Categories: SPORTS

MLB Spring Training: Projected Toronto Blue Jays’ Lineup

The Toronto Blue Jays made more changes to their roster than just about any other team during the offseason. After a blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins, and some key acquisitions through free agency, they are now looking like one of the top teams in the American League going into spring training.

This is what their batting lineup should look like come opening day:

1. Jose Reyes, SS: Reyes brings a lot of speed to the diamond. His OBP should see improvement with the speed of the Rogers Centre turf, helping him beat out a lot of throws. His ability to steal bases, 410 over his career in the majors, will see a lot more opportunities to score runs for the batters behind him.

2. Melky Cabrera, LF: After an up-and-down season last year, Melky is being welcomed to the lineup in Toronto. Batting behind Reyes, opposing pitchers will be facing back-to-back switch-hitters. His hitting last season put him in contention for the batting title, which he withdrew himself from due to serving a suspension.

3. Jose Bautista, RF: Joey Bats looks to return to his form where he hit the most home runs in the majors through 2010 and ’11. With a greater amount of talent surrounding him, and his injuries of last season fully healed over the offseason, he should be expected to hit at least 40 over the fences and drive in over 120 runs. Typically a slow starter, expect to see his numbers explode come May.

4. Edwin Encarnacion, 1B/DH: Encarnacion would be one of the best hitting first basemen if he played the position more regularly, instead of mainly being a DH. He hit a career high in home runs last season, 42, which helped to make up for the lack of Bautista’s bat due to injury. He might not hit that many in 2013, but only because he won’t have to. Expect to see him continue to annoy opposing pitchers by getting on base.

5. Brett Lawrie, 3B: There is a lot you can say about Lawrie, but lacking talent and potential is not one of them. While his sophomore year did see expected dips from his rookie season, his numbers should bounce back and continue to rise for the youngest Jay in the everyday line-up. Expect to see his patience improve and his strikeout number to drop, and his average and OBP improve.

6. Colby Rasmus, CF: The exciting bat of Rasmus should see improvement in this new Jays batting order. If he takes his time at the plate, which he should be able to more now, his average should be on the right side of .250 and he should finish with more than 120 hits for the season.

7. Adam Lind, 1B/DH: Lind is a talented hitter, but he found himself in the minors for part of last season. His struggles against lefty pitchers were part of the reason he found himself out of the majors. Recent history shows that, given a full season, he should be expected to hit around 25-28 home runs.

8. J.P. Arencibia, C: One of the most popular Jays on Twitter, @jparencibia9, looks to improve in his third full season in the majors. He should see his average somewhere around .225, but could easily improve given more opportunity. His off-days may be R.A. Dickey starts, who may have Josh Thole catching for him since he has more experience catching his tricky knuckleball. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, he will be volunteering his time to Team USA in the World Baseball Classic before the start of the season.

9. Maicer Izturis, 2B: The former Expo, signed as a free agent after eight years with the Angels organization, brings another switch-hitting bat to the bottom of the batting order. He has played 2B, SS, and 3B each of the last three seasons which gives a great amount of line-up flexibility. He has even played four games in majors in the outfield, so he could be moved around the field just about anywhere.

Eric Jonathan Martin was born up in New York, but raised by proud Canadian parents. He remembers watching post-season baseball in the early 90’s fondly. Now living deep in Red Sox nation, he enjoys 19 games a year, but wishes SportsCenter could be a lot more like SportsCentre.