Pearce is going to need his. He’ll start playing in the field, but he’s still going to need some extra at-bats. Russell (Martin) when he comes back, so we won’t have to catch him as much. He’ll be going down there. We’ll have a lot of guys going down there.”
If Travis is compelled to begin the regular season on the disabled list, the candidates for playing time at second base are led by veteran Darwin Barney, with Ryan Goins and Jake Elmore in the mix as possible backups. Goins has no minor-league options remaining and if he does not make the 25-man roster would have to be placed on waivers. Elmore is a non-roster player.