Blue Jays Announce Their ALCS Roster. Smoak and Feldman Dropped

Oh, hello. Photo Credit: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports

The Blue Jays have announced their roster for the ALCS, and in expected news, Devon Travis and Francisco Liriano have both been declared healthy enough to be on it. In less expected news, the Jays have elected to add the pinch running abilities of Dalton Pompey and the not-being-currently-injured abilities of Ryan Goins to their roster for the ALCS, at the expense of long man Scott Feldman (who exists) and underwhelming 1B/DH Justin Smoak.

Cue crowing from the fans who still can’t wrap their heads around the Smoak extension or the Feldman trade! Which… are totally things I don’t want to get into right now, because how can you not be with the Jays on this one?

I mean, sure, they could have justified keeping Smoak on the roster. He’s insurance at first base and could be used as a pinch hitter… theoretically. But it’s not like Jose Bautista couldn’t find himself a first baseman’s glove if needed — or even Ryan Goins, who was used there ones this year as well. And as for him being a pinch hitter, with a holy-shit-this-is-not-a-typo .184/.283/.368 line in the second half, and a 35% strikeout rate, who the hell cares?

Aaaand I think Minor Leaguer sums up the Feldman call rather perfectly:

So yeah. There you have it. The Jays have an ALCS roster, and they will play a man short here on Friday, because Liriano isn’t available to pitch until tomorrow, due to MLB’s concussion protocol.

Arden Zwelling has a good breakdown of how it all shakes down, including each player’s expected role:

Meanwhile, Cleveland has announced their roster as well, and though there were thoughts last week that injured starter Danny Salazar may have been able to get healthy enough to pitch out of the bullpen, that isn’t the case, and he’s been left off of it.

Here is their full roster, via MLB.com.