John Schneider may have been right to give George Springer a long leash

About a week ago, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider made the daring claim that struggling star outfielder George Springer was “on the verge of getting hot” and that his turnaround would occur any day now. At the time, many may have thought Schneider was out of his mind, because not only has Springer put up some career-low numbers so far this season, his struggles had dated back all the way to last season.

Well, it appears as though Schneider knows a lot more than any of us do, and is perhaps why he gets paid the big bucks for the job that he does. This week, Springer has broken out in a big way for the Blue Jays, like a caged animal being finally released to wreak havoc.

In his last three games, Springer has been on fire, pounding out 7 hits including 3 home runs and a whopping 10 RBI along with 3 runs scored in his last 10 at-bats. For someone that had been hitting just .103 with a .325 OPS along with 5 total runs scored, zero homers, 2 RBI and 18 strikeouts in his previous 17 games prior to this current hot streak, let’s just say nobody saw that coming, except perhaps the main man at the helm in Schneider. Springer has been scorching the ball so much that even social media is starting to take notice.

But what Schneider didn’t foresee though was Springer getting hit in the left hand by a pitch from New York Yankees’ reliever Michael Tonkin. Springer would later leave the game due to what was deemed a left hand contusion with precautionary imaging being negative for a fracture. At least he wasn’t removed immediately following the hit-by-pitch so hopefully it wasn’t anything too serious.

Barring any long-term effects of the injury, could this be the big turnaround for Springer that everyone has been waiting for so long? It is no doubt a small sample size, but a very encouraging one nonetheless for Springer and the Blue Jays. After all, he was able to accomplish the feat against some of the toughest teams in the AL East, first against the Boston Red Sox and now the division-leading Yankees. If the team were to have any chance of also turning their fortunes around this year, they will need Springer to be front and center leading the way like he usually does.

Maybe we should ask Schneider who the next few slumping Jays to break out will be so that we could soon see the whole team firing on all cylinders as a result.