Blue Jays: Familiar faces return to Toronto this week

As the baseball world knows and Blue Jays fans have come to understand, the bluebirds are in the middle of a large-scale rebuild and thus have had many different players walk through the clubhouse doors over the past year or two.

Whether they were here during the dramatic 2015 and 2016 seasons or just a quick stopgap until a younger player was ready to slide into the position, the Blue Jays have an influx of players making returns to Toronto over the next few years.

Beginning tomorrow, the Jays will host the San Francisco Giants for two games as Kevin Pillar will be the main attraction and make his return less than a month after that somber day in early April when the longest tenured Blue Jay was shipped out of town.

Another fan favourite from last years team, Yangervis Solarte will also make his return on Tuesday after signing a one-year deal with the Giants in the offseason.

The Giants series won’t be the only team at the Rogers Centre this week with former players returning as Oakland comes in for a weekend series, a homecoming for Kendrys Morales and should have been for Marco Estrada as well.

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Morales played out spring training with Toronto but was moved prior to Opening Day and Estrada signed a one-year deal in Oakland this offseason but will be sidelined until early May with a lumbar strain and remains on the 10-day IL.

Here’s an update on what each of these four players seasons has looked like following this weekend’s fixtures…

Kevin Pillar: After only stringing together one hit through 16 at-bats with the Jays this season, the hits have started to drop for Pillar. He’s recorded a hit in 10 of his last 16 games and blasted four home runs in a six-game span earlier this month. The power and RBI’s have been there in San Francisco for Pillar but he still only slashing a mere .226/.242/.452 since moving to the Bay Area.

Yangervis Solarte: Solarte has appeared in 19 games for the Giants and is batting just over .200, a slight drop off from his .226 his average throughout 2018 in Toronto. His utility role has carried over to San Francisco as he’s appeared everywhere on the infield besides first base and even played 15 innings in the outfield, something he never did with the Blue Jays.

Kendrys Morales: The soon-to-be 36-year-old Morales has struggled over 18 games so far with the Athletics, batting .179 with just one home run. His offensive production has taken a hit over the first month of the season but Morales is getting accustomed to a new role in Oakland, one he hasn’t had to worry about much recently in his career. Defense. He is already eight innings shy of matching his total defensive innings from last year, all of them at first base, and is on pace work over 300 innings for the first time since 2010.

Marco Estrada: Although he won’t be in town with the A’s, Estrada has also struggled early on with his new club. While it’s still early in the new campaign, Estrada has never been hit harder in his career and his 6.85 ERA is fourth highest in the league among pitchers with 20+ innings pitched. His bounce back in May from the lumbar strain will go a long way in deciding the fate of Estrada’s 2019 season.