DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays will start the 2015 season with two rookies in the rotation, two more in the everyday lineup, two others in the bullpen, and likely another reliever who’s pretty much a freshman in all but his official designation.
That’s a lot of youth for any team, let alone one that fancies itself a contender, and the easy-answer set is sure to argue a group this young isn’t equipped to get the job done. Josh Donaldson is among those who scoff at the notion, and can speak from experience as to why such thinking is simplistic rubbish.
The all-star third baseman was one of 11 rookies the 2012 Oakland Athletics used during March/April, the most of any team to reach the playoffs during the wild-card era that started in 1995, according to research by Stats Inc. Not counting September call ups, they used 19 rookies in total en route to the American League West title, the same number as the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals.
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“It was definitely easier with so many other rookies,” Donaldson said before hitting his fifth homer of the spring in the Blue Jays’ 10-6 win Tuesday over the Philadelphia Phillies. “When I first got called up in 2010, there weren’t a ton of rookies per se like that, there were some younger cats, but they weren’t coming up and experiencing it like I was – you felt like you had to earn your stripes on your own, they’ve already got theirs. When you have a group it definitely makes it easier to go through that.”
Seven other teams have used eight or more rookies in March/April and reached the playoffs since 1995, when the Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League West with 17 freshmen employed prior to the expansion of rosters in September. Both the 2005 Atlanta Braves and 2012 Cardinals used 16 rookies.
So being young isn’t the problem for the Blue Jays, who named centre-fielder Dalton Pompey, second baseman Devon Travis, starters Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris and relievers Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna to the team Tuesday. Colt Hynes, who exceeded the rookie limits while appearing in 22 games for San Diego in 2013, is likely to earn a spot, too.
Rather, being young and performing well is the challenge, and the former doesn’t preclude the latter.
“One hundred per cent,” said Jose Bautista, who clubbed his sixth spring homer Tuesday. “And I can’t say we’re that young – we have a few old guys including myself that are tilting the median age in the wrong direction. What I see is a lot of guys that have been around a lot, and guys that are just stepping in, which is not a bad mix of people to have.
“They’ll see the way we carry ourselves, the way we work, how you’re supposed to go about your business, with what confidence to step out onto the field, and what it takes to be successful. They’ll learn from guys who have been around, which is huge.”
The presence of an established core is a significant factor in the Blue Jays’ thinking.
Without doubt the kids are being thrust into important and high profile roles, but the team’s heavy lifting still rests on the shoulders of Bautista, Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, Jose Reyes, Michael Saunders, Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey.
The rookies aren’t exactly being dropped in the middle of Lake Ontario without a lifejacket.
“I know what’s it’s like to be a rookie or young guy on a team full of other young and inexperienced guys, and us trying to figure it out on our own,” said Bautista. “It’s good when rookies get to have a lot of veterans on the team, because they can feed off of us, they can use us a resource to ask us questions or whatever, which is hard to put a value on for a young guy. A lot of the uncertainties lead to inefficiencies on the field and underperformance, so we can give them a better sense of security on what to expect and how to deal with the ups and downs of a long season.”
Another factor Donaldson points to is that Pompey, Sanchez, Norris and Hynes already have some big-league experience, “so it’s not going to be completely foreign” to them once the regular season begins.
And he argues initiating so many young players at the same time may be a long-term blessing for the Blue Jays.
“It’s going to be one of those groups that in two or three years is going to be really tight because they’re going to go through a lot of the same things together,” he explained. “They’re going to not only be able to use us to lean on, but themselves with what they’re feeling in a certain situation.”
So the various levels of support around the kids may help, but ultimately it’s on them to find success on the field.
There is no way to predict how they’ll react once there’s a second deck on the stadiums, the filler is removed from opponent rosters, and everything counts for real under the spotlight.
Spring training can be fool’s gold, and young players can break your heart.
But general manager Alex Anthopoulos points to the control of the zone Pompey and Travis have at the plate, and the ability of Norris, Sanchez, Castro, Osuna and Hynes to fill the zone with quality strikes as signs the kids have a chance to succeed.
Then there’s also this: “We didn’t give anything away – these guys earned it,” said Anthopoulos. “With due respect to some other guys, the guys who’ve come in and won jobs, I mean, it hasn’t been close.”
In other words, the Blue Jays are going with the best they have. Ready or not, here the kids come.