DUNEDIN, Fla. — Here are a few impressions on how spring training went for the Toronto Blue Jays now that camp has broken and Thursday’s season-opener at the Tampa Bay Rays nears:
“We’re in the moment,” says shortstop Bo Bichette. “Showing up every day, it seems that everybody comes to the field to work at a really high level. It’s not that we didn’t before, but it’s just it’s a different level, I think, which is important for us. Seems like we’re in the moment and looking forward. It’s a good thing.”
“Our starters are all really, really good,” says right-hander Chris Bassitt. “The lineup is something really good. I think they’re super focused. Obviously, a lot of guys came into spring training in different shape than they were, say, last year. For the most part, I think a lot of guys are hungry to kind of prove people wrong, kind of thing. I know a lot of people have said that, but it’s true.”
“On the hitting side, I can already see what we’ve been able to do,” says ace righty Kevin Gausman. “I haven’t been to every game this spring, but the games I’ve watched, our guys look really good. They’re hitting the opposite way, taking pitches where they’re at, not trying to do too much in spots. We’ve been running the bases really well. That’s one thing I’ve noticed. We’re doing things to create some havoc out there. I’m excited to see that.”
“Just having guys understand what they’re good at and what pitches they’re trying to hit or what zones they’re trying to really cover, and then in turn how they’re getting a pitcher into those spots, that’s been cool,” says manager John Schneider. “The overall prep and the conversations that happened before and during games, the results have been good. You don’t want to read too much into it in spring training. Plans are much more in depth in season. But it’s been nice to see that, and it gives you a lot of confidence with the plan because the talent is obviously here. That was our main goal with the offence, have a really good plan in place for each and every one of them and then in turn, see how that lines up one through nine.”
All of the above will soon be tested in practice when the grind begins at Tropicana Field. But before we get there, let’s empty out the spring training notebook:
TWO-HOLE TRANSITION?: Sunday, in the Blue Jays’ penultimate game of the spring, Schneider had Vladimir Guerrero Jr. batting second with Bichette batting third, a small flip behind leadoff man George Springer.
Will it stick?
“It could be either one, you know what I mean?” said Schneider. “I really like the way (Guerrero) is swinging the bat. I think having him in between George and Bo is a good thing. There’s no real perfect way to slice it, you know what I mean, when you’re talking about those three guys. Pretty sure we’re set on how we’re going to roll it out. But you’ll see on Thursday.”
Schneider’s goal is to keep the lineup as consistent as possible, a sentiment shared by Bichette.
“I prefer it to be consistent, whatever it is,” he said. “(Batting third) is fine. Other lineups are fine. I prefer for it to be consistent.”
BIGGIO’S UNUSUAL BUILDUP: Left shoulder pain caused by biceps tendonitis has been a constant in Cavan Biggio’s life for two years now, but this off-season he experienced a new level of misery. When he tried swinging, he’d feel a sharp pain. When he’d reach into his cupboard to grab something, he’d experience a sharp pain. He switched hands on the steering wheel to avoid those jolts while driving.
So when he got to spring training, his initial focus was on strengthening the shoulder rather than taking cuts. He and Andrew Pipkin, the club’s medical director, developed a gradual buildup plan to progressively get him ready for the season, something he feels like he is, now that camp has wrapped up.
“Definitely, it was a different spring training for me, for sure, just from not picking up a bat until the end of February,” Biggio said after ripping an RBI double in Monday’s pre-season finale. “But the No. 1 thing overall is just that I got healthy as fast as I could. When I got here to Florida, I was in a lot of pain, even just in my everyday life. Getting treatment on it for hours a day before you get back in baseball stuff really paid off. I can’t thank our PT staff enough. Getting into baseball things, I had a plan to continue to work on things I was working on last year. We definitely sped up a little bit but I’m happy with where I’m at going into the season.”
Biggio said there’s no longer pain “in my everyday life, but it’s still a work in progress.” While he isn’t limited physically, “some days I’m sore, some days I’m not and it’s just making sure that I stay on top of it to have more days where I’m not sore.”
BRESLOW’S BEGINNINGS: Craig Breslow spent the final season of his pitching career in the Toronto Blue Jays system, splitting time between double-A New Hampshire and triple-A Buffalo. The experience remains a vivid one for the Boston Red Sox’s new chief baseball officer, particularly a “galvanizing moment for me that let me know it was time to retire.”
“I was in double-A and I was 38 years old in 2018,” he recalled. “And Vlad and Bo and those guys were there, and I looked around the room and felt like, man, these guys seem like they’re half my age. And then I did the math, and literally they were half my age. So, I was 38 and (Guerrero) was 19. (Bichette was 20). And I realized at that point it was probably time to walk.”
