A lot of news from the Blue Jays’ camp today so today’s post will be a quick run down.
The big news that is getting everyone talking this morning is the fact that the Jays have announced that Jose Reyes is going for an MRI on his left hamstring. The 30-year-old shortstop only played in 93 games in 2013 due to a scary ankle injury sustained early in the year. He has had hamstring injuries before and it’s never a good sign when a player goes in for an MRI. According to media around (just check Twitter for quotes), Reyes says that he plans to be ready for Opening Day.
In some related news, John Gibbons has come out and said to the media that Ryan Goins will be the every day second baseman and that Munenori Kawasaki won’t make the team. Additionally, the Jays sent a few players to minor league camp including center fielder Anthony Gose who was optioned to Buffalo and Chris Getz, Mike Nickeas and Steve Tolleson were all reassigned to minor league camp. With Reyes out, I would expect to see Getz getting some time on the big league roster for the remainder of Spring Training.
Matt Tuiasosopo will also make his first appearance with the Blue Jays since being picked up on waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks last week. After making the long journey to Florida from Australia, Tuiasosopo will be in tough against Moises Sierra to grab a spot on the club.
If Jose Reyes is more severely injured than we think and winds up on the DL to start the season, that could open up an opportunity for either Getz or Tuiasosopo (assuming that the Blue Jays open with an 8-man bullpen). With Goins playing shortstop, the Jays might go with Maicer Izturis to play second until Reyes’s return but could also decide to hand the job to someone else like Getz.
Finally, in good news, Gideon Turk (of Blue Jays Plus) reports that Roberto Osuna has thrown his first bullpen and has been tweeting from minor league camp this morning. He also reports some positive radar gun numbers from Alberto Tirado, saying that he hit 96 mph. When I saw him last week, his numbers weren’t quite that high which could be due to the fact that it was still early.
Tirado pitching in the lower level game. 91-93 on FB(touched 96), 82-83 CH, slider 79-81
— Gideon Turk (@gideonturk) March 24, 2014
Comparing the numbers that Turk gives with what I saw about 10 days ago, he’s throwing his slider a little slower, giving it a more “slurvy” classification and his change is much more consistent. I saw the changeup hitting anywhere between 81-85 mph while the slider was coming in at 83-84 mph with what I called “nice bite” to it in my notes.
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