Blue Jays: A Look into the Devon Travis Conundrum

After a slow start to 2018 Devon Travis has been demoted to Triple-A Buffalo, but was the demotion justified?

Heading into the 2018 season the Toronto Blue Jays faced several what-ifs. What if Josh Donaldson gets traded? What if Aaron Sanchez’s blister problems continue? What if Devon Travis is healthy enough to play his first full season?

Since entering the league in 2015 Travis has never played a full season with the Blue Jays due to several lower body injuries. When healthy, though, Travis has been far and away the most exciting Blue Jays prospect to crack the major league roster. In his first two MLB seasons Travis batted an impressive .301/.342/.469 slash line while playing outstanding defense. 2018 had the potential to be a breakout season of sorts, as Travis entered Spring Training as healthy and strong as he’s looked in years, and showed off with an impressive spring, batting .267 with two home runs.

Travis has immense potential as a contact hitter with speed that could fill the void at leadoff that has existed since Jose Reyes’ departure several years ago. Whether or not Travis would hit leadoff all year was unclear, but it was clear that he would start the season as the team’s second baseman.

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Just one month into the 2018 season and the Blue Jays have demoted Travis to Triple-A Buffalo while simultaneously calling up reliever Carlos Ramirez (and a whole host of other moves have happened since). Why? Because baseball is a numbers game, and the numbers don’t work out in Travis’s favour. Was it justified? That’s up to personal discretion.

Performance-wise, Travis was hitting an abysmal .148/.212/246 while striking out 18 times in 18 games. Furthermore, he has a ground-ball rate of 62.8 percent in the big leagues, more than 16 points above his career average. To say he is off to a slow start would be an understatement. To say his performance is the only reason for his demotion would be too.

After re-shaping their roster in the offseason the Blue Jays focused on adding depth, and that depth has them strapped for roster spots. The reality is that the Blue Jays needed to send someone down to make room for Ramirez, a reliever needed to help an overworked bullpen. Travis is the only struggling player with an option to be sent down to the Minors without having to clear waivers. Although in the future the Blue Jays might risk losing struggling veterans like Randal Grichuk or Kendrys Morales, that is not something they are ready to do just yet.

Another possible reason Travis was sent to the Minors, which Richard Griffin covers here, is due to service-time manipulation.

“Players on the disabled list still earn MLB service time, moving them closer to free agency,” Griffin writes. “Travis has been on the DL four times, for a total of 271 days, more than half of his major-league time; if he stayed on the MLB roster or DL, he would have been eligible for free agency at the end of the 2020 season.”

If the Blue Jays keep Travis in the Minors for at least 15 days (or until May 15), however, he will remain under club control through the 2021 season giving them an extra year before re-negotiating his next contract. A savvy move that could come with ramifications.

"“Players on the disabled list still earn MLB service time, moving them closer to free agency. Travis has been on the DL four times, for a total of 271 days, more than half of his major-league time; if he stayed on the MLB roster or DL, he would have been eligible for free agency at the end of the 2020 season.”"

Last season Travis got off to a similarly disappointing start, batting .130/.193/.195. in the month of April. He broke out in May, hitting .364/.373/.646 with four homers and 16 doubles. Due to the reasons mentioned above, Travis will not have the same opportunity this May as he did last year. He will start the month in Buffalo and have a shorter leash once he is called back up to the MLB team.

Regardless of why Travis was sent to the minors, and it is likely a combination of several factors, it is an interesting move to say the least. Considering how important Travis is to the Blue Jays future, the focus should be on Travis regaining his confidence in order to be the everyday second baseman they need him to be. Although a stint in the minors can often get a player’s bat going and boost confidence, so can trusting a player by keeping him on the big league roster, especially when there is precedence of that player getting off to a slow start and bouncing back in May.

It feels like Travis has quickly become a secondary option for the Blue Jays, but that is simply not the case. When healthy Travis is the best and most consistent second baseman in the Blue Jays system, and they will need him to get going if they want to be competitive this year. Is the purpose of sending him to the Minors to get him going? Sure. But several other factors are also influencing that decision. Factors like roster space and payroll management that have nothing to do with Travis’s performance. Sometimes though, when you have a guy capable of hitting .300 while playing outstanding defence, putting too much weight on those other factors can hurt a team in the long run.

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