During the playoffs, teams that aren’t participating usually fade from the spotlight. MLB discourages any team from making headlines that might take attention away from postseason action. Of course, it’s also quite possible the Blue Jays wouldn’t provide us with much to discuss regardless.
Let’s try a question:
Which Blue Jays player did you have the highest hopes for, only to see them fall short of your expectations?
There are plenty of possible answers, but right now, mine is Travis Snider. Snider was
the organization’s top prospect and made an encouraging debut. In 2008, at 20, he appeared in 24 games and and hit .301/.338/.466.
The next year, at 21, he played 77 games and hit .241/.328/.419—not bad for someone his age. In 2010, he posted a .255/.304/.463 line over 82 games.
Some decisions didn’t make sense to me. He was a top prospect on a team that finished 11 games out of first place—so why not let him play every day? At 22, he posted a .767 OPS. Why not give him a regular spot in the lineup?
In 2011, he played just 49 games for Toronto. On July 30, the Pirates traded him.
He spent three seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .244/.314/.388 over 311 games, and later spent a year with the Orioles.
I always felt he was a bit mismanaged. If you call up a player at age 21, you need to commit to playing him regularly. But the Jays had their struggles with developing young talent at that time, often opting for veterans like Kevin Millar, Brad Wilkerson, and Kevin Mench instead. When a young player arrives at 20 or 21, you have to let him play.
Now it’s your turn. You don’t need to write 400 words—just share your pick and your reasoning.
