Devon Travis: A guide to his return

Devon Travis was an instrumental part of the Blue Jays offence last year. There are a lot of questions surrounding his return. Should he start? Will his success continue? Let’s take an i- depth look.

Question:  Will Devon Travis be an effective player, picking up where he left off?

Now, to some fans this seems like a foregone conclusion, but let’s take a second.

In 2010, a catcher by the name of JP Arencibia made his Blue Jays debut going 4-for-5 with two home runs. Now everybody will point to the immediate failure afterwards, but let us not forget how he was viewed. He hit over 30 HR’s in AAA with a .300+ average as a catcher. He was the Blue Jays number two prospect as ranked by Baseball America in 2009.

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Now that we have that behind us, let’s move on to another great young player who showed a tremendous amount of potential. In 2011, a player came along who was going to make us forget all about our underperforming catcher. He actually managed to hit .293/.373/.580 through his first 43 games. That guy’s name is Brett Lawrie. Let’s continue on to look at a comparison of Lawrie’s first 171 PA’s against Travis’s first 172 PA’s.

Brett Lawrie:    171 PA – .293/.373/.580 9 HR 4 triples 8  doubles

Devon Travis:   172 PA- .285/.339/.494 7 HR 0 triples 12 doubles

Another point to consider is his slash line in double-A. Now it is very uncommon for Major League pitchers to be worse than double-A ones, which doesn’t help explain how his stat line improved. I would then argue he has made changes to his approach, but it’s still an interesting point nonetheless.

In terms of coming back and being effective, it seems unreasonable to have an expectation of mediocrity based on what we saw. I would guess he will return to a similar level of performance, but if you are looking for a lock on the 2015 Travis, I would say look elsewhere. Travis is a very interesting player and no doubt will help the team. The big question becomes will it be off the bench or in a starting role?

Answer: Yes – To an extent

Question:  Should Devon Travis start over Ryan Goins?

Ryan Goins has done a great job filling in for the the injured Devon Travis. In 2015 after Travis went down, Goins finished the year hitting .282/ .371/ .398 with great defence over those 57 games played. So far this year, Goins is hitting .238 / .256 / .310 across 13 games. This is of course without mentioning his plus defence at 2nd base, making a dozen errors across 1868.2 innings at the Major League level.

At the same time, Devon Travis hasn’t done anything but play well, and getting hurt was out of his control. How do you take away a starting job from someone who has shown such tremendous success? He hit .300, he played well in the field, and had some timely hits.

I would imagine it would be a platoon type situation. Not necessarily based on just handedness alone, but also who is on the mound. Against right-handed starters, maybe we see Goins. Although an extremely small sample size, Devon Travis crushed lefties, mashing his way to a .603 slugging percentage, and Goins has recently shown more patience and good at bats against righties than previously in his career. With Devon Travis coming off the DL with an arm injury, and Goins not exactly playing his way out of the spot, it would only make sense they both get a chance to battle for the position once Travis is back.

Answer: Why can’t we have both? (Platoon)

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Question:  What is the status of the injury?

Devon Travis was scheduled to take BP Monday on a field with a coach pitching. This is a huge step forward after having shoulder surgery. Although timelines vary due to setbacks and everybody healing differently, it is safe to assume that we are getting closer to seeing him in action again.

Answer: BP Monday

Where or not you believe Devon Travis is decent, good, or great, the tremendous upside Travis has is intriguing. With limited at-bats it is hard to say anything for certain, but one thing is for sure. Travis was a huge part of 2015 and is looking to build on that going forward.