Toronto Blue Jays: 8 Questions That Need to Be Answered

The last time the Toronto Blue Jays made the playoffs, Brett Lawrie and Drew Hutchinson were three years old.  Saddled with being in the toughest division in sports, up against the payrolls of the Yankees and Red Sox and the smooth Wall Street-style management of the Tampa Bay Rays, the playoffs for the Jays has seemed hopelessly out of reach for the better part of two decades.

But with the addition of a second wild card spot, some good young talent, a capable GM and the nosedive of the Boston Red Sox, playing October baseball doesn't seem like the monumental task it used to be.

Sitting just three games back of the second wild card spot with 90 games to go wouldn't seem like such a lowly place to be if it weren't for the depth and injury problems that are now plaguing the team's starting rotation.

The Jays have depth and prospects at other positions and the possibility does exist for the team to trade for an established starter. The team has several other questions it needs to ask itself however, and Alex Anthopoulos needs to come up with answers soon, lest this becomes yet another forgettable season for the Jays.

Adeiny Hechavarria

Adeiny Hechavarria is good at playing baseball.  Like, really good.  If Hechavarria was in the majors right now he would be one of the best fielding shortstops at the major league level.

Questions had been raised about the hitting ability of the 23-year-old Cuban before this year, but an .870 OPS in Las Vegas should have all but erased those doubts.

The Jays need to answer the question: When is it time to bring this guy up? If that time isn't now it must be rapidly approaching

Trouble Up the Middle

Remember when Yunel Escobar hit .290 last season with a .782 OPS, while at the same time being an above average fielder? Seems like a distant memory this year, doesn't it?

Kelly Johnson has nine homers and 33 RBI with 90 games left in the season, not bad power numbers for a second baseman right? Well on the negative side, he's also third in the league in strikeouts with a .249 average and a .709 OPS, despite his good slugging numbers.

Both are decent in the field, but neither are producing at the plate, with Escobar producing the least.

Johnson is a free agent at the end of the year while Escobar is on a two-year deal.  With Hechavarria waiting in the wings, one of these two could be packaged up with someone else to land some much needed depth to the starting rotation.

Travis d'Arnaud

"So that d'Arnaud kid is going to be good huh?" is a question that likely has never yielded a negative response.

d'Arnaud is as much of a "can't miss" prospect as baseball is able to yield.

The 23-year-old Long Beach, CA native is batting .331 with 16 dingers, 52 RBI and a .971 OPS in Las Vegas this season.

This is the future of the catcher's spot for the Blue Jays, which generates another question...

J.P. Arencibia

If you look just at Arencibia's power numbers, he looks pretty good for a catcher. He also is very difficult to run on, throwing out 34 percent of those who try to steal. If you look at absolutely everything else he does, the results are a little different.

He's stuck with an average of .225, an .OPS of .663 and only one other catcher in baseball (Mike Napoli) has struck out more times. J.P. has some kinks to work out at the plate.

Arencibia has only walked 10 times this season in 213 at-bats.  I feel as though if I just stood at the plate and never swung over 213 at-bats, I could probably walk more times than that.

There is reason to believe that Arencibia, in just his second season, has room to blossom and could develop into a very serviceable catcher.  But with d'Arnaud due to come up next season, you might wonder if Arencibia has some trade value that the Jays could cash in to help ease the problems at the aforementioned starting pitching role.

Travis Snider or Eric Thames

The winner of the battle for left field between Eric Thames and Travis Snider? Rajai Davis.

Travis Snider could still be a very decent everyday player in the majors, so could Thames for that matter.

Thames' numbers were decent in the majors this year, and Snider was tearing the cover off the ball in Vegas before he got hurt.

What you do with these two really depends on how much stock you put in Rajai Davis, or the 22-year-old Anthony Gose. 

It's good to have depth in the outfield, but not when you have a massive drought in starting pitching.  Depth in the outfield needs to be traded for pitching as soon as Double-A can swing it.

David Cooper or Adam Lind

The Blue Jays recently recalled Adam Lind, who has an .OPS of 1.112 in Vegas.  Batting numbers are always a little inflated because of the climate in Vegas, but an OPS that high can't be ignored.

Lind can hit—he was a Silver Slugger and an All-star in 2009—and at 28, should be in the peak of his career.  It seems like he just sort of forgot how to swing the bat for a bit there.

While Lind was in Vegas, David Cooper put up some decent numbers at the plate, with a .292 average and .764 OPS

Lind's next stint in the majors is going to be very telling. A return to form would be fantastic for the Jays and would leave them with depth at first base, which could open up a trade for...you guessed it, depth at the starting pitching position.

Edwin Encarnacion

Encarnacion can hit the baseball, and hit it very well.  His numbers this year are All-Star quality.

While Edwin strikes me as somebody who performs best in a contract year, this might be a guy you want to lock up for awhile.

Any concern that this year is an anomaly for Edwin should be erased.  He has always had a high OPS, with an .801 career average.

If there is money to sign Dustin McGowan to a multi-million dollar extension then there is money to lock up Encarnacion.  If that is not in the cards though, and if the Jays are out of it by trade deadline, Encarnacion would yield a lot in trade value from a team looking to contend.

Bullpen

In the closer position for this slideshow is how to handle the Jays bullpen.

Despite recently being moved to the 60-day DL to make room for the call-up of Adam Lind, Sergio Santos is finally throwing a baseball again.

Casey Janssen has been fantastic in the closer role, with a WHIP under 1.00, an ERA under 3.00 and only one blown save.

Sergio Santos is expected to retake his closer role once returning to the team, placing Janssen in the setup role.

The Jays could use Santos back in the bullpen. The closer who had 30 saves in 36 attempts for the White Sox last year could help ease the pressure on a bullpen under stress by a banged up starting rotation.

The team ranks 22nd in bullpen ERA.  One easy way to reduce that number? Release Francisco Cordero (4.91 ERA, 1.67 WHIP). 

Manager John Farrell has shown a complete inability to not play the struggling reliever, giving Cordero more appearances than any other Jays reliever.