Not About Fairness

So the Blue Jays blow saves twice in one game, and naturally the reaction is to send outfielder Travis Snider back to Las Vegas.

Huh?

Well, of course that's not why Snider was demoted, but from his point-of-view, the disappointing events of the day from a team perspective and from an individual perspective must be frustrating when juxtaposed.

Fair? Maybe, maybe not. Three weeks ago, Snider was so hot Blue Jays management wouldn't have dreamed of demoting him. But some of the old troubling swing habits were appearing again, the production had dropped and the Jays needed room to bring up Brett Lawrie. With options left, Snider was the easy one to move, and the hardest one for whom a case could be made to stay.

That's four times down in two years, and while it's easy and natural to wonder if it's time for Snider to try his luck elsewhere, it's also worth pointing out that's why players have all these options and smart teams are the ones that use them to effectively in order to manipulate their rosters and not lose players for no reason.

It's intriguing that the Jays fancy themselves as a team capable of identifying young players stalled in their development with other clubs - Jose Bautista, Yunel Escobar, Colby Rasmus - and then helping them reach their potential in Toronto. Yet in Snider, they have exactly that kind of player themselves, so they should know giving up on him before they have to, or before they can gain something useful in a trade, isn't smart baseball. If they can provide a better home for Escobar or Rasmus, shouldn't that same environment work for Snider?

It's not a straight curve upwards for every young player. Paul Goldschmidt may look like precious commodity this moment in Arizona, but a year from now he might be working on his swing in the minors again. Imposing first baseman Chris Davis once looked to be a Texas Ranger of the future, so much so the Rangers felt comfortable moving Justin Smoak to Seattle just a year ago in the Cliff Lee deal. Now, Davis is a Baltimore Oriole, unable to break through in Arlington and used in a trade to acquire reliever Koji Uehara.

So it's not over, necessarily, for Snider in Toronto. He may come back having adjusted his approach at the plate again. Still, it's hard to shake the feeling that he's simply being squeezed out of a roster position with the Jays, and that even if he can regroup, there may be no room for him.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Darryl]

While Travis might be frustrated, what of the Jays team? For a guy who was once nicknamed "Franchise," his inability to consistently produce at the plate and his tendency to slip back into horrible habits that make it painful to watch him flail away has got to be maddening for the team. Is he done here? Probably too early to tell but with Thames looking like the real deal, Lunchbox had better start figuring out why things aren't going right soon or he will be plying his trade for another team soon.

[Gary M. Mugford]

Damien,
If you add all the good weeks Snider's ever had at the MLB level, you don't get even a half-season. He's a nice guy and everybody pulls for him, but he's almost the prototypical AAAA player: Eats up AAA pitching, shows power when he connects, doesn't walk much, is a LF despite the laughable CF experiment and can't seem to re-adjust when the major leaguers figures out the hole in whatever his new swing is, during his short initial bursts of success after being down on the farm.
I had feared that the continuing treatment of Snider as the team's fair-haired boy would cost Thames (admittedly, equally woeful over the last week) a spot but am glad that Anthopoulos is once again proving not to have those kinds of blinders. I really don't see Snider ever wearing a Blue Jay uniform in a meaningful game ever again, although he'll be back in September unless he pulls an Accardo. Best thing for Toronto, and for Snider, is to find a team that thinks it can harness the potential and fix the swing and trade him there.
A platoon of Thames and Davis, Rasmus and Bautista is a decent enough outfield for a contender.

[Kev]

Another name for the "can't miss prospect" list who never really made it - Jordan Schaefer of the Braves (now Astros). It's funny, a couple of years ago, Snider, Schaefer and Rasmus would not have been considered in any trade. Now, 2 are gone and I don;t think Snider is far behind.

[Kev]

correction on my last post - I didn't mean these players won;t be good, I meant their teams didn;t regard them as franchise players anymore.

[Stephen Graham]

This is a terrible decision by the Jays. They say it was about performance but I think that's a ridiculous argument in this case. AA says he couldn't look Thames in the eye and tell him he was sending him down because his numbers are better than Snider. The fact is that both of them are in the midst of an extended slump. He already set the precedent with Reyes when he kept him on the roster because he was out of options, not because he had better numbers than the guys that were sent down. Snider is out of options after next year while Thames has three more years. I like Thames a lot and I think he has a bright future but right now he's the one who should be in Vegas, not Snider.

Snider will not benefit from more time in Vegas. If he's ever going to reach his potential he needs to get over the hump in the majors. In my mind he's never been given a legitimate shot in Toronto. This is a first round draft choice projected to be a star player at some point. You can argue that his development has been slow but this yo-yoing back and forth from AAA to Toronto has hurt him and will eventually destroy whatever is left of his confidence. Enough already. At the beginning of the season they said they would find out what they had in their young players. Well how about giving them a chance? The Jays aren't winning anything this year and anyone who thought they did have a chance only has to consider the pathetic bullpen assembled by AA and stripped at the deadline to put that idea to bed. Bring Snider back ASAP and play him.

[Mark]

Escobar and Rasmus had PERSONALITY issues with other clubs. Escobar was the Braves team MVP one year.

Both had shown far more production at a major league level than Snider has ever managed. Snider should get every opportunity, but at least part of the problem is that people in Toronto think of him as a much bigger prospect than the rest of baseball does. As someone who sees that happen with every Leaf prospect ever, Darren should be able to recognize it. Snider is a middling prospect who was locally overhyped, and if he fails it will be no surprise.

And finding Bautista was luck, not ingenious scouting.

[dave nantais]

is it fair that a hockey guy should be doing baseball content in the middle of the summer when he can't think of a hockey topic?

considering you're not a full time baseball guy its not a bad article. :P

please keep Mcown in line on PTS ... no one else has the "stones" to do so

[Chad]

trade him to Colorado. the thin mile high air out there would do wonders for him.