Blue Jays’ Misfortunes Continue, Brett Lawrie out for the Season

With the excitement of September call-ups upon us and the promotion of top prospects Daniel Norris and Dalton Pompey to the big club, a lot of Blue Jays fans, including myself are excited to see what they can provide. Although, the excitement for the future of the Blue Jays finally arriving in T.O, it has slightly overshadowed the fact that everyday third baseman Brett Lawrie is officially ruled out for he rest of the 2014 season.

It is clear to say that besides losing Edwin Encarnacion to a quad injury for a significant amount of time, losing Brett Lawrie could be the the most threatening blow the Blue Jays have taken this year. Third base has been a problem ever since Lawrie has been hurt, with Juan Fransisco and Danny Valencia taking most of the playing time. Fransisco has provided some timely offence, yet extremely inconsistent, but his defence is what ultimately turned me off the Fransisco train. In terms of Danny Valencia, his defence has more value than Fransisco, but in my opinion he is a platoon player at best as he has had a lot of success against left-handed pitching while posting less than impressive numbers against righties.

With Brett Lawrie being out for the season, it brings a lot of doubt to the depth of the Blue Jays at third, and if they do indeed make the playoffs, third base could be a major issue in terms of both offensive and defensive production. As many of you know, Brett Lawrie is arguably one of the best defensive third baseman in baseball next to the likes of Evan Longoria, Manny Machado, and Nolan Arenado. While Lawrie has defensive capabilities that are hard to find, Juan Fransisco can be put in a category with some of the worst (no offence Juan, just my opinion), so if you want to try to compare the two, Brett Lawrie is the Mona Lisa, while Fransisco is a kindergartener’s finger painting (once again, just an opinion, sorry Juan).

To summarize, losing Brett Lawrie for the remainder of the season is arguably the biggest obstacle the Blue Jays have had to face in 2014, and with the hot corner in the hands of inconsistency and platoon of Danny Valencia and Juan Fransisco, the Blue Jays are going to have to kick in into another gear if they want to play October Baseball.

UPDATE:

Brett Lawrie was obviously as disappointed in his inability to take the field as we the fans were. After news of his transfer to the 60-day DL became official, Lawrie took to Twitter to apologize to fans and teammates alike.

Get well Brett, and we’ll all get back at them next year!