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TORONTO — It's as though the American League wild-card race started overnight. The Cleveland Indians designate Jason Michaels and threaten more moves, the Detroit Tigers designate Jacque Jones and — news flash — John Gibbons has started to do something to which he stated a clear philosophical opposition: play defence for shortstop David Eckstein.
What next — Gibbons sporting a Hillary 4 Prez button? Gibbons joining the ACLU? Note to Toronto Blue Jays management: keep Gibbons away from Ozzie Guillen's inflatable-dolls collection.
"Everything's bunched up right now, but it's way too early for that," Gibbons, the Blue Jays' manager, said when asked whether he and other wild-card dreamers had suddenly developed cold sweats.
"I can't talk about those other teams. But I think in all the cases, you're looking at teams that expected a lot out of themselves."
The Blue Jays have already done the painful self-examination, of course, tying the can to Frank Thomas. So they were well ahead of the curve.
But despite the winning streak, Gibbons has shown that he clearly isn't of the mind to be any less proactive now than he was during the team's recent skid, when he channelled his inner Whitey Herzog and did all manner of button-pushing without much to show for it.
Yesterday, he effectively benched left-hand-hitting prospect Adam Lind (1-for-19 in six games) with the full support of general manager J.P. Ricciardi. Shannon Stewart batted second and started in left field as Gibbons ran out his 28th different lineup in 33 games.
Eckstein was dropped down to the ninth spot, which will make it easier to slide in McDonald late in games and maybe even hide his bat in the process.
The Lind decision is interesting, since Gibbons pushed privately for Lind as an antidote to Thomas. And when Lind and now healthy Scott Rolen were both in the fold, it was clear that Gibbons felt that, finally, he had a team with which he was comfortable.
So what happened?
"You'd like to just kind of settle in on one thing and leave it there, but we've been searching for some things," Gibbons said. "We brought Stewart here for a reason. He never seemed a guy for a part-time role. Stewart's a contact guy. He's always hit at the top of the lineup. I think he [Lind] is ready for the majors, but he's just not hitting now. Right now, we want to get something going."
Just as there is a danger in reading too much into Stewart's 3-for-4 performance last night (he was 7-for-20 in his career, with two doubles and two home runs, against White Sox starter Javier Vazquez, so it's nothing new), there is also a danger in thinking that Gibbons has gone to the whip hand.
But all of a sudden the AL East isn't waiting around for the Blue Jays, who, despite their winning run, will spend their 13th day in last place, with the Tampa Bay Rays coming in tonight for the first of three games at the Rogers Centre, and haven't managed to pick up a game in the standings.
It's just May, but already this baseball season has hinted that there are some surprises in store and a lot of teams — good, veteran, teams — are not hitting. Hence the players designated for assignment. Hence the blow-up dolls that the White Sox ran out in their clubhouse to get the bats going.
So the 2008 season isn't waiting around for anybody. That goes for B.J. Ryan, who was given medical clearance to work on back-to-back days yesterday and celebrated by loading the bases and having Guillen point out to home-plate umpire Ron Kulpa that he felt Ryan wasn't coming to a stop on his delivery and was balking. That is precisely what umpire Bruce Dreckman called him for in Boston last Thursday.
The Blue Jays might want to address that issue.
The season is not waiting for Ryan or Lind or Eckstein or Gibbons, who rightly believes that successful teams don't usually make defensive substitutions at shortstop and likely believes deep down that if Eckstein isn't good enough to be in the field in the ninth inning, he isn't good enough to be playing in the fifth or sixth, either.
But Gibbons admitted last night that it was "the right thing to do" because even though it's May, the time for trial and error has passed.
This race won't go to the swiftest. It will go to the surest.
