Blue Jays: Five questions fans are asking with spring games approaching

Who starts at second base and left field?

Heading into the spring it appears as if there are seven players who are near locks to be constants in manager Charlie Montoyo’s lineup. Kevin Pillar, Randal Grichuk, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Freddy Galvis, Justin Smoak, Danny Jansen and Kendrys Morales will be given regular at-bats barring any trades. John Lott of The Athletic recently wrote a piece saying that Montoyo will be experimenting with playing Gurriel and Travis in the outfield, which to me implies that one of Billy McKinney or Teoscar Hernández will be on the outs to begin the season.

McKinney came on strong as a late season call-up in 2018 with a .252/.320/.470 triple slash line and six homers in 128 plate appearances. Hernández on the other hand struggled mightily in the second half, stumbling to the finish line committing a calamity of errors and striking out in 45% of his plate appearances. If he cannot improve on his defensive miscues he may end up being relegated to DH duties once Morales is no longer with the team. It’s also worth noting that the club is going to give Canadian Dalton Pompey a long look in the outfield this spring. You can read our own Chris Henderson’s piece on that here. It looks as if the third outfield job is there for the taking and whoever has the best spring will earn the gig.

I think second base is Gurriel’s position to lose. After he was brought up to the big leagues in April of last year, he was in the lineup nearly every day while healthy. He is under team control through the 2023 season while Travis will be a free agent after 2020. Gurriel was the stronger player last season and is a better fit for the organization’s timeline; they will do all they can to ensure he is a productive piece of any playoff runs in the next few years. It’s hard to imagine Gurriel sitting on the bench for any extended period of time during the season. It appears as if Travis will back up second base and multiple outfield spots.