After the recent struggles of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to start the season, he will be spending some time with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
The corresponding move will be infielder Eric Sogard getting the call and will most likely make his Jays debut in the upcoming week.
#BlueJays planning to bring up Eric Sogard in place of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who will be heading to triple-A Buffalo.
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 14, 2019
Gurriel Jr., who has started the season 7-for-39 and a 3:12 walk-to-strikeout ratio, hasn’t had the best of luck when it came to any offensive production. Defensively, he has made some egregious errors — including getting pulled by Montoyo in Sunday’s game against the Rays after making a throwing error at second.
This trip down to the Bisons could do some good for him, get his confidence back and will hopefully be back performing much better. Last year, the 25-year-old was split between the Jays and Bisons fairly evenly, slashing .281/.309/.446 in 249 at-bats in the majors and .301/.330/.466 in 206 at-bats in Triple-A.
Sogard, 32, was optioned to Buffalo before the season began, as Richard Urena won-out the final position spot on the Blue Jays. In 30 at-bats with the Bisons this year, the infielder has seven hits and currently has a .828 OPS.
A corresponding 40-man roster move will come shortly.
I’m sure we will see another Bisons infielder called-up soon, hopefully. That can change the currently distraught infield situation with the Jays right now. Galvis looks like the smartest move of the offseason for Toronto, so his spot at short is locked up as well as Smoak’s position at first, but at second, third, and the extra fielder, nothing is certain.
I get what Gurriel’s going through. I had that problem when I played. It gets in your head, and the easy throws are the worst. Your arm just goes weird, and it’s easy to focus on mechanics for long, hard throws, but on short tosses with minimal effort, your brain messes you up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone cured of this without changing position. You can try a guy at third or in left field, but I’m not sure Gurriel has the arm strength for that.
Yep. It’s fucking weird. There was a stretch when i was 15 or 16 when I could make the throws against runners attempting to steal problem, but could barely toss the ball back to the pitcher. There was no explanation for it. My head seemed clear, my arm would just go all weird. Anyway, thankfully it went away after a couple games.
And Sogard comes up because he’s expendable. Either him or Hanson will be the guy DFA’s when Vlad gets added to the 40 man.
When does Ross get DFA’d?
I have been wondering this exact thing. Atkins is responsible for the worst managerial decisions in Blue Jays History. He’s taken the team from being actual contenders to a team with a roster of no names that can’t seem to hit, catch, run or throw.
He traded Steve Pierce because he was getting too old to play the game and past his prime. Interesting how Pearce was the MVP of the world series. Pretty good for being past his prime wouldn’t you say?
Then he traded more players the Likes Of Josh Donaldson, Russel Martin, Kevin Pillar, but keeps Biagini? He’s proven himself time after time to be unreliable and a screw up that has cost them game after game going back into the 2017 series.
The problem wasn’t with the infield or the outfield. Those guys were still giving it everything they had and getting the job done. The problem was and still is for the most part with the pitchers. They should have cleaned out their bull pen and started building from the core out. Instead, he’s trying to build from the outside in without establishing a firm foundation on which to build. Marcus Stroman after the 2016 season has been very hot and cold. Pitches great one game then totally flogs the pooch in the next game. Sanchez isn’t much better, he’s constantly struggling with control and the inability to hit the strike zone, but yet these guys that aren’t doing their jobs to the best of their ability are kept and those players that give it 110% every game, are traded for no names.
I think it’s time to get to the core of things and put foot to ass and send Atkins to the unemployment line. He’s taken a great team and made them mediocre at best. He’s under-performing, but he gets to stay. Seems like that’s going to be his tag line. “We don’t keep the best. we’re going for mediocre” His time should be over and get someone that actually knows something about baseball, because he has shown, the only thing he knows how to do is take a team from being a contender to one that can’t get out of the basement.
Wait, what? Martin, Donaldson and Pillar were giving it everything they had and getting the job done? Donaldson didn’t play last year and Martin/Pillar had the worst seasons of their careers. I can assure you that they were not getting the job done.
Reports suggest that Gurriel has moved into a condo with Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch.
Too bad they didn’t demote him earlier–now he won’t have served his ten-day minimum in time for them to bring him back up to celebrate Pineapple Head night. That’s some pretty bad luck the Jays are having with early-season giveaways this year and last.