Blue Jays: Devon Travis should not be on the team in 2019

Devon Travis has had his fair share of ups and downs during his tenure in Toronto, but now it’s time for him to step aside.

Now before I get started on this, I have to admit that I was a pretty big Devon Travis fan, and still am.

I wanted nothing more than for Travis to succeed in the MLB. When Toronto sent away Anthony Gose to receive him, I thought it was a great move. As well as to Travis’ credit, he’s been the best second basemen since Aaron Hill for the Jays, and definitely an upgrade from the Kelly Johnson and Maicer Izturis years. Although it feels like it is time for Travis and the Blue Jays to move on from one another.

Since Travis has become a Jay, it’s been four seasons of up and down production. He has a career slash line of .274/.314/.437 which is pretty solid. But last year he had his worst season yet, hitting .232/.275/.381. Not great.

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While he managed to avoid the disabled list in 2018, Travis seems to fall victim to the injury bug that many Blue Jays players get on that brutal turf field.

In Travis’ years in Toronto, he has played in 316 games throughout those campaigns, which doesn’t even make up for half of the games the Blue Jays have played. And the most he has played in a season is 103 games which is pretty good, but it’s still good enough for a little under two-thirds of the year. He’s just not making his presence felt in Toronto.

Lastly, and probably the most important reason he shouldn’t be with the team is that he doesn’t fit with the future of the franchise. Toronto already has players like Richard Urena and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to fill those spots. Not to mention the players that will most likely be called up during the season like Bo Bichette, and Cavan Biggio who are more what Toronto is looking for in their future team.

No matter how much fans may like Travis, they can’t realistically imagine him with a team that is stocked in younger, healthier, and probably more talented middle infielders that could easily take his spot. It’s a transition year for Toronto so these young guys need to see as much major league playing time as possible.