Blue Jays work through baseball's cruel realties in final roster calls

SARASOTA, Fla. – Nathan Lukes has had a great spring training, checking every box the Toronto Blue Jays could have asked of him. He’s played good defence in the outfield, run the bases well and, most importantly, delivered a steady stream of hits at the plate, including a pair of knocks Saturday evening against Baltimore Orioles ace Corbin Burnes. Pre-season caveats and all, but the 29-year-old has very much showed himself to be a major-league player.

Yet with the Blue Jays on the verge of breaking camp, Lukes remains in roster-bubble limbo, part of a complex mix for the final bench spot that also includes minor-league free agents Daniel Vogelbach, who has performed as advertised, and Joey Votto, whose wonky right ankle further muddles matters.

Some roster clarity came earlier in the day when manager John Schneider revealed that Brian Serven will open the season as the backup catcher to Alejandro Kirk while Danny Jansen’s pisiform fracture heals. But for the players and pitchers still under consideration – including Yariel Rodriguez, who threw three shutout innings against a regular-season calibre Orioles lineup during a 3-2 loss – an agonizing wait continues.

“It's a little stressful,” Lukes said before he went 2-for-3, with an RBI and stolen base, to push his spring average up to .450. “But having been through it multiple times already, it’s a matter of just trying to forget about it and going out there and playing baseball. I mean, it can hurt you or it can help you. It can be a fuel of going out there and proving myself. So it’s trying to forget it and be me.”

Lukes has very much done that over the past 5½ weeks and if he were a third baseman or middle infielder instead of a centre-fielder, he might well be looking for a place to live in Toronto right now.

Instead, he’s caught up in the club’s internal deliberations of how best to deploy out of the gate, when a meat-grinder schedule pits them against the Tampa Bay Rays, Houston Astros and New York Yankees in a 10-game road trip.

“That's kind of the way the cards fall,” said Lukes. “They have a plan going forward. So it's putting trust in their plan and then being me and hoping they have trust in me to go out there and continue what I'm doing.”

Of course, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Among the conversations taking place right now is how often the Blue Jays would use Lukes in the coming weeks versus, say, Vogelbach, who has ample experience pinch-hitting and has the raw power to change a game with one swing off the bench.

Given the bullpens the Rays, Astros, Yankees and Seattle Mariners, whom the Blue Jays host in their home opener April 8, can throw at opponents, having Vogelbach available off the bench to face a righty leverage arm late in a tight game makes some sense.

The challenge is adding Vogelbach to the roster requires both the clearing of a 40-man spot and guaranteeing his $2-million salary, something the Blue Jays might be reluctant to do with Votto on the horizon.

Votto’s exact timeline, however, is uncertain as he stepped on a bat in the dugout after homering in his first spring at-bat last weekend and has been limited in what he can do since. Already his late signing left him playing some catch-up so if the Blue Jays are determined to carry a left-handed impact option on the bench, there’d be a gap before Votto could fill the role.

Given that, the Blue Jays could carry Lukes, who’s already on the 40-man roster and has options remaining, until Votto is ready, rather than locking in Vogelbach.

Adding yet another wrinkle is that the Blue Jays could potentially ask Vogelbach to sign an advanced consent, which for 45 days would allow them to outright him off the 40-man roster without him being able to request a full payout for his release. He’d have to weigh that against other options.

There are strong cases for and against each of the above scenarios, and surely others, too, which is why the decision-making progress is taking so long.

“I'm going to let them make those decisions,” Vogelbach said. “I feel that I can help this team win. I want to help this team win and in this game, I know I sound like a broken record, but there are things you can't control. Something I could control was to come in here and give it my best effort, have good at-bats, be a good teammate. I feel that I've checked those boxes and now it's up to them to do what they want to do, up to them to see if they think I can help them win.”

The Blue Jays brought in Vogelbach just as camp opened last month because they felt the same way and showed what the 31-year-old felt was legitimate interest in him. There seemed to be a clear path for him to make the team, too, until Votto signed his deal, which also pays $2 million if he’s in the majors with the potential for up to $2 million more in incentives.

For everyone involved, it’s baseball’s cruel realities in a nutshell.

“I mean, that's just how the game works,” said Vogelbach, 0-for-3 Saturday versus Burnes but tied for second on the team with three spring homers. “If you perform, there's going to be a place for you. Nobody ever is performing really well and they're just like, ‘Oh, let's try something else.’ If you're helping somebody win and you're doing your part, there's always going to be a place for you. You don't worry about how they may figure that out or how they may put it together. Put your head down and be a good teammate and try to help the team win. And if you do that, everything will work out.”

The same applies on the pitching side, where Rodriguez’s performance against the Orioles may have shown enough to catapult him into the mix.

While an encouraging side session Saturday morning suggested Kevin Gausman might be ready to make an April 1 start at Houston in the Blue Jays’ fifth game of the season, potentially easing the need for another starter, there likely isn’t enough runway for relievers Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson to be ready in time for Opening Day.

Given that, the Blue Jays could opt to carry two multi-inning arms to support Mitch White in a long-relief role, and Rodriguez’s late push is changing some of the conversation. He allowed a hit and two walks with one strikeout and induced double plays from Austin Hays and Jorge Mateo, one with a cutter, one with a two-seamer.

“Definitely the best lineup I've faced in a long time,” Rodriguez, who didn’t pitch professionally last year while completing his transition to North America, said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I felt good, I feel comfortable. Sometimes I couldn't locate the pitches where I wanted to but overall I think I did a good job.”

Among the considerations around Rodriguez are his long layoff, the back spasms that truncated his spring and a rough plan to have him throw about 100 innings this season and how best to allocate them. The Blue Jays will surely want him to go wire-to-wire and be available late in the season, but the present need may trump other concerns.

Like Lukes and Vogelbach, Rodriguez isn’t sure what’s next, but he told the Blue Jays that he’s fine whichever route they choose for him.

“I'm in a good spot right now – this is part of my dream coming true, just to be here,” he added. “I’m playing for a team with the best baseball in the world. Mentally, I feel good. I’m not impatient. I’m just going to keep working very hard for the team and at some point, hopefully, I’ll be here in the big-leagues to help the team win some games.”

Only a few days remain before the Blue Jays must decide which players will get the chance to do precisely that.