That New Hampshire team also included Biggio, Santiago Espinal, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Jordan Romano, among other future big-leaguers, under the tutelage of one John Schneider. The Blue Jays had hoped to keep Breslow in the organization, with Ben Cherington, then a special assistant in the front office and now GM of the Pittsburgh Pirates, “put together a bit of a multi-disciplinary opportunity for me that would give me exposure across a wide swath of baseball operations responsibilities.”
But Theo Epstein, then still running the Chicago Cubs, lured him over by making him director of strategic initiatives for baseball operations, and Breslow remained there until joining the Red Sox this off-season.
Still, his experience with the Fisher Cats and Blue Jays continues to resonate and inform his thinking.
“I tried to serve in whatever mentorship type role I could and provide whatever counsel I could to those guys,” said Breslow. “To see them go on to have so much success and thrive has been gratifying. I also think it marks a successful blueprint for what successful organizational building can look like in the AL East, where there’s a core of homegrown talent that emerges as the cornerstone group, and that’s supplemented through free agency and through trades. In some ways, that’s what we’d look to replicate in terms of our core position players here in Boston.”
VOGEY, YUSEI AND GOOGLE TRANSLATE: When Daniel Vogelbach and Yusei Kikuchi first saw each other in the Blue Jays clubhouse this spring, they immediately greeted one another with a big hug.
Their friendship dates back to their time as teammates with the Seattle Mariners, when the burly slugger went out of his way to connect with the just-over-from-Japan lefty.
“He always invited me to dinner, just one-on-one, and that was surprising,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “We were able to communicate only using Google translate. That was pretty memorable. When we started our (2019) season in Japan, I was able to take him out there, get sushi, steak, wagyu beef. We got to really know each other.”
While on the surface they’d seem to make an odd couple, Vogelbach’s initiative is reflective of the type of teammate he strives to be.
“I can’t imagine coming to a new country, not knowing the language, totally different time zone, not having your family and then on top of it, trying to perform at the same time,” he said. “You never know what people are going through. You never know how a little thing can go a long way for somebody. …
“This game is very hard,” he added later. “You can’t control slumps, you can’t control bad weeks, bad months, everybody has them, the person that wins MVP is going to have a bad month. That’s just how it goes. But you can control the type of person you are every day. You can control how you come into the clubhouse and putting a smile on your face. Some days, you’ve got to fake it. But when you’re in there, it’s a choice and it’s something that I pride myself in, being a good teammate and being the same person every day.”
NO ROOM FOR NATHAN: Ernie Clement and had a phenomenal camp and made the Opening Day club. Nathan Lukes had a similarly impressive showing and did not. Such is the cruelty of roster construction, the outfielder in this case being hurt by the fact he had options remaining while the infielder did not.
Schneider described the conversation with Lukes, who’s slated to open the season at triple-A Buffalo, “as tough” because “the things that we’ve asked of him, he’s done them and then some, when it’s his whole game, offence, defence, base-running.
“He’s been a victim of roster construction, whether it’s two other left-handed hitting outfielders and another one that can play the outfield in Cavan,” Schneider continued. “It was a tough spot for him. He totally gets it. He knows he’s not a typical 4A player that’s not on the 40-man and kind of bouncing around. We have all the trust in the world in him, and if there’s an extended period of time that he needs to come and play, we’re comfortable with that. That is valuable to have on your 40-man. And, right now, the timing aspect of it was tough. So, he gets it. He understands that his game is in a really good spot right now. And sometimes you’ve got to just be patient.”
DINGER FOR DAMIANO: A spring ago, Damiano Palmegiani was just making the jump from high-A Vancouver to double-A New Hampshire, the Blue Jays curious but unsure how he’d fare jumping up a level. Monday, he capped off his first big-league spring training with his first two hits, including a home run that went 428 feet at 108.4 mph off the bat.
“It’s a process and baseball is always a marathon, it’s not a sprint,” said the corner infielder from Surrey, B.C. “It’s just all the little stuff we’ve been working on in the cage and in the games, through the ups and downs of everything. I wasn’t trying to get too big up there or anything like that, really. I was trying to keep it simple, and it all came together, so I feel like I’m ready for the season to start.”
NIMMALA’S NO-DOUBTER: A fun moment in camp came March 20 when Arjun Nimmala, the club’s first-round pick last summer, made his first ever Grapefruit League at-bat count by taking veteran lefty Brian Moran deep.
Nimmala, 18, is 17 years younger than Moran and during a discussion with Schneider before the game, the messaging had been to simply enjoy the experience and get his work in. Then he crushed a 3-1 fastball well over the left-field wall and the excitement in the Blue Jays dugout as he returned made for quite the scene.
“It was a lot of fun inside of that moment,” said Nimmala. “Words really can’t explain it. It’s like, wow, first at-bat, first home run, it was definitely a lot of fun and I tried to embrace the moment as much as I can. Got a lot of congrats and pats on the back from all the coaches and teammates. It was a great moment.”
