Spring Threat: Jays vs. Yankees in their Grapefruit League Opener!
It’s a Sunday afternoon in late February, and flashing across our TV screens will be the Toronto Blue Jays, as they take on the New York Yankees at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa for the first game of the Grapefruit League season. What could be better than that, amiright?
I mean, sure, it would be much nicer if the game was being produced by Sportsnet, and we didn’t have to watch the YES broadcast. Or if there was a Sportsnet-produced radio feed we could listen to. Or if George Springer was playing! But who’s complaining? Major league baseball is back, baby!
As for Springer, it’s true that the Jays won’t have their big free agent acquisition in the lineup for today’s action, but before anybody flips their wig, be aware that it’s entirely by Springer’s own choice.
“He’s always had a routine where he likes to take a lot of live batting practice before he plays in the games and that’s how we are going to approach it in spring training,” manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters on Saturday. “Whenever he tells me he has had enough of live batting practice, then he’s going to be in the lineup.”
Who is in the lineup, you ask? Somewhat surprisingly, Breyvic Valera, for one!
Valera played five games with the Jays late in the 2019 season after being claimed on waivers from the Yankees. He lost his 40-man spot in February of last year, when the Jays signed Rafael Dolis. Valera was claimed on waivers by the Padres, but ended up on the waiver wire again in July, when the Jays claimed him for a second time. Unfortunately, while the league was restarting that month, Valera was having a tough time getting out of Venezuela. He ended up on the restricted list, meaning he temporarily lost his 40-man spot, and didn’t play in 2020. (At least not in North America, though Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling notes that he played in Venezuela in 2020, and even saw some time in centre field, which at least increases his utility a little bit, I suppose.)
Valera did manage to get to Dunedin this month, however, and per the rules of the restricted list, had to be given his 40-man spot back in order for the Jays to do anything with him. Fortunately for the Jays, they had a spot free for him to take, having recently lost Joel Payamps on waivers to the Red Sox. Early last week, I wondered if Valera would be immediately jettisoned by the club, but evidently they’re going to take a look at him. He will theoretically be competing for the same backup infielder role as Joe Panik and Santiago Espinal, but is mostly there as insurance, I suspect. Valera is out of minor league options, and unlikely to make the club.
Lineups
And now here are today’s lineups (as stolen from BaseballPress.com)…
News and notes
• It’s worth noting that, in a new twist for spring training this year, the Jays and Yankees will only be playing seven innings today. Between now and March 13, the league has allowed teams the ability to choose to shorten games to either five or seven innings. From March 14 until the start of the regular season, games can only be shortened to just seven innings, if teams so choose.
• Not only are the Blue Jays bringing six or seven of what you’d expect to be their opening day starters to Steinbrenner Field, they are also bringing some very intriguing prospects. Via a tweet from Keegan Matheson of BlueJays.com, here is the full travel roster for Sunday’s game. As you can see, their bench includes both Jordan Groshans and Austin Martin.
• The Jays have mapped out their pitcher usage for today as well. To wit:
• If you’re planning on travelling to Florida to catch any of the Blue Jays’ spring training action this year, why? What the hell, man? Don’t do that. But if you absolutely must, please note that you might have a tough time getting to the ballpark anyway, as Sportsnet’s Ben Wagner tweets that all of the limited number of seats available have already been sold. I have no idea how many of those tickets will find their way to the secondary market, but I’d imagine some will, and that they’ll be at some kind of a premium. The Jays will allow TD Ballpark to be filled to just 15% capacity this spring.
• Hey, an actual update on a free agent who is still out there, as on Saturday, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic wrote a little bit about Jake Odorizzi. His take is basically that “Odorizzi has waited this long. He might as well wait some more.” He also tells us that “Earlier this offseason, teams were under the impression (Odorizzi) was seeking a three-year deal in the mid-$40 million range.” It’s looking less and less like the Jays are going to end up with this guy, unless his price comes way down. Pitching injuries incurred over the next few weeks could potentially add some suitors to the mix, and that’s probably what his camp are clinging to right now. If 2020 hadn’t happened (Odorizzi pitched to a 6.59 ERA over just four starts)
• Over at the Toronto Star, Mike Wilner has some choice words for Sportsnet’s short-sighted decision to axe their radio booth (at least for this year).
• The Sun’s Rob Longley also has a radio-focused piece, bringing us some thoughts from Jerry Howarth on the whole mess.
• Oh, look, it’s a team broadcaster that’s actually doing right by its property:
• Brendon is writing the below tweet with tongue firmly in cheek, or at least half-way so, but it’s an interesting thought! Morales, of course, was eventually traded to the Athletics in exchange for international bonus pool money that was partially used to acquire the very impressive Zulueta. Other benefits of the Morales deal: 1) letting Edwin Encarnación go resulted in a compensation pick that the Jays used to draft Nate Pearson, and 2) it’s possible — and fun to theorize! — that there was some kind of a package deal when the Jays signed Morales and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on back-to-back days in November 2017. Both players are from Cuba, of course, and both were represented by the Wasserman agency at the time.
• Speaking of Zulueta, Scott Mitchell of TSN takes a look at him in an intriguing piece that’s fresh here on Sunday afternoon.
• Over at Sportsnet, Arden Zwelling takes you through the Jays’ new player development complex, and how — and why — it got built.
• Not on the travel roster for Sunday’s game, but in camp now with the Jays after signing a minor league deal with an invite late in the week is left-hander Tommy Millone. He apparently has been assigned number 69 by the club. That seems, uh, fitting.
• The biggest bit of chatter back on Saturday afternoon surrounding the Jays involved their depth, and some of the interesting things we’ve started to hear from players when asked about it. Randal Grichuk expects to be in the DH mix, for example. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been told to become a Gold Glove first baseman, though he’ll see at least a little time at third. And Lourdes Gurriel Jr., we learned from Charlie Montoyo on Saturday, will take some balls at third base but is more in the mix to see some time at first, apparently. As a former middle infielder, I think Gurriel could very well become a pretty good first baseman, but I can’t say I like how any of this talk bodes for Rowdy Tellez, who looked like a different — and much better — hitter than ever before at the end of 2020, and who I think really ought to be given a chance to build on that.
• You can find more elaborate thoughts on the depth situation from Ben Nicholson-Smith at Sportsnet, Keegan Matheson at BlueJays.com, Scott Mitchell at TSN.ca, Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star, and probably elsewhere too!
• Lastly, a thought on this here Game Threat (er… Spring Threat). I’m not 100% sure what format these are going to take as the spring and then the season proceeds. My suspicion is that they’re probably going to be smaller eventually, with more of a focus on lineups and game-related news, which will simply provide a place for anyone who wants to can chat about the game. Because of that, for the most part I won’t be sending these posts to everybody’s inbox like I will a normal post. It just seems like that will be too many emails from me, and I definitely don’t want to be a bother for anyone like that! I also probably won’t do ones for the spring games that aren’t televised. So, feel free to keep that all in mind! Feel free also, while I have you here, to keep submitting questions for my upcoming mail bag, too! You should see that in the next day or two!
Top image via @BlueJays
Goddamn it- why am I at work on a Sunday!!?? Grrr.....
Logan Warmoth trying to remind people why he was drafted so high!