Blue Jays mailbag: We’re taking exception to a reader taking exception to a player taking exception to playing conditions

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This article was published 18/05/2021 (1640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Baseball players don’t come any tougher than Kevin Pillar.

During the veteran outfielder’s seven seasons in Toronto, nobody played through more pain and injuries than this guy. If it wasn’t broken, Pillar wanted to be on the field. Even if it was, he’d try to talk his way into the lineup.

Knock his free-swinging ways at the plate all you want, one thing you can’t criticize is his willingness to compete when he was at less than 100 per cent. He brings a football player’s mentality to the diamond, never hesitating to put his body on the line to come up with a big play.

Pillar had multiple scary injuries during his time with the Blue Jays, but none of them were quite as frightening as what happened when he was playing for the New York Mets on Monday night. During the top of the seventh inning, Pillar was hit near his eye and nose by a 94.5-m.p.h. fastball from Braves right-hander Jacob Webb.

The aftermath looked like a crime scene. Blood gushing from his nose as Pillar laid face down in the dirt. It continued pouring when Pillar picked himself off the ground and walked off the field under his own power. He was later taken to the hospital for X-rays, which revealed multiple nasal fractures.

“Thanks to everyone that has reached out!” Pillar tweeted late Monday night. “Scary moment but I’m doing fine! #RBI #gamewinner.”

That’s K.P. An entire baseball career flashed before his eyes in a split second, and even as he was recuperating at a hospital, his focus was on driving home the winning run of a 3-1 victory over Atlanta more than it was his own health.

It’s far too early to know when Pillar will be able to return, but once he is cleared, it’s a safe bet he will be back out there. If every ballplayer displayed as much grit as Pillar does on a nightly basis the game would be better off.

But you’re not here to read just about Pillar. This is the weekly mailbag to talk all things Jays so, without any further ado, let’s get to this week’s questions. As a friendly reminder, questions should be submitted to bluejaysmailbag@gmail.com along with your first name and hometown. Or by reaching out to me on Twitter @GregorChisholm.

The following questions have been edited for length and grammar:

Is the field the reason that the Jays’ infielders can’t catch a grounder? Is the stadium the reason that Bo Bichette can’t make a throw to first? The field is surely to blame for Vladimir Guerrero’s propensity to misplay any ball thrown or hit to him at first. Check the records. Lourdes Gurriel can and will drop a ball, misplay a grounder, and take off in the wrong direction on any and all pop flies in ANY stadium in any city. They look like very tall Little Leaguers, including creaky Marcus Semien. Whiners. — A. Greer

Ladies and gentlemen, this right here, is a perfect example of why professional athletes are so hesitant to share their feelings about anything that might be considered even remotely controversial. Mr. Greer is referencing Monday’s column, which focused on Semien’s recent comments about playing in Dunedin, Fla.

Semien was asked about a rare 10-game homestand when the former MVP candidate responded by stating he enjoyed being on the road more. His explanation was perfectly reasonable. The lack of an upper bowl at TD Ballpark meant the sun and wind were impacting the play more than any other stadium in use at the big-league level. There are also more fans of the opposing teams in the park than Blue Jays ones.

Nobody talked about groundballs. Nobody said Gurriel doesn’t have issues tracking fly balls in other stadiums. The subject of Bichette never came up. Semien simply stated he preferred a major-league ballpark over one that hosts Class-A games. And people wonder why athletes often speak in meaningless clichés. What a controversy this is! What a whiner! Give me a break. The man can have an opinion.

It might be a little early to mark the Minnesota Twins as sellers at the deadline, but could the Jays get an arm like Michael Pineda or even Jose Berrios from them? What would be the cost? — James T, Mitchell, Ont.

It’s definitely too early, but the Twins are going to be worth monitoring over the next two months because they are already shaping up to be the league’s biggest seller at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. A team that aspired to make the post-season appears to be caving in on itself with a 13-26 record that sits last in the AL Central.

If, or when, the Twins fold up their tent, pending free agents like Pineda, J.A. Happ, Matt Shoemaker, Hansel Robles, Nelson Cruz and Andrelton Simmons should all be available. Berrios comes with an extra year of control — he’s not as much of a sure thing to be on the move — but this might not be a quick fix in Minnesota so even that isn’t off the table.

The Blue Jays have been linked to Pineda before and he’s off to a great start with a 2.79 ERA across seven outings. Berrios has been impressive, too, with a 3.74 ERA in 45 2/3 innings, while Happ and Shoemaker offer veteran alternatives. Calls will be made between these two teams but pitching will be a hot commodity at the deadline so the Twins should have lots of offers. As for what the Jays might give up, that would be a total guess because talks won’t get serious for quite some time.

