Devon Travis set to finally begin a rehab assignment
7 years ago
Photo Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan’s Goin to lose his job. You see what I did there?
But it’s true. The struggling Blue Jays’ second baseman, who has already been losing playing time to Darwin Barney, and is slashing a positively Russell Martin-esque .160/.208/.230, is getting closer to being usurped by Devon Travis. In fact, it’s going to happen in the next twenty days or so. Barring any setbacks.
Travis somewhat cryptically left this message for his followers on Twitter this afternoon:
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet quickly tweeted to clear up the meaning, telling us that Travis has been assigned to Single-A Dunedin to begin a rehab stint. Position players have 20 days in which to complete their assignment, meaning that we’ll be seeing Devo very soon.
There was a time where I’d have warned about getting too excited about the still-unproven second baseman. After all, he still has a lot yet to prove at the big league level.
While it’s true that not every great hitter has to have started out as an elite prospect (and the Blue Jays’ best ones are a testament to that), what you really had from Travis in 2015, when you look at his monthly splits, is two 20-odd game hot stretches, book-ending an awful May while he was playing hurt. There’s a lot to like there, but there’s still not nearly enough data on him to feel like he’s definitely going to remain even a full-fledged major league regular going forward. There’s enough to be hopeful, but that’s as far as I’d go.
At this point, considering what a black hole the position has been offensively for the club, and the fact that they currently have black holes at shortstop and behind the plate, as well, I’m ready for a little bit of hope! Give me all your damn hope! I’m pushin’ hope over here! I… uh…
Anyway, Travis kinda can’t get back soon enough, is what I’m saying, even if I think fans might be in for disappointment if they think he’s going to be exactly what they saw last year, when he posted a 135 wRC+, which ranked him first among AL second basemen with at least 200 plate appearances. That all said, there’s certainly a chance that he is, in fact, exactly as good as we remember. I’m not saying he’s not, just that you’d have to be a special brand of clown (not that I’m thinking of any Twitter user in particular) to full-on believe that he will (because of his college stats! LOL).
Either way he should be a significant improvement. So much for that Goins-as-an-everyday-player fantasy, unfortunately. Who could have seen that coming?
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