TORONTO – There are no concerns about Teoscar Hernandez’s power. That aspect of his game has been on display since he arrived in Toronto in late 2017. Rather, one of the continuing questions surrounding the Blue Jays outfielder is his defence.
Hernandez flashes good speed and a strong arm, but those tools haven’t quite been able to hide the poor routes and awkward positioning he’s taken on some balls. That much has been highlighted through his defensive metrics. His Outs Above Average, a Baseball Savant metric that measures range, stands at zero, while he’s responsible for minus-6 Defensive Runs Saved.
“That’s a big part of his game that he’s working on,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons on Saturday, noting the club wants him to be more aggressive in tracking down fly balls. That can sometimes be a difficult task to implement in games, simply because Hernandez is playing alongside Kevin Pillar, a centre-fielder known for his range.
“Sometimes if you have a real aggressive centre-fielder that covers a lot of ground, sometimes the guys in the corners will shy away a little bit,” Gibbons said. “But we’ve told [Hernandez], ‘Hey, if you think you can catch it, go get it. No hesitating. If you make a mistake doing it the right way, that’s the way it goes. If you get a little hesitant, that’s where you make most of your mistakes.’”
Hernandez spent most of April in left field before switching to right for all of May with Randal Grichuk sidelined. Now that Grichuk is back from a knee injury, the 25-year-old Hernandez has shifted back to left, where he figures to stay for the foreseeable future.
In the ninth inning of Friday’s game against the Orioles, Hernandez showed off his athleticism by ranging far to his right on a ball hit to the outfield turf by Danny Valencia. The left-fielder scooped the ball cleanly and fired a strong throw to second to nab Valencia as he tried to stretch the hit into a double. It’s that type of ability that has Gibbons hopeful about what Hernandez can possibly become.
“He’s got a chance to be a good outfielder. To improve and be a real good outfielder because he’s athletic. He can run.”
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Travis out
Second baseman Devon Travis wasn’t in the lineup for Saturday’s game, his knee “aching a little bit,” according to Gibbons.
Travis tweaked the knee on a play in Friday’s game when he ran into the outfield on a fly ball and collided with Pillar.
Yangervis Solarte started Saturday’s game at second base and batted leadoff for the first time this season.
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