RICHARD GRIFFIN
Donaldson might be the one that the Blue Jays can’t be without
Jays playing it safe with Donaldson, the player they can least afford to lose,
Josh Donaldson came to the Rogers Centre on Monday for treatment on the right calf he had injured at the start of spring training, and re-injured running out a groundball Sunday at Tropicana Field. When he came back to the park Tuesday, the club felt the calf had not improved enough for the former MVP to be in the lineup for the home opener. They are being cautious, even though they are saying it’s not the same injury.
“It’s still hanging around, so we feel it’s best to give him another day and go day to day with it,” manager John Gibbons said. “We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow.”
Donaldson is not so sure that he should have been held out of the lineup. Of course this is a tough guy that in one guest appearance on the series, Vikings, sacrificed his own brother for the common good. He’s a gamer.
“My calf’s feeling a lot better (Tuesday) than it was (Monday),” Donaldson said after batting practice. “That being said they want to take a little bit more of a cautious route than I would want to take, but ultimately it’s their decision. They get paid to make those kind of decisions and they’ve had a lot more schooling in the situation than I have, so I’ll take their word for it for now.”
The situation was right for Donaldson to come off the bench in the ninth inning, trailing by a run and batting in place of Ryan Goins. He worked the count full against Neftali Feliz, but struck out swinging. The Jays lost 4-3, the club’s fourth consecutive loss, leaving them at an AL worst 1-6. Donaldson says his bat will be ready on Wednesday, even if he will not be asked to run hard or, likely, even play the field.
Truthfully, even prior to the aggravation, Donaldson did not seem physically right on the first road trip. He had a hard groundball shoot underneath him for a double as he dove to his right on opening day in Baltimore. It seemed then that he was not able to get as low in his position as he normally would. We’ve seen him make that play. Even some of his throws, whenever he has had to go to the foul line, have not seemed as hard or as accurate as normal, perhaps because of the weakened right calf.
The Jays don’t want to rush Donaldson back into action at the hot corner, but there are few viable alternatives. He is the player they can least afford to lose for a month. Face it, Donaldson has not played in two days and if there was a player down on the farm at Triple-A Buffalo that was better than a Ryan Goins-Darwin Barney platoon, he would have been called up already. The Jays would have made use of the lenient 10-day disabled list to give Donaldson’s calf time to heal. He would have resisted.
The most realistic solution for Gibbons, at least for the remainder of this homestand, is that whenever he is ready to start, Donaldson should be the designated hitter to lessen the chance of further aggravating the injury with the pounding of playing defence on the artificial turf. But that would mean Gibbons would have to put Kendrys Morales at first base every day, with Justin Smoak on the bench and Steve Pearce with the lion’s share of playing time in left field.
The anti-Smoak lobby might see that as a bonus, with more, better offence, but the defence at first base and in left field would surely suffer. It’s a trade-off.
“The different surface does do something to guys’ bodies,” Gibbons said. “But if it means we get (Donaldson’s) bat in the lineup in the DH spot, that’s what we’ll do. Kendrys will do a good, solid job over there at first base, I think. We’ll see. We’ll make sure Josh is good and ready to go and if it means DH’ing, yeah, he’ll DH.”
The Jays have Jason Leblebijian at third base in Buffalo and Emilio Guerrero at Double-A New Hampshire. That makes it easy to understand why the team is reluctant to make a sudden move with Don- aldson. He is the most difficult Jay to replace.
Here are the next four names on that list the Jays can ill afford to lose.
Russell Martin: The starting catcher is off to another slow start offensively, but this is a pitching-centric team and his presence on the field is critical.
Backup Jarrod Saltalamacchia is a stronger option than was Josh Thole, but behind Salty there is a choice between Luke Maile, recently claimed from the Rays and now in Buffalo, and Reese McGuire, who became one of Gibbons’ favourite prospects in spring trainng, with New Hampshire.
Kevin Pillar: This may seem like an odd choice as the third most invaluable player, but centre field is a far different animal than the two corners and, with Dalton Pompey still in concussion mode, replacing Pillar and his defence would be tough.
Carrera is the only other viable option on the roster, but he is not anywhere near as good defensively. Anthony Alford and Harold Ramirez are still too young and both are at New Hampshire. Veteran Chris Coghlan could help as an extra outfielder, but he is better at the corners.
Roberto Osuna: The Jays have already had their Osuna-free experience and they didn’t much like it, returning from an opening road trip, played with the closer on the DL, at a league worst 1-5.
The Jays lost both of their extrainning games, but unlike the NHL there’s no point awarded for an overtime loss.
It’s not just that Osuna was un- available to pitch the ninth, but there was a trickle-down effect, with Jason Grilli closing and everyone else moved up in the bullpen scheme. Instead of the coaches working with matchups, they were being forced to count outs and leave relievers in disadvantaged positions.
Aaron Sanchez or Marcus Stroman: These two names are chosen from among a sturdy starting five as most difficult to lose because the two are the members of the rotation with the most upside.
If the Jays are to advance to the playoffs for a third straight year, both Stroman and Sanchez will have stepped up. Others have established their ceilings. Righthander Casey Lawrence is the answer to the question of who’s got next, with a possibility of Lucas Harrell and Jarrett Grube as very interim fill-ins.