Blue Jays: Teoscar Hernandez rewards manager for showing confidence in him

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has been more aggressive early on with his revamped squad including empowering confidence in rookie Teoscar Hernandez after his most recent promotion from Buffalo.

If it wasn’t bad enough that Teoscar Hernandez was replacing former MVP Josh Donaldson on the active roster, the skipper slotted Hernandez in the number two hole versus Mike Clevinger and the Indians.

Hernandez embraced the challenge making John Gibbons look like a genius as the outfielder came up clutch on two occasions late in the game. The 25-year old picked up his first knock of the season smacking a go-ahead RBI double off Andrew Miller in the 7th inning.

The outfielder would follow it up with an encore performance in the 9th inning duplicating the accomplishment once again. Hernandez would end the day 2-5 with 2 doubles, 2 runs batted in and a stolen base. Not a bad debut for the young slugger.

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Truth be told, Hernandez should have made the team out of spring training, however, he was fifth on the outfield depth chart behind Kevin Pillar, Curtis Granderson, Steve Pearce and Randal  Grichuk. Hernandez outplayed all four of them in Grapefruit League action this spring.

With Grichuk struggling and Kendrys Morales and Josh Donaldson sidelined, there should be no shortage of at-bats for Hernandez in the near future. If he can duplicate what he accomplished in his September call-up last season, chances are he won’t be visiting Buffalo ever again.

Last September Hernandez hit eight homers in 26 games with the big club ensuring nobody forgot his name over the winter. His only downside is he can be a free swinger at times also fanning 36 times in those 26 contests last fall.

The promising outfielder is also going to make the Jays front office look good seeing they acquired the budding superstar from the Houston Astros for two months of Francisco Liriano late last season.

Next: Blue Jays: Encarnacion says Bautista can still play

When he hits, he hits it hard, the burning question is can he hit consistently enough to be a force to be reckoned with at the major league level. So far, so good young Teoscar!