Blue Jays: Brandon Drury’s mediocre play is not cutting the mustard

When the Blue Jays traded J.A. Happ to the New York Yankee’s last season, it was hoped that returning players Billy McKinney and Brandon Drury could find some regular playing time and excel in new environments.

Both have found that playing time, but neither has capitalized. Brandon Drury was the bigger piece in that trade, and he was immediately penciled in as the place holder for third base until Vladimir Guerrero Jr was ready to go in the majors. That call up happened on April 26th, and since then Brandon Drury has seen limited playing time with the Blue Jays.

This season Drury is hitting .210 with .252 on-base percentage with 6 round trippers. It’s not far off from what his career average numbers are, but when the Jays acquired Brandon there were hopes that he would take a step forward in his production, but he currently holds a -0.3WAR this season which is actually lower than his career average of 0.6.

It’s safe to say that if the Jays had anybody on the roster that could fill in at third base when Guerrero Jr needs a day off, then Drury’s time in the majors would have likely ended already.

After Vlad Jr and Drury there are not a whole lot of options for the Blue Jays at third in Buffalo or elsewhere. Jordan Groshans and Kevin Smith would be the next players in line for third in the Blue Jays system, however, both play below AAA and neither really has a hope of contributing to the Blue Jays this season.

Brandon Drury’s contract is not too expensive to keep around even with his terrible production. The six-year pro is making 1.3 million this season with two more years of arbitration in 2020/21.

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Being that the Jays have literally no other internal options at the hot corner it would stand to reason that Brandon’s going to get more chances to break out of his offensive funk this season. The other possibility is that the Blue Jays find a creative way to land another third base prospect when they start cleaning house at the trade deadline.

Even though Vlad Guerrero Jr currently plays third base, he still would need a competent backup on a competing team down. Also, I could see a future where Guerrero Jr is slotted into the DH position a lot more than currently.

It would not come as a surprise for me to see the Jays make a deal for a blue-chip third base prospect to help strengthen its base and prepare for all possibilities. Until then though, we will probably see Brandon Drury given more chances with the Blue Jays to try and stick at the major league level.