SEATTLE -- The Blue Jays’ defense will need to get used to life without Andrés Giménez, at least for 10 days.
Giménez was placed on the IL with a right quad strain before Friday’s series opener against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. The Blue Jays had spent the last couple of days running tests and evaluating Giménez after he left Wednesday's game against the Angels, but for now, they’re leaning to the safe side.
“He was feeling better yesterday and better today, but we’ll probably give him a couple of days to let it calm down and then ramp him up from there,” manager John Schneider said. “He’s pissed. He’s played through stuff before, but looking at the MRI, losing him for an extended period would be way worse than losing him for 10 days.”
For the first week of the season, it looked like Giménez had been reborn as a power hitter. He launched three home runs in the Blue Jays’ first five games -- one of the finest first impressions we’ve ever seen in Toronto -- but his offensive numbers have quickly regressed. Since those first five games in March, Giménez has hit just .173 with a .440 OPS. He remains one of the game’s truly elite defenders and brings the Blue Jays value on the bases, but when he returns from the IL, the focus will clearly fall back to his offense.
For now, Schneider and the Blue Jays will hope for a shorter stint on the IL and all early signs point to it being just that. In the meantime, Michael Stefanic gets the call from Triple-A.
Meet the new guy
We can let Schneider’s scouting report of Stefanic take the microphone here:
“He’s just a grimy baseball player who will do anything to help you win,” Schneider said. “He’s performing really well and he’s been here before. He already knew [the Mariners’] whole bullpen. He’s just a baseball player. He can play short, second and third, probably even first. He was performing well and it just gives us another infield option.”
In this strange world of baseball, “grimy” is high praise. Remember last summer, when Danny Jansen snapped a power drought with a home run in San Francisco and Kevin Gausman praised his batterymate by saying: “He’s a grimy guy. He’s fine getting dirty.”
In Triple-A this season, Stefanic has hit .319 with an .826 OPS and he’s walked more times (18) than he’s struck out (14). Schneider compared Stefanic to another Blue Jays infielder you’re already more familiar with.
“He’s high contact with versatility and he can run. It’s kind of like another little version of Ernie [Clement], but with a beard.”
What this means for everyone else
Last season, second base was a revolving door. The arrival of Giménez completely changed that -- which in turn changed how Schneider moves players around his lineup -- but that could return over the next couple of weeks.
Clement gets the first crack at second, but you can also expect to see Stefanic there. Even Myles Straw was floated recently as a backup (to the backup) option in the middle infield, but this is clearly a thin group.
If anything, this could actually open up third base for more Addison Barger games. If Clement is needed at second more often, which appears very likely, then Barger could be a near-daily fixture in the lineup. The Blue Jays haven’t gotten this far down the road yet, but we can’t forget that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. enjoys playing third base and has improved there over the years, so that’s another option Schneider will have in his back pocket until Giménez returns from this quad injury.