Blue Jays: Don’t be deceived by September Fool’s Gold

The Toronto Blue Jays have had two call-ups who have impressed in their small sample size with the big club, however, don’t be deceived by September Fool’s Gold as they may show their true colours sooner than later.

With the likelihood of Jose Bautista not returning in 2018, Blue Jays fans have been seeking out the next right-fielder to take take the torch from Joey Bats and lead the Jays to the promised land. Newly acquired Teoscar Hernandez on the surface fits the bill, however, everything that glitters is not always gold.

The Jays nabbed Hernandez as the centerpiece in the Francisco Liriano deal with the Houston Astros, the young outfielder was road blocked in Houston and that made him expendable when the Jays came calling. The power-hitting youngster has impressed in his small sample size with the bug club including homers in his last three consecutive contests.

The 24-year old is slashing .266/.294/.578 with 5 home runs in 20 games with his new club. The Achilles Heel is going to be his strikeout to walk rate as Hernandez has whiffed 23 times while only walking 3 times leading to his low on-base percentage. In 105 minor league games, this season Hernandez was retired via the strikeout on 102 occasions.

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Hernandez may project better as a platoon player due to his difficulties hitting southpaws. He hit .212 in 108 at-bats versus lefties on the farm this season and is only hitting .133 with 7 strikeouts in 15 at-bats versus them at the big league level. At the end of the day, Hernandez may be better suited only playing versus righties until he can harness some plate discipline when facing a lefty.

Don’t get me wrong Hernandez has shown glimpses of something special especially the power he possesses to all fields but remember we were all ready to anoint Rowdy Tellez the starting first-baseman out of spring training over Justin Smoak, and we all know how that turned out.

Richard Urena is another prospect who has shown poise and enjoyed success in a small sample size this September after struggling for much of the regular season in New Hampshire where he hit just .247, but he is a story for another day.

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Hernandez has potential but he is still a work in progress and may still require some fine tuning before permanently talking the torch and running with it in right-field.