What To Do When Morales and Donaldson Return From Injury
Teoscar Hernandez came up after Josh Donaldson went on the DL and he has done nothing but hit since arriving. With Morales set to return on Friday, the Blue Jays front office has some decisions to make. It would be hard for the team to justify sending Teoscar back to AAA with the way he has been hitting, but he is one of only a few players with options so it's a possibility he heads back to the minors.
Tim Mayza came up when Morales hit the DL and he makes sense as the guy to go back down when Morales returns. Mayza only saw 1 appearance while with the Blue Jays and it was in mop-up duty during last night's blowout. The rotation hasn't been taxing the bullpen and the bullpen has been solid when called upon. A 7 man bullpen should be able to get the job done and sending Mayza down allows the team to keep Teoscar up.
Gift Ngoepe is the other player with options who is a candidate to be sent down, but sending him down would leave the team short handed in the infield. When Donaldson returns it then makes sense to send Ngoepe to AAA, but until then, he likely stays with the team.
Once Donaldson and Morales are back the team is actually set up extremely well. Despite Morales bat slowing down recently, he still hits left handed pitching very well. Steve Pearce is also a lefty masher. It may seem superfluous to have two lefty killers on the roster, but hear me out. Granderson has been very bad against left handed pitching in his career and needs to be platooned. That's where Morales comes in. The two of them can split DH duties. Then there's Teoscar Hernandez. He has been killing the ball, but historically he has been quite bad against left handed pitching. In the minors he has run reverse splits every season of his career. Last September when he seemed unstoppable, he had a 54 wrc+ against lefties compared to 163 against righties. Steve Pearce can take care of left field against left handed pitching.
Teoscar deserves a chance to prove himself against left handed pitching though. He has done fairly well against them in the majors so far in his career, but we can't ignore a much larger sample size against them in the minors. Teoscar can take some at bats away from Grichuk against lefties, as Grichuk also runs a reverse platoon split. Gibbons can also use Grichuk or Hernandez in center field on days Pillar needs to rest or has a bad pitching match-up as a way to get extra at bats for everyone. This scenario would give Teoscar nearly full playing time and would get plenty of playing time for everyone else.
With platoons of Teoscar and Pearce in left and Granderson and Morales at DH the Blue Jays have the luxury of having a middle-of-the-order bat at those positions no matter what handed pitcher is on the mound. Aside from perhaps Teoscar, they don't seem like your typical middle-of-the-order bats, but they hit like one when limited to their strong side of the platoon. With all 4 on the roster, Gibbons can play to each player's strengths.
Hernandez is likely a better fielder than Granderson at this point, so this even acts as a defensive upgrade for the team. The bench is then strengthened by having multiple quality bats that can come in to pinch hit.
Hopefully Morales doesn't take away many plate appearances against righties from guys like Granderson, Hernandez or Grichuk. Morales can get some starts against righties to rest Smoak or when Solarte starts in place of Travis, but, at this point in his career, Morales is best suited as the short end of a DH platoon. Luckily for Toronto they actually have a need for such an un-versatile player. The versatility of Yangervis Solarte allows anybody on the roster to be pinch hit for if the situation calls for it and positions can easily be shifted around. Without a player like Solarte on the roster it would be much harder to justify Morales' place on the team.
It won't be hard to get everyone at bats in this scenario and those at bats will come in situations where those players are most likely to succeed. It's a manager's dream.
I wrote a lot about the team's depth during the offseason and now we're seeing that depth pay off. This Blue Jays squad is set up extremely well to ensure there is always a quality player at every position no matter who is on the mound or who is injured. I always liked the way Shapiro and Atkins were building the team, but now their plan is really falling into place and it looks fantastic. The Blue Jays should hit this year.
