It's time for the Blue Jays to send this struggling prospect back to Triple-A

There was perhaps no prospect in the Blue Jays' system who got more hype in spring training than Alan Roden.

In a farm system that doesn't have a ton of MLB-ready talent, Roden put himself on the map last year by winning Blue Jays Minor Leaguer of the Year.

Couple that with Ross Atkins calling Roden the prospect he was most excited to watch during camp, and it shouldn't be a surprise that he was named to the team's Opening Day roster.

But after a month of play, it's clear that Roden shouldn't be on the Blue Jays' roster right now.

It's time for the Blue Jays to send Alan Roden back to Triple-A

Roden enters play on Thursday hitting just .188 (13-for-69) through 25 games.

While he started the season hot (he went 7-for-22 through the first nine games of the season), he's had just six hits over the last 16 games and is currently mired in an 0-for-22 slump.

Things aren't much better in his advanced statistics, either. He's in the 1st percentile in xwOBA, expected batting average and expected slugging.

In a perfect world, the Blue Jays would be able to give Roden an avenue to work through those troubles in MLB. But there are a couple reasons why that can't be the case right now.

The first is the Blue Jays' offense as a whole. Wednesday's win over the Red Sox was the first time Toronto scored more than five runs in a game in more than two weeks.

Offense has been a struggle for the Blue Jays this year, and they currently rank in the bottom-five of MLB in home runs, RBI and slugging. The Blue Jays need all the help they can get, and giving a roster spot to a prospect who hasn't gotten a hit in more than two weeks isn't helping.

The second is the current construction of the roster. The Blue Jays now have seven outfielders on their roster after they reinstated Daulton Varsho from the injured list and sent Will Wagner down to Triple-A. That lack of roster balance doesn't seem to be setting the team up for success.

Roden is a bit redundant on the roster. He's a solid defender (he's been worth one Out Above Average in the field this year), but the Blue Jays have two Gold Glove defenders in the fold in Varsho and Myles Straw.

Roden's also stuck in a crammed timeshare for one outfield spot. Varsho will be the Blue Jays' main center fielder, while George Springer and Anthony Santander have been alternating between one of the corner outfield spots and designated hitter.

That means that Roden is competing against Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes and Straw for one outfield spot. None of those options are incredibly exciting (Straw is the only one hitting better than .250), so it's clear that Roden's roster spot could be better used.

The third part is Roden's development. He's at a point in his development where he should be playing every day, and that's not happening with the Blue Jays right now.

He's only played in two games over the last week, and both games came in the Blue Jays' doubleheader against the Yankees on Saturday.

Roden showed last year what he can do when he's playing every day (he hit .293 with 16 home runs in 125 games across Double-A and Triple-A), and he'd be better off working on his swing on the daily in the minor leagues.

Roden's still an incredible talent and someone who is a part of the Blue Jays' future, but having him on Toronto's roster right now is doing a disservice to him and the Blue Jays as a whole.

The Blue Jays are at a point where they need to do whatever they can to find some offense, and Roden's not providing that right now.