This early season Blue Jays scapegoat appears to be turning a corner

While there were plenty of Toronto Blue Jays who had slow starts to the season, Addison's Barger sluggish beginning to the season stood out.

After being called up by the Jays in mid-April, Barger went 1-for-17 in his first seven games with the team, and had a dismal .139 batting average after 14 games — a slow start not dissimilar to the one he had when he earned his first MLB callup last season.

As a result, Barger was among the early season scapegoats on the Jays team. However, after a solid west coast swing through Los Angeles and Seattle, it looks like Barger has turned a corner. He went 8-for-18 across the Blue Jays' two-city road trip, and raised his batting average more than 100 points in the process.

This early season Blue Jays scapegoat appears to be turning a corner

Along with recording eight hits during that six-game trip, Barger also had three doubles, a home run and six RBI to go with two walks. That homer was his first of the season.

Barger entered play on Tuesday slashing .224/.286/.379, which has raised his OPS+ to a respectable 87.

While he doesn't have enough at-bats to rank on the Baseball Savant leaderboards, he would be in the top percentile in average exit velocity (94.1 miles per hour), bat speed (76.2 mph) and chase rate (20.5%).

Barger showed his potential when he finished last year with a .211 average in his final 64 games of the season after a disastrous first stint with Toronto, and he followed that up by hitting .367 in 15 games in spring training.

That wasn't enough for him to break camp with the team, however, as the team elected to go with Davis Schneider and Will Wagner as the utility options off the bench. But neither of them were able to do anything to lock down a spot, which opened the door for Barger after Nathan Lukes was placed on the paternity list.

Barger quickly made an impression by recording three outfield assists in his first game of the year, but struggled to get things going at the plate.

He was always going to have a bit of runway to stay on the roster thanks to his stellar defense and positional versatility, but his strong performance at the plate should help him stick.

Bench options like Schneider, OF Alan Roden and Wagner have all struggled to produce, so Barger doesn't have much competition to hold onto a bench role. Plus starting second baseman Andrés Giménez is on the injured list and has been ineffective when on the field.

The Blue Jays are in no position to keep a hot bat out of the lineup, so manger John Schneider should be doing everything he can to keep Barger in the lineup.