How good is Jose Bautista?
Blue Jays Better With Jose Bautista At Third Base
Well, he’s been the best hitter in the American League. You probably knew that already.
But what do you have, if you’ve got an every-day right fielder who can, at a moment’s notice, become your every-day third baseman? Nobody’s yet devised a way to place a numerical value on defensive versatility (or if someone has, I haven’t seen it). But in this case, Bautista’s ability to play third base could make a significant difference.
Now, it should be said that Bautista doesn’t play third base well. Or for that matter, right field. For any variety of reasons, management decided to send Bautista to right field this spring -- in past seasons, he’s played right field, left field, third base, even the occasional center field -- and just leave him there.
Until now.
With third base manned by Jayson Nix, Edwin Encarnacion and John McDonald, the position has accounted for numbers that would easily be the worst in the league if not for the blessing named Chone Figgins. There was supposed to be help arriving from the farm ... until prospect Brett Lawrie got hurt; he's not expected to play again until August.
Meanwhile, the Jays have a bunch of triple-A outfielders who have been tearing up the Pacific Coast League. Granted, Las Vegas is a great place to hit. So we can't take the numbers at face value. But they've got a 24-year-old outfielder named Eric Thames (no relation to Marcus, but was born in London) with a .352/.423/.610 line, and a 24-year-old first baseman named David Cooper with a .379/.435/.589 line.
Both of those guys have actually played for the Jays this season, and were sent down after brief trials. But considering the "production" the big club's been getting from their third basemen and their DH's this season, it's time for more and longer trials. There are others who might get to play, including fellow Las Vegasians Travis Snider and Adam Loewen.
And tonight it all begins, with Bautista moving to third base and Thames taking over in right field. It's probably too late to make a real difference this season, as the Jays currently trail the Yankees by eight games in the Wild Card standings. But it's definitely time to see what the kids can do. Out with the old, in with the new, and start dreaming some happy dreams about 2012.
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