Blue Jays: Doesn’t look like Rowdy Tellez will be handed a job

Adding Travis Shaw to the Blue Jays’ roster last week should raise the floor of this team, and will also push Rowdy Tellez to earn his keep.

When the Blue Jays slowly phased Justin Smoak out of the lineup late last season, it was mostly because they wanted to give Rowdy Tellez the playing time and continue to evaluate him in advance of the 2020 season.

The expectation was that Tellez would be handed the first baseman’s job next year, likely coming with some sort of veteran presence to push him to perform his best, but also cover the Blue Jays in the event that he isn’t ready to take over the role.

Signing Shaw fits that sort of mold, as he’s a capable first baseman, as well as having the ability to play at third and second base as well. That flexibility will be important, especially as young players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio take the occasional day off their legs, but I don’t think we should expect Shaw to be a mainly super-utility type. He’s going to play on a regular basis, otherwise I don’t know why he would have agreed to come to Toronto on a one-year deal.

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Shaw is looking to re-establish his value at the MLB level, and I’m sure the number one priority for him and his agent was looking for regular playing time. The 29-year-old was worth 8.0 bWAR from 2017-18 and 10.4 over three years if you include 2016, which is why 2019 was such a disappointment. He ended up slashing .157/.281/.270 over 230 at-bats, and eventually lost the conference of the Brewers, who were looking to contend for a playoff spot last season.

Even without direct knowledge of the negotiations with Shaw and his agent, I’m very confident that he agreed to join the team based at least partially on a promise to play consistently. Chances are that opportunity will largely come at first base, which will at least cut into Tellez’s opportunity at the cold corner. Charlie Montoyo could also utilize the DH spot in order to keep both Shaw and Tellez in the lineup with regularity, but chance are we’ll see plenty of Teoscar Hernandez and Derek Fisher in that spot as well, assuming they’re all on the team by the time Opening Day rolls around.

Add it all up, and Tellez is far from guaranteed to receive playing time next season, let alone a starting job. The fact that he has minor league options as well won’t help his cause, and even if he is performing well he could be a candidate to ride the shuttle between Buffalo and Toronto this year as the roster needs tweaking.

It might sound like a bit of a tough situation for the 24-year-old to come into, but I personally believe it’s an ideal scenario for him. He needs to perform in order to earn his playing time, and for a young and emerging squad like the Blue Jays, that’s a very good thing. If he’s up to the task, I’m sure we’ll see plenty of big flies from the California native. And if not, well, at least the Blue Jays have other plans in place.