NL Road Trip Creates No DH Dilemma’s

May 15, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind (26) hits a two run home run in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY SportsThe Toronto Blue Jays are going on a 7-game national league road trip through Atlanta, San Diego and San Francisco.

So we get to see Blue Jays starting pitchers hit but no designated hitter.

At the start of the season that didn’t seem as big a problem because you’d just be benching Adam Lind.

But Lind has a 406 on base percentage to start the season. That’s good for 2nd on the healthy part of the team behind only Jose Bautista.

So it’ll be interesting to see what the Jays do with Adam Lind.

If Brett Lawrie has to go on the DL then the Jays may consider putting Edwin at 3rd to solve that problem.

Or they may even let Mark Derosa play 3rd base so Edwin can just play his regular position at 1st base.

But if Lawrie is good to go his defense at 3rd base is too important to the team’s success as we’ve seen plenty of times this season when Lawrie hasn’t been covering the hot corner.

And you know Edwin’s not getting benched anytime soon.

Worst case scenario Lind is still a good hitter to have come off the bench late in a game. Did I really just say that?

Let’s also not forget there’s more to the DH spot then just a good hitter. It’s also there to give older players or players playing through pain half a day off because they don’t have to play defense.

The Jays had been giving Melky starts at DH every now and then to rest his sore hamstrings. Now he’ll have to play left field every game. Or even worse the Jays might have a game or 2 where they have to keep him out of the starting lineup altogether. It would suck but sometimes you got to make sacrifices for long term health.

Gose, Bonifacio or Rajai Davis if he rejoins the team on the road trip would be Melky’s replacement in left field. Gose can hold his own defensively, Bonifacio or Rajai can to depending on that given day. But none of them have Melky’s bat.

No matter what it’s going to be interesting to see how the Jays handle life for seven DH-less games.