Three Up: Jays @ Yankees (3/30/22)
On Santiago Espinal, adding Dexter Fowler, Dan Shulman, and more!
After an off day on Tuesday, the Jays were back at it on Wednesday with an evening tilt against the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
So let’s talk about it!
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The Blue Jays and the Yankees played a game on Wednesday evening. The score didn’t matter. The winner didn’t matter. Here’s three up.
Up: Espy power!
Fans certainly took notice when pictures of a bulked-up Santiago Espinal started circulating earlier this month. Reports from camp were similarly enthusiastic — like this one from Samad Tayolr, who spoke to the guys from the Walkoff a couple weeks back:
Espinal is nobody’s idea of an elite player, but he has a lot of impressive tools. Good glove, can play multiple positions, bit of speed, hits the ball hard, avoids strikeouts, does at least an average job of taking walks. But power has largely been absent from his game. He homered just twice in 92 appearances (246 PA) in 2021 and has never had more than 10 home runs in a season.
Put two and two together and you might think the muscle gain over the winter was intentional, in order to help him knock a few more balls over the fence. If so, it appears to be working, as Espinal went deep in the top of the fourth off of JP Sears. And it wasn’t cheapie either.
Yes, yes, all the usual spring caveats apply. But it’s an intriguing development! Espinal now has a pair of home runs in eight Grapefruit League games. He was a two win player last season with no power. Add even a handful of bombs and, provided he maintains his impressive average (.311) and on-base (.376), that’s pretty valuable indeed.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see him ultimately steal a good number of at-bats from Cavan Biggio.
Up: Adding Dexter Fowler
Dexter Fowler is 36 years old and missed all but seven games of last season after tearing the ACL in his left knee in a game against the Jays in Dunedin last April. He’s not a particularly good outfielder, despite having the sprint speed of someone who might be able to cover centre. And since the start of 2018 he’s produced a wRC+ of just 89.
So why am I giving the fact that the Jays have added him on a minor league deal an “up”?
Well, first of all, there’s no such thing as a bad minor league deal. There’s nothing wrong with adding depth, either. And it’s nice that the Jays are now an exciting enough organization that a guy like this would take an opportunity here.
More importantly, though, it’s because the 89 wRC+ I mentioned above is misleading. Fowler slumped to an abysmal 63 wRC+ in 2018, but rebounded to a 103 mark the following year, then a 96 in 2020. And even those are misleading. His overall line masks the fact that in recent years he’s become a better hitter from the left side. In that split he posted a 108 wRC+ in 2019, and a 121 mark in 2020. That works out to 530 plate appearances of 110 wRC+ over his most recent two “real” seasons. (It goes down to 107 if you add in his handful of 2021 PAs, which evidently were awful.)
I can’t imagine Fowler doesn’t have some kind of an out clause in his contract, so I doubt we’ll actually see him on the Jays at any point, but he was good enough for long enough that it can’t hurt to get a free look at him. And if he actually looks like he’s got something left in the tank, I’m sure they could find a way to make use of his bat.
Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, the team is saying that Fowler will need some time to get up to speed, meaning an Opening Day spot isn’t in the cards. Greg Bird and Ramel Tapia don’t have to look over their shoulders just yet. But when camp opened the only options the Jays had to hit from the left side were Reese McGuire and Biggio. Adding to that pool is a good idea!
Up: Teoscar’s shirt
You just knew we hadn’t seen the last of Vladdy’s day one quote.
Other notes
• Because the Jays were playing the Yankees, who they will face nine times in the first five weeks of the season, they chose not to start Kevin Gausman in this one. Instead, he and Hyun Jin Ryu faced off in an intra-squad game at the Jays’ player development complex in Dunedin. Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun reports that much of the Jays’ front office were there to witness the duel, and adds that Gausman is expected to face the Tigers on Monday, which will line him up to pitch in the season’s second game, April 9 against the Rangers.
Presumably that would give Ryu an extra day of rest, and we’d see him go on Tuesday in the Grapefruit League finale against the Orioles. There has been some talk — mostly (at least in my feed) from Josh Goldberg, who will be joining his fellow former Fan590 guy, Rob Wong, on a new podcast this season, called Designated For Assignment — about saving Ryu for the second series of the year, against the Yankees, and giving Yusei Kikuchi the start in game three at home against Texas. Interesting idea.
• Also potentially interesting, re: Gausman, is this…
• Well here’s a bit of good news. We had yet to see Dan Shulman down in Florida this spring, but apparently there was no need to fear that he wouldn’t be returning to Sportsnet’s broadcast booth.
Asked how many Jays games he’ll be calling this year, Dan replied “90ish.” Love it!
• Speaking of TV stuff, I noticed in the ad they’re running that features all of the Jays’ promotional items that on Canada Day they’ll be handing out replica red George Springer jerseys. There are a few replica jersey giveaways this year, which is a pretty great deal for those who can get them. But I guess they’re wearing red on Canada Day again, eh? Ugh. I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: It really is OK that the Jays don’t naturally have red uniforms. This abomination is not necessary. You don’t have to wear red just because it’s Canada Day!
• It was thoroughly unfair to ask Tim Heineman face Aroldis Chapman.
• I love the fact that Dave Stieb is loving the new Secret Base series that is rewriting the history of his career. Are you listening, Veterans Committee?
• If you haven’t watched the Stieb story yet, absolutely do yourself a favour. Start here with part one. Part three was released on Tuesday. Based on the release schedule so far, the final part will be released in a couple of weeks.
• Do the Jays have one of the top 10 bullpens in baseball? It feels weird to think that, given how much of a trouble area it was for the club last season, but MLB.com says yes. And they make some good points, too. A full year of Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards will help, as will the addition of Yimi Garcia, (likely) Nate Pearson, and a healthy David Phelps.
• Speaking of the bullpen, Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet has a good one up on Julian Merryweather, who made “significant, strategic changes” to his offseason regimen in order to, hopefully, finally, stay on the field this year.
• Lots of great prospect notes in Scott Mitchell’s latest notebook over at TSN.ca.
• Nice to see Vernon Wells making a visit to the PDC!
• Lastly, I’m serious, I still haven’t forgotten about your mail bag questions! Feel free to submit some more if you’ve got them. I’ll be getting to it, uh… very soon!
Next up: Thursday: Jays vs. Tigers in Dunedin (TBD vs. Matt Manning), 1:07 PM ET. TV: Sportsnet, Radio: MLB.com
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I still have faith in Cavan Biggio. Has anyone else noticed that he has spanked a few high fastballs for hits in Spring Training? Yeah, once again the Spring Training caveat but...