Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2011 Toronto Blue Jays

Spring is in the air, and if you’ve been around Ottawa lately, you know I don’t say this because of the wonderful weather. We’re only a couple short weeks away from the opening of Major League Baseball’s Spring Training, so what better time than now to take a look at the projected line-up Canada’s team, the Toronto Blue Jays, will be fielding in 2011.

The Blue Jays have been one of the most active teams in the offseason and were able to shed a lot of salary in the form of Vernon Wells’ mammoth contract, which many baseball pundits considered absolutely untradeable, when they shipped him to the Anaheim Angels. The Jays also traded away their 2010 Opening Day starter and fan favourite, Shaun Marcum to the Milwaukee Brewers for a highly touted prospect, Brett Lawrie, who also happens to be Canadian. The bullpen has also undertaken a significant facelift as Scott Downs and Kevin Gregg, two of their most important bullpen arms of 2010 are out and replaced with Jon Rauch, Octavio Dotel and Frank Fransisco.

At catcher the Jays are going to be relying heavily on rookie backstop, J.P Arencibia who will finally be given an opportunity to start after a couple stellar seasons in the minor leagues. Arencibia’s offensive abilities are uncanny, but his defence is a bit suspect, so the Jays have retained veteran defensive expert Jose Molina to help shoulder the load and mentor J.P. This season will be a learning curve for the Jays’ catching prospect, but he is expected to excel.

The infield remains in flux for the Toronto Blue Jays. Lyle Overbay, the team’s starting first baseman for the last four seasons is now in Pittsburgh and replacing him is a tandem of first timers at the position. Adam Lind, former outfielder and designated hitter will be expected to make the transition to the position and has been training all winter at first. Edwin Encarnacion, last year’s third basemen, has been brought back to platoon first base and DH with Lind.

Aaron Hill and Yunel Escobar have safely established themselves as  locks for the middle infield with Hill at second and Escobar at shortstop. The middle infield positions are surely to be the least of the Jays’ worries in 2011 as both are excellent defensive options and fully capable at the plate.

Third base is a gaping hole for the Blue Jays. Currently their options include last year’s surprise homerun leader, Jose Bautista, who is better suited in the field with his strong throwing arm, John MacDonald, the 36 year old defensive whizz who couldn’t hit a beach ball and Mike McCoy who has not taken advantage of previous opportunities to show that he could be an everyday player in the big leagues. Jays fans, myself included, are holding out hope that another option will present itself via trade or free agent acquisition.

The outfield will look a little strange this season for long time Jays fans as Vernon Wells, the teams longest tenured player, will no longer be running out fly balls in center field. Newly acquired Rajai Davis will replace him, while Travis Snider will play corner outfield along with Jose Bautista, or Juan Rivera, if Bautista is to play third.

Over all the Jays have a very competent fielding core with a combination of defence, speed and power at the plate.  However, likely to be their strongest asset is their great, young pitching staff. The Jays have done an excellent job in recent years drafting great pitchers and this year many of them will be given the opportunity to show their stuff.  A pitching staff of Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Bret Cecil, Kyle Drabek and Jesse Litsch will be the youngest in the major leagues, but one with great promise

The Blue Jays are not likely to make the playoffs this year as they must battle the ridiculous payrolls of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, but they will certainly surprise people. This team, led by General Manager Alex Anthopolous, is headed in the right direction and with the bank roll of Rogers Communications willing to spend as the team matures into a perennial threat in the American League, it won’t be long before the Toronto Blue Jays are back on the map of Major League Baseball.