TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are a much, much better team with George Springer in their lineup. But even Springer, the three-time all-star who signed a franchise-record $150 million contract in January, can only do so much.
On Wednesday, he was healthy enough to return from the quad injury that sidelined him for most of the first month of the season, but not yet recovered to the point that the Blue Jays want him patrolling centre field regularly, so it was as the team’s designated hitter that he made his Blue Jays debut.
The end result was largely forgettable. Springer went hitless in four at-bats, the Blue Jays lost 8-2 to the Washington Nationals and any hope that Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s three-homer game would send the Blue Jays on an extended hot streak disappeared.
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Still, there’s plenty of time for the 11-12 Blue Jays to start making some gains in the standings. And with five years and five months left on that deal, there’s even more time for Springer to show all involved why he was the Blue Jays’ top off-season target, how he has averaged 35 home runs with 5.7 WAR per 162 games played and what he’s capable of next.
All we can say for now is his first game with the Blue Jays was rather one-sided in Washington’s favour. To some extent, Steven Matz is responsible for the outcome here, but he didn’t struggle nearly as much as his line (six earned runs in 3.2 innings) might suggest.
Of the eight hits the veteran left-hander allowed, many were grounders or pop-ups that narrowly escaped the grasp of Blue Jays defenders.
“It’s just part of the game sometimes,” Matz said.
“You feel like you make a pitch, you get the ball on the ground and it finds a hole. You’ve just got to stay positive. The body of work that I have – spring and the first few starts – I’ve really got to build off of those and I can’t let this tailspin. I’ve got to keep my head up and keep going forward.”
Afterwards, Matz acknowledged he missed his spots more often than he should, but the rally that chased him from the game in the fourth inning began on a questionable ball four call to Victor Robles.
To be fair, you can’t blame the umpires or the BABIP gods for the 407-foot home run Josh Harrison hit two batters later, so Matz’s struggles weren’t purely the product of bad luck.
“He just wasn’t as sharp,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He still had good stuff, but a lot of balls found holes also.”
Of course, as Guerrero Jr.’s outburst showed Tuesday, a productive lineup can outscore its problems at times. Aside from a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. solo home run in the fifth, the Blue Jays managed very little offensively against Erick Fedde.
Later, Bo Bichette would add a solo home run of his own, but those homers represented two of just five total hits the Blue Jays collected.
Even so, Washington manager Dave Martinez showed some notable deference to Guerrero Jr. by walking him intentionally to load the bases for Randal Grichuk in the third inning. The move worked, but it’s an indication that the league is taking note of the 22-year-old Guerrero Jr.
“The most impressive part is a lot of people forget how young he is,” Springer remarked of Guerrero Jr.’s production.
“He hasn’t even scratched the surface of the player he can become … He’s very, very mature. He understands what he wants to do and he understands what he needs to do.”
For Springer, more DH at-bats are coming as he continues building his quad back to full strength. And with first base and DH spoken for, the Blue Jays optioned the struggling Rowdy Tellez to their alternate training site.
“It was perfect timing for Rowdy to go down there and get his timing down and get more at-bats every day,” Montoyo said. “Whenever Springer starts playing in the outfield more often the DH spot opens again and then Rowdy can come back.”
Ideally, Tellez will work behind the scenes to return to form offensively and Springer will be ready to play defence before long. In the meantime, Springer’s relieved to be healthy enough to contribute after missing weeks with oblique and quad issues.
“This has just been a frustrating start from a body standpoint for me,” Springer said. “To end up hurt before opening day was tough. I felt great with my oblique and then I had this quad thing happen and that was upsetting to say the least.”
“But the good news is I feel good,” he continued. “I’m excited to go out there and play and just enjoy the game with these guys again.”
This time, the result was nothing special. With 139 more games on the schedule, there are many opportunities remaining for Springer to do his part to change that.
