You might as well give Dalton Pompey a chance

Dalton Pompey’s 20-day minor league rehab stint comes to an end today, so the Blue Jays have to decide what their plans are for the former top prospect. They can either add him to the 25-man roster or designate him for assignment given the fact he has no more options left.

Pompey’s horrendous injury luck continued this spring when he hit his head on some bats in his locker stall and suffered a concussion. It was the third known concussion of his career. An injury suffered at the World Baseball Classic derailed most of his 2017 season and another injury suffered while playing with the Buffalo Bisons limited him to just 52 minor league games last season.

It seems like ages ago that Pompey cracked the Blue Jays’ roster out of spring training as their starting centre fielder. That was in 2015 and a lot has changed since then. Since he was sent down in favour of Chris Colabello in 2015, Pompey has played just 13 games at the Major League level. He regained his confidence a few weeks after being demoted that year and ended up hitting pretty well across the minors, but those aforementioned injuries in the following seasons really gutted his status as a prospect in the organization.

In his 14 rehab games this year, Pompey had 11 hits in 45 at-bats, walking six times and striking out 14 times. I mean, it isn’t exactly inspiring, you have to see what you’ve got with him, right? The purpose of this season was to fire off all the veterans and let the kids show what they could do. Given what Teoscar Hernandez and Billy McKinney have (well, haven’t) done in the outfield, you might as well give Pompey a look at the Major League level for a while. He hasn’t had one since he was named the starting centre fielder four years ago.