With Travis out after surgery, Blue Jays stuck with undesirable platoon

If health is a indeed a skill, it’s not Devon Travis’ best.

Instead, his toolbox includes solid contact ability, surprising power, a touch of speed, and underrated glove work at second base. Over the last calendar year, he’s been worth 3.6 Wins Above Replacement, second only to Josh Donaldson among Toronto’s position players.

Unfortunately for Travis, he can’t seem to stay on the field for a full season, and one week ago he hit the disabled list with a right-knee issue. On Monday, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons provided an update on the second baseman, revealing that he’s undergone surgery in New York to clean out the damaged cartilage in the area, with no definite timeline for his return.

“How long it’s going to take, I don’t know,” he said. “But it’ll be a while.”

So, with the Blue Jays dealing with a Travis-less lineup for the foreseeable future, what are the team’s plans for second base?

“We’ll run the platoon with [Darwin] Barney and [Ryan] Goins,” Gibbons said. “I think when they start getting steady at-bats that’ll pick up, just like in May.”

It is the most obvious solution for the Blue Jays manager as both players can handle the keystone from a defensive perspective, but the drop-off from Travis will be significant. If this is a multi-month bandage it’s a flimsy one as the pair has hit .214/.264/.307 on the season with a -0.6 WAR. Even in May – the month Gibbons is specifically hoping they can emulate – they combined for a .pretty miserable .221/.267/.346 line. Goins made some headlines with the odd big hit, but day-in and day-out he’s far from an offensive threat.

As a platoon their offence can likely improve slightly. Barney has a career OPS of .700 against left-handers – something the team can stomach given what has to offer with the glove. Goins has an OPS of .622 against right-handers, much better than his hideous .507 against southpaws, but hardly an everyday player number.

Sheltering each from same-handed pitches will be helpful, but it won’t change the fact that this is a platoon of offensive minnows. To make make matters worse, both are ice cold at the moment. In the last 30 days, the duo has slashed .124/.183/.175 in 105 trips to the plate. What are the alternatives though?

Chris Coghlan would theoretically make a better strong side of the platoon as someone who’s hit a solid .236/.327/.409 against right-handers over the last three season. Even so, his work on the infield this year has been sketchy and his bat has yet to come around.

Steve Pearce is on the way back now rehabbing at Triple-A Buffalo, but he would be better served as the right-handed side of a platoon to limited his exposure in the field at a position that isn’t his best, and avoid tough right-handers. It’s hard to definitively favour him over Barney in that role when fielding is considered, especially since he’s just hitting .205/.256/.373 this year. If he can find power he displayed in May when he slugged .759, he could factor in here – but that’s hard to assume at this point.

Arguably the most interesting thought would be to give Jason Leblebijan a spin, as the Bisons utility man is hitting a robust .310/.380/.518 and has made 21 starts at second. The Blue Jays’ eight-man bullpen could use a trim, but Pearce will probably force a reliever down when he returns – which could happen as soon as this weekend. The only position player the Blue Jays could send down to accommodate Leblebijan would be Coghlan, but he’s the only guy on the bench with significant MLB outfield experience. While it would be interesting to see what Leblebijan could do – and how often beleaguered Blue Jays writes would misspell his name – it doesn’t seem like he’s a part of this picture.

So the platoon Toronto has been using for a week seems like their most logical way forward, even if things could get ugly at the plate. Asked if he was prioritizing defence in the absence of Travis, Gibbons said, “We like offence too. We need some contribution offensively.”

Good luck with that.

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