I suppose hindsight is 20/20 and up until now the Jays’ pitching staff has been very good. But it’s got to be getting worn down. Do you think that the team would have been smart to acquire more starting pitching during the off-season? — Mark, Toronto

I touched on this subject in a recent column and made the case that a lot of the criticism about the Blue Jays’ approach last off-season was misguided. Passing on Taijuan Walker appears to have been a mistake but almost all the other starting options that were available have failed spectacularly barely six weeks into the year.

James Paxton is out for the season. Jake Odorizzi made three disastrous starts for the Astros before he went on the injured list with an elbow issue. Chris Archer has appeared in two games and Shoemaker has struggled for the Twins. Even Happ, who had a 1.91 ERA at the time that piece was written, has since seen that number rise to 5.35.

Last year’s pool of free-agent starters was extremely weak. The talent available before the deadline and again at the end of the year should be much better. So, no, despite the need for additional pitching, I don’t assign any blame to the front office for not getting it done. My tune will change if that remains the case heading into next season.

For someone trying to get into the business side of baseball, is there something that you did that you feel really changed your trajectory and allowed you to get to where you are? — Ben, Toronto

Well, I don’t know much about business, but I know a thing or two about baseball. I can only speak to the journalism side of things, but my biggest piece of advice is to take advantage of every opportunity you get because you never know where it might lead. When I moved to Toronto in 2005 to get my post-secondary degree in journalism, my sole focus was to cover baseball or basketball, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight.

My first job in the city was working for a weekly celebrity gossip magazine called Weekly Scoop, which ironically was owned by Torstar. It wasn’t even close to my preferred line of work, but the experience helped get my foot in the door at Rogers, where I worked for Maclean’s, 680 News and Omni Television. That helped me get a paid internship at TSN, which later became a full-time job and boosted my resumé enough to land at Sun Media and eventually Major League Baseball. Ten years later I joined The Star.

Baseball was the goal, but I never had tunnel vision. If I was only willing to work in baseball, I wouldn’t be in the industry today. I would think similar logic applies to sports management, analytics departments and every aspect of an organization. If you want to write, get published anywhere you can. If you’re into sports management, explore the university programs that will help get you started. If you’re into stats, start a blog and pitch your work to places like Fangraphs which is an increasingly common place for teams to poach employees from.

I love baseball and watching the Blue Jays but I gotta ask one question. Why are baseball players so out of shape that they get injured all the time? Upper-arm tenderness, sore calf muscle. Imagine if they had to play football, or soccer or rugby. It’s really spoiling the game. Maybe play through the injury like they used to? Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler have to talk more about injuries than they do play-by-play. — Brian

I wish I had an answer for why there are so many injuries, but I’ve yet to hear a reasonable explanation from anyone inside or outside the game. Last year’s abbreviated season was expected to cause issues, but it’s only the middle of May so increased workloads shouldn’t be that big of a factor yet. Pitchers are throwing harder than ever, so that could be the cause of arm issues, but that doesn’t explain the soft-tissue injuries for position players.

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What I can confidently say is that it doesn’t have anything to do with the players being out of shape. Today’s ballplayers are conditioned better than ever before. They don’t show up in the spring to begin training, they’ve already been working out for months. Mike Trout exited Monday night’s game with a calf strain and he’s the sport’s most impressive physical specimen, so being out of shape certainly isn’t a factor there.

It’s possible players are more sensitive to injuries than they were in previous eras. With millions of dollars on the line, few are willing to play through an injury that might put their career at risk. Better to rest today than to lose tomorrow. But this is only one part of the story and with so many injuries taking place, expect more investigations into this as the year progresses. I know we’ll be focused on it here at The Star.

Are the Jays actively pursuing outside starting pitching help? — @corcoran_jn

I might have to keep typing this every week until my fingers turn blue. The focus right now isn’t on adding starters from outside the organization, it’s getting the in-house options back on the mound. Right-hander Thomas Hatch is expected to return from an elbow injury at the end of the month, Nate Pearson is trying to work through a shoulder issue, and top prospect Alek Manoah is knocking at the door in Triple-A.

If there are going to be upgrades to the rotation in the coming weeks, this is where it’s going to come from. It’s too early in the year for opposing teams to give up on the year and trade away assets. That will change closer to mid-June, but the bulk of the moves won’t be made until July. The Jays are “actively” remaining in touch with other teams about possible moves but it’s going to be a long time before anything significant takes place.