Hey Blue Jays…Remember Maicer Izturis?

So I am vexed once again. Even after making some monster moves to increase the leadership of the clubhouse and upgrade the defensive and offensive capabilities of this team people are still losing sleep over the lack of a second baseman. Will it be Ryan Goins or Asdrubal Cabrera? Will it be Devon Travis or even Munenori Kawasaki? Takashi Toritani or Danny Valencia? Maybe they should trade or sign or snuggle up to a second baseman from out of province. There is just one thing irksome about that. Maicer Izturis is still in the house people.

Maybe it’s because he isn’t an flashy 30 bomber keystone sacker. Maybe he isn’t the rah rah type. There is one thing seemingly overlooked about him. He wins. He comes from a winning background. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were a great team and World Series Champions in 2009….which just happened to be the best season of Izturis’ career (.300/.359/.434/.794). His overall slash lines during his 8 years with the Angels is as follows: .276/.339/.384/.723. There is a reason he was signed in the first place, the first reeeeeal free agent signing of Alex Anthopolous’ career…well the first multi-year free agent signing anyway.

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The former Montreal Expo(!) can be expected to hit about .270 with a little pop and an OPS around .700. That may not sound awesome but here are the OPS’s for the other contenders for the second base job (these are their 2014 and career OPS’s…ss…ssss…): Steve Tolleson (.681/.657), Danny Valencia (.642/.707 ), Ryan Goins (.481/.531), Takashi Toritani and possibly Munenory Kawasaki (.624/.601). Devon Travis (.817 AAA/.876) seems to be a main contender given his robust OPS and decent glove but he is a tried and true rookie. Hitting-wise it should be a no-brainer. How about the glove?

If you want to compare UZR stats he doesn’t match up favourably with a guy like Goins but he isn’t a lead glove either. He plays league average defense and though that may seem to hurt the Jays, with Dalton Pompey or even Kevin Pillar or Michael Saunders in centre and Russell Martin behind the plate the Blue Jays may still rank above league average defense up the middle.

So if I am paying $3M a year for above league average offense and league average defense it seems that Unless Travis continues to mash the obvious choice going forward is Izturis. So why no love? Why no likey Maicer? Too bland? We could use some quiet professionalism around this club as well as vocal leaders and Izturis seems to be a perfect fit that way. Those who want him as super utility guy? we have Valencia and Tolleson to fight for that job.

I say Izturis Iztheright….choice…I mean seriously Ryan Goins?