Ezequiel Carrera Posts An Intriguing Instagram Video Thanking the Blue Jays

Who says that early December is the only time we go wild over the smallest bit of potential trade innuendo? Bullshit season’s fiercest storms may have already passed, but looks like we’ve got a gnarly little one on the horizon!

That’s because Ezequiel Carrera — who may just genuinely be proud and thankful of his time with the Jays, and not provoked by anything (or provoked by the good vibes on his time on the club’s recently concluded Winter Tour) — has posted an Instagram video. And not just any Instagram video, one captioned “Thank you @BlueJays,” that features pics of him in the uniform and with his teammates set to an emotional score.

To wit:

So… is something up? Is Zeke’s Thunder but a passing memory rolling into the dark beyond?

I have no idea. But as much as it would pain a lot of folks to see the fun-loving, parrot-toting, clutch-hitting (for a week that one time) outfielder move on, as I’ve written before, the Jays have an untenable situation with him and Melvin Upton in the left field mix.

Carrera would be a nice enough fourth outfielder to have behind three full-timers (even if most of his value is of the intangible, keeping-the-clubhouse-loose kind), but his reverse splits mean he doesn’t work as a part of a platoon, and his inability to hit in the overall means he doesn’t work as an everyday player either.

The best case for the Jays, as it stands, would seem to be to have Dalton Pompey hit his way onto the club, at the very least as a platoon partner for Melvin Upton Jr., and perhaps eventually — since Pompey is a switch hitter — taking a whole lot of plate appearances away from Upton against left-handers as well.

That option, you’ll notice, doesn’t include Carrera. And as much as a whole lot of fans would probably rather Zeke than Melvin, Upton is at least a reliable bat against left-handed pitching, and we should probably not let our memories of Carrera’s great playoff performances cloud the fact that slashed an awful .194/.243/.272 in the second half, and was really only positive in any way at the dish because of an extremely fluky run at home against same-sided pitching — a .409/.458/.568 line in that split that literally nobody could repeat.

Which is why this video, whatever it means, certainly doesn’t make me NOT think a trade might be coming. Or some sort of transaction. Is it? We’ll just have to wait and see. But if so, thanks to you, too, Zeke! We’ll always have the 2016 playoffs.