Blue Jays Video
On Sunday evening, Blue Jays manager John Schneider gave reporters a few roster updates. Right-handed reliever Jacob Barnes will break camp with the big club, as will outfielders Alan Roden, Myles Straw, and Nathan Lukes. Neither Barnes, Roden, nor Straw is on the 40-man roster, so the team will need to make space for them. Barnes’ inclusion on the roster makes plenty of sense, as the veteran would have had the chance to opt out had he missed the roster and the team needs to fill the spots of injured Erik Swanson, Zach Pop, and Ryan Burr. Likewise, Lukes’s inclusion makes sense, as he performed well in both Buffalo and a 22-game sample in Toronto last season. But just on Saturday, Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors wrote that the competition to fill in for Daulton Varsho, who will start the season on the IL, was down to Roden, Straw and Lukes. Now it’s going to be all of them? Let’s talk about the roster and how Straw and Roden ended up on it.
The answer is a bit simpler for Roden: the guy has been mashing. Roden batted .407 during spring training while running a 16% walk rate and 11% strikeout rate. He hit two home runs and ran a 219 wRC+. That means that he was 119% better than the league-average hitter. Obviously, there’s some serious small sample size theater going on here. The best batting average Roden has run at any stop in the minors is .317, and the projections see him batting around .256 with a roughly 108 wRC+ this season. In other words, the computers think he’ll be just a bit better than league-average at the plate, rather than the second coming of Ted Williams.
That said, how can you not be impressed with what Roden did this spring? He’s 25 years old, and even though he hasn’t shown the most impressive tools – he doesn’t possess great athleticism and doesn’t hit the ball as hard as you’d expect from a bat-first corner outfielder – he’s run immaculate walk and strikeout rates and he’s hit at absolutely every stop. He’s earned a chance, and it’s hard to argue that staying at Triple-A would be the best thing for him from a developmental point of view. Even if his ceiling is league-average corner outfielder who doesn’t hit for as much power as you’d like, that’s still, at minimum, a useful bench piece. Toward that end, Arden Zwelling's report that the team wants Roden getting regular playing time is very encouraging. Bringing him up to Toronto only to make him sit on the bench would be the worst possible thing for his development. He’s made the team, and now he’ll get a chance to see what he can do against major league pitching. Manager John Schneider told reporters, “We trust his skillset, not only on the field but between his ears,” manager John Schneider said, “when it comes to being able to process things and slow things down. I think there’s a really good chance he’s an impact player for us, and I think there’s a really good chance he won’t be [up and down] in that time. I think he’s going to be [steady].”
Myles Straw had every bit as good (and unsustainable) a spring training as Roden. The Gold Glover batted .400 with a .440 BABIP en route to a 173 wRC+. Even more amazing, Straw, who has six career home runs at the big league level, even managed to hit one out during spring training. It was, as the video below makes clear, the world’s most Myles Straw-coded home run imaginable, a low line drive hit that just barely squeaked over the wall in the left field corner.
That’s still a home run, and Straw really did run excellent walk, strikeout, and hard-hit rates during spring training, but there’s nobody in baseball who’s expecting him to magically turn into a good hitter. He’s got a career wRC+ of 78, and he was even worse than that in the minor leagues for the Guardians last season. Worst of all, Straw played a full season in Cleveland in 2023, but his defense took a major step back; that’s really not an option for a player whose defense is his only tool. Straw is in the organization both because of his glove and because the Blue Jays decided to make a last-second shot at wooing Roki Sasaki with some extra bonus pool money. Now that he’s made the team, it seems safe to assume that the Blue Jays really were high on Straw, and that they believe he can go back to contributing on defense, even if his batting average falls back down to .200 rather than .400.
According to Keegan Matheson, Straw and Lukes will essentially platoon in center field until Daulton Varsho returns from the IL, with the right-handed Straw facing lefties. Roden is expected to see time in all three outfield spots, allowing George Springer and Anthony Santander to get frequent turns as designated hitter. The team wants Joey Loperfido and Addison Barger (who also excelled during spring training) to get regular playing time, which means starting the season in Triple-A. That’s a lot of outfielders to keep track of, and the calculus will change once Varsho returns. Assuming everyone hits as expected, it would make sense for Straw to be the first one back down once Varsho returns, as the all-world defender would essentially render him redundant. And if Loperfido or Barger should tear up minor league pitching, demanding a spot in Toronto? That would certainly be a good problem to have.
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