Saturday notes: Ray to miss a start (#FreeManoah), Davis makes the club, Springer still uncertain, and more!
I had barely finished hitting publish on the mail bag that went up today before the Blue Jays hit us with a bunch of roster news, so I guess it’s time for back-to-back posts! (Don’t worry, I can assure you this one will be significantly more brief.)
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Robbie Ray will miss his first start of the season
In not entirely unexpected news here, but disappointing news nonetheless, the Jays announced after Saturday’s exhibition game that left-hander Robbie Ray will not be able to make his scheduled start in the first series of the season, next weekend in New York. Ray, you may recall, bruised his throwing elbow this week in a fall while carrying his child down a flight of stairs at his home. The kid was OK, fortunately, but clearly Ray was not.
Ideally, he will only miss the one, because Ray had been a revelation for the Jays so far this spring, posting a 1.98 ERA over 13 2/3 innings in four stars, during which he struck out 18, walked five, and allowed only six hits. Command has come and gone for him over the last few seasons, so the low-for-Robbie-Ray walk totals there are almost as impressive as the fact that he struck out so many (or the fact that he did so with a very intriguing uptick in velocity).
If a tumble down the stairs ends up undoing all the good work he’s done this spring and over the winter, well then I suppose it was probably going to be a mirage anyway. Hopefully, though, he’s back in short order and picks up where he left off. The Ray of Spring could be a real difference-maker for these Blue Jays.
In the meantime, someone else is going to have to take that start. According to manager Charlie Montoyo, the club is still weighing its options as to who will get the ball, with Anthong Kay (who says he’s fine after taking a comebacker off the shin here on Saturday), T.J. Zeuch, and Trent Thornton appearing to be the most likely candidates. (If one is even needed — an off-day on Friday means the Jays won’t need a fifth starter until April 7.)
There is, of course, only one correct answer to the question of who should pitch next Saturday.
Jonathan Davis has made the Opening Day roster
In a somewhat surprising move, and one that doesn’t exactly augur well for the health of George Springer, Montoyo also announced today that outfielder Jonathan Davis will break camp as a member of the Blue Jays.
Davis thoroughly deserves it, as he’s played well all spring, and has really seemed to catch the eye of the Blue Jays’ brass since last year. In case you missed it, here’s what I wrote about Davis a little over a week ago, in my Team Up, Team Down feature.
Every year there seems to be more and more to like about Jonathan Davis. Sure, the sample is small here in spring 2021, but Davis has been impressive. He struck out 11 times in 34 big league plate appearances last year, but has only done so twice in 23 PA this spring. He's walked more often than that! And his average exit velocity (which has grown with every year he's played in the bigs) ranks third on the Jays (minimum 50 pitches seen), behind only Kirk and Guerrero. Apparently he made an impression at the alt-site in Rochester last summer, too. He'll turn 29 in May, so he's quickly aging out of prospect status, but there are a lot of positive indicators going on here. I'd love to see him get some real run in the majors, I'm just not sure it's going to happen here. And the question I can’t help but follow that up with is this: if their contracts were identical, would Davis and Grichuk be battling for a job right now?
I don’t think Grichuk has much to worry about in the form of Davis, but I’m glad to see the Blue Jays find a spot for him nonetheless. Hopefully it’s not just at the expense of Springer, who hit off of a tee here on Saturday, and whose status for Opening Day remains unclear.
If Springer is healthy, it could be a short time in the big leagues for Davis. The Jays open the season against the Yankees next Thursday, then have an off day on Friday before beginning a stretch of 16 games in 16 days. They’ll have room to carry some extra bench bats at first, but as they get into that big run of back-to-back games, it seems likely that they’ll want to have as many arms in their bullpen as possible. Davis may only end up serving as insurance for Springer early on before being sent back down. It also seems possible that they could carry Reese McGuire for a short spell too, in the hopes that placing him on waivers after the season has started will increase his chances of going unclaimed.
However it works out, being on an Opening Day roster is special, and you can’t help but feel good for Davis that he’s going to be among the Jays’ 26.
Will Alejandro Kirk join Davis on the Opening Day roster?
A curious omission in all of this post-game roster talk was Alejandro Kirk. I don’t think that necessarily means anything, but it’s interesting because there were reports on Friday that he had, indeed, made the team.
This, however, has yet to be confirmed, and could simply be the result of a bit of broken telephone.
What do I mean by that? Well, on Friday afternoon Kristie Ackert, who covers the Yankees for the New York Daily News, tweeted out that Kirk had made the Blue Jays. She later — Full disclosure: After I was like, “Did he?” — clarified that she was simply passing along a report from MLB Network Radio.
Where that report came from, I have no idea. Because nobody local had it, and the Jays still haven’t made any kind of announcement to that effect — even though they certainly would have had an opportunity today, with the announcement about Davis.
Perhaps related, perhaps not, a short time later Mexico’s Revista SuperDeportivo also passed along the news that Kirk — or, should I say, El Receptor de Tijuana — had made the team, citing (without a link) a report from MLB Network.
Maybe all of this is only interesting to me — and only interesting to me because I got caught up in it. Whatever went on here, I still expect that Kirk will make the team. (There’s still a chance he won’t, and maybe that chance even increased with today’s Robbie Ray news, because Kirk had been working particularly well as Ray’s catcher this spring, but as I said a week ago, the fact that the Jays sent their top nutritionist to Mexico for weeks this winter to work with Kirk is a pretty strong signal that they expect him to be in the big leagues.)
Camp reassignments, opt-outs
Believe it or not, the Jays only have two Grapefruit League games remaining this spring, which means that it’s only natural that they’re starting to make their final roster cuts. Before Saturday’s game they announced a few small moves.
None of those are especially surprising, though I think Santiago Espinal gave a good account of himself in camp and might have made the team had the Jays not valued Joe Panik’s “veteran presents” (and the fact that he is more suited to a bench role than the still-developing Espinal). Palacios played well, too. And it will be interesting to see what they can do with the hard-throwing Joel Payamps, provided he manages to hang on to his spot on the 40-man.
A little more interesting is what’s going on with some of the guys who have opt-out clauses. Panik, we know, is one of those, and he was told on Friday that he’d made the club. But there are others.
Here’s something MLB Trade Rumors wrote back on March 17:
Both (Francisco) Liriano and Joe Panik have March 25 opt-out dates in their minors contracts if they aren’t added to the big league team, while Tommy Milone’s opt-out is on March 27 and A.J. Cole’s opt-out isn’t until May 15.
Today is the 27th, and yet we haven’t heard anything about Liriano or Milone. I would expect that, given the pitching injuries of the last week, that Liriano is in. Milone probably won’t be, though maybe the Jays are a decent situation for him anyway and he chooses to stay? Maybe someone who can sit on the taxi squad behind a pane of glass only to be opened during emergencies?
I guess we’ll soon find out!
Top image via the Toronto Blue Jays/@BlueJays