Sometimes an unfortunate occurrence can lead to a positive result.
Andr茅s Gim茅nez got hurt Wednesday night, for example, and in losing the three-time gold-glove second baseman, the Blue Jays now have a way to get both Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes into the lineup at the same time, and they appear to have found some offence.
Gim茅nez聽has provided superb defence up the middle, as advertised, but he spent over a month being an absolute black hole in the lineup, most often hitting right in the middle of it.
The Venezuelan native hit just .173 with an abysmal .440 on-base-plus-slugging percentage from April 1 on聽鈥 after setting a club record with three home runs in his first five games as a Jay, all in March聽鈥 batting below fifth in the order only once until Daulton Varsho’s return from the injured list聽April 29.
Gim茅nez聽strained his right quadriceps Wednesday beating out a bunt hit. He was placed on the 10-day IL before Friday’s game.
The injury created spots for both Barger and Lukes and each of them made an impact in wins Thursday and Friday, when the Jays scored 14 runs combined. The team had averaged three runs per game in the 18 games prior.
Barger hits the ball hard, with an average exit velocity of 95.5 miles per hour this season that puts him in the 96th percentile of all major-leaguers.
The 25-year-old smacked three doubles Friday night, the last of which came off his bat at 116.5 miles per hour. Only nine big-leaguers have hit a ball harder this season.
The question has always been how to translate that elite exit velocity into tangible offensive production, and Barger hasn’t had a great answer so far. Going into Saturday, he was a career .202 hitter with seven home runs in 274 plate appearances.聽
After an up-and-mostly-down rookie campaign in 2024, Barger has reduced his strikeout rate from 26.7 per cent to a well-below-average 16.3 per cent this season and his line-drive and hard-hit rates are way up. These are major factors in believing that results will follow. Now that he’s going to get a legitimate chance to play, we’ll see if they do.
With Gim茅nez on the shelf, Ernie Clement has moved to second base and Barger, with that cannon of a right arm, is going to get a serious run at third base.
Barger’s move from the outfield and the Jays’ demotion of scuffling rookie Alan Roden has opened the door for Lukes, who homered in Friday night’s win.
The 30-year-old, who has produced whenever he has been given a minor opportunity聽鈥 he has never been given a major one聽鈥 was hitting .333 with an eye-popping .967 OPS over his past 11 games going into Saturday.
Lukes is out over his skis on this hot streak, to be sure, but after Friday’s game he had a .764 OPS over his 75-game big-league career, which is 17 per cent better than the average major-leaguer. He’s a .296 hitter with a .796 OPS in almost 1,600 plate appearances at Triple-A.
It took Lukes a long time to just make it to the majors, and he isn’t quite yet at the point where he has established himself, but he has always produced, deserves the chance to take the left field job and run with it and now he should be getting it, at least against right-handed pitchers.
Clement moving over to second base hasn’t hurt the defence much. He’s no Gim茅nez but he’s an elite defender who was a finalist for a gold glove at third base last season and whose ability translates to the middle of the diamond.
He has already made a couple of terrific plays at second and his offence profiles better there than in a corner.
If Lukes continues to put up above-average production and Barger can turn a few more of those baseballs he scorches into hits, especially for extra bases, the Jays could wind up with the same league-average offence they had last season. Going into the weekend, they were 23rd in runs per game this year.
Power is going to have to show up at some point. The Jays have been last or next-to-last in the majors in home runs for most of the season, and a whopping 68 players had more homers than the Jays’ club leader, Anthony Santander at five, going into Saturday.
But even though Gim茅nez’s bat had started to come around聽鈥 he was on a 7-for-19 run when he got hurt聽鈥 the potential for thump from Barger and consistency from Lukes, as well as Clement’s excellence with the glove up the middle, could give the Jays a badly needed boost as they attempt to climb back to the .500 mark and maybe get above it for the first time in three weeks.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation