Blue Jays believe in Ezequiel Carrera’s upside

With players getting released around Major League Baseball, fans and analysts have plenty of solutions for the Blue Jays’ left field position. It seems the Jays are just fine with their own, Ezequiel Carrera.

Sometimes as baseball fans, we can have a pretty short-sited view on things. I’ll admit, there have been plenty of times when I was wrong about what I thought the Blue Jays should do in trades or free agency. I nearly fell off my chair when the Blue Jays signed J.A. Happ, putting them out of the running for David Price, an ace who was willing to return to Toronto in free agency, for the right price.

So whenever I get myself wound up thinking that the Blue Jays are making a terrible decision, I try to remember all the times (and there are many) that I’ve been flat out wrong. In the worst case scenario in my mind, Happ would barely win 20 games in over the 3 years of his contract, let alone in the first season.

Things haven’t played out as I had hoped they would at the beginning of the offseason, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m pleasantly surprised with the roster that Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins have put together. Losing guys like Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil will sting, but acquisitions like Kendrys Morales, Steve Pearce and J.P. Howell all have the potential to pay off in a big way.

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With that in mind, I’m going to give the Blue Jays the benefit of the doubt if they decide to roll with Ezequiel Carrera as part of their left field platoon.

“Zeke” was one of the best performers the Blue Jays had during the playoffs, showing what kind of upside his skill set could bring to the lineup when things were rolling his way. The 29 year old went 2-4 in the Wild Card game, hit .333/.429/.582 in 3 games against the Rangers, and chipped in 4 more hits against Cleveland in the ALCS, mostly hitting at the top of the lineup.

It’s not that Carrera is a bad player by any means, and I don’t think many Blue Jays fans would suggest that either. It’s just that if he’s going to be used as the left-handed portion of a platoon in left field, you could argue that it’s the worst situation you could put him in. Granted the same sizes aren’t huge, but his .218/.307/.320 slash line against righties isn’t anything to write home about. There’s reason to believe he can improve, but his .328/.371/.448 numbers against lefties (and that’s from 2014-16) is a lot more inviting, especially from a corner outfielder with little power to offer.

As much as we all love being an arm-chair GM, there has to be good reason the Blue Jays’ brass believes in his ability to hit righties, or he simply wouldn’t have a job. You can call the ownership cheap all you want, but there are other reasonable options outside of Carrera. He isn’t guaranteed the gig at the moment, and it’s still possible the Blue Jays add an outfielder, bumping him to Triple A or the waiver wire, but it’s looking like we’ll see plenty of the Venezuelan to begin the season.

Next: Blue Jays option 5 more pitchers to MiLB camp

And that should be just fine with Blue Jays fans, if you ask me anyway.