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KANSAS CITY — It's a mark of how pathetic the Toronto Blue Jays offence has been that, simply by making good contact during a three-game sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, Robinzon Diaz has planted a seed in the mind of the club's brain trust.
But that's something for the future.
As manager John Gibbons said last night as he tugged up the collar of his warm-up jacket against a stiff wind at Kaufmann Stadium, the time-sharing arrangement between catchers Gregg Zaun and Rod Barajas is an evolving thing. Privately, there are those who believe Barajas will eventually supplant Zaun as the nominal No. 1 because he is a superior all-around defender.
Gibbons remains steadfast in calling Zaun his No. 1 catcher, even though the earned-run average of Blue Jays pitchers with Barajas behind the plate is 3.38, compared to Zaun's 4.17. It is a small sample size, though: 48 innings for Barajas going into last night, compared to 162 innings for Zaun.
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"It's different from any other position, because of the physical demand on those guys when they're in the field," Gibbons said last night, prior to a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. "A lot of the time, I'll make my decision based on the matchup.
"But it's like anything else, really. At the end of the day, if somebody's on a roll offensively, you're not going to mess with that."
Barajas caught A.J. Burnett last night, with Zaun on the bench after he jammed his left thumb sliding into home plate in the third inning of Thursday's 5-3 loss to the Rays in Orlando.
Zaun took batting practice with the thumb tightly bandaged and revealed that the team wanted him to get X-rays taken. He refused, saying the fact that he was able to finish out Thursday's game let him know all he needed to know. He has no time for any red flags that might be raised by a tiny, hair-line fracture. So the team will go with him, unless the thumb resurfaces as an issue.
"Right now, it's just a little sore," Zaun said.
There was enough concern about the thumb that the Blue Jays waited to option out third catcher Diaz until yesterday afternoon, letting him travel with the team to Kansas City.
Diaz, who went 0-for-4 as a designated hitter in the first game of the Rays series, is a dynamic offensive performer who seldom cheats himself at the plate. But he was sent down to Triple-A Syracuse to make room for third baseman Scott Rolen, who made his debut in the starting lineup last night a little more than a month after he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right middle finger in a fluke accident during a spring training drill.
Indications are outfielder Adam Lind will join the team as early as today. He was not in the Syracuse lineup last night, after making a pinch-hit appearance on Thursday.
Lind has been nursing a sore neck, but it's a thinly disguised secret that the organization is also conscious of his major-league service time, wanting to avoid making him a super-2 player for salary arbitration purposes. That effectively saves a year of arbitration for the team, which in turn saves money.
Gibbons believes the Blue Jays are ready to break out of their offensive funk, during which time they're 9-for-77 (.117) with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays went into the game on a four-game losing streak; the Royals on a seven-game skid.
"Well," Gibbons deadpanned, "somebody's due to win. I got to believe we're coming out of this. Just on the law of averages. We have too many good hitters."
Barajas went into the game 0-for-13, but he has earned plaudits for his work behind the plate. Last Saturday, he played nursemaid to pitcher Dustin McGowan, guiding him through a wobbly seven-inning, seven-hit performance in a win over the Detroit Tigers.
