DEVON TRAVIS CALLED UP

Yesterday here is what the Blue Jays were saying about Devon Travis. "Physically, stamina, he should be fine," manager John Gibbons said. "But, really, to be fair to him, he's had a lot of at-bats in Rookie ball, he's had just a couple of games in Triple-A, the big leagues is still different. You want to make sure he has seen enough breaking balls, hopefully sees some of the best pitchers down there. If you jump the gun too soon, you don't want him to get off to a struggle either."

So of course what did the Jays do… but call up Travis today. It might have something to do with the quad issue that Troy Tulowitzki is dealing with, but he completely minimized the injury yesterday. "On the stolen base, my quad tightened up a little bit, grabbed me," Tulowitzki said. "I felt like I needed to get out of there, otherwise I could have done something I didn't want to do and put myself in jeopardy. That was my decision, and hopefully I'm good to go tomorrow.” Terrible timing for Tulo if he does indeed go down as he’s finally starting to hit with a .313 average, .358 OBP, .604 SLG, three homers and 10 RBI the last 13 games (he’s out of the lineup Wednesday).

Regardless, here’s what we need to know about Travis.

Devon had an impressive season with a .304/.361/.498 slash line over 62 games last season. He hit eight homers, drove in 35 runs and scored 38 times during a hell of a rookie campaign. Alas, he dealt with a shoulder issue, had setbacks with it, an eventually required surgery on his wing. He had the surgery in mid-November and was given a 16-20 week recovery. Twenty weeks would have been the first week of April, so it’s taken him a bit of time to get back to full strength.

Travis only appeared in nine minor league games this year, and for a guy that last faced big league pitching in July last season I’m nervous that he is being rushed. Over 38 plate appearances Travis hit .306 with on walk and a .732 OPS. Not much to get excited about there at all. Really think he should have had more time on the farm.

Travis has the talent to be a top-10 second baseman the rest of the way. He also has to prove that his shoulder is health and that he is capable of driving the baseball. It’s totally fine, and advisable, to be adding him if he’s on the waiver-wire, but understand that you shouldn’t be expecting a big power surge and a that a slow start is very possible (it’s also not likely that he’s going to be a homer threat if he duplicated the 50 percent ground ball rate he posted last season).

Where would I rank him at second base? Inside the top-15 rest of the way at second I would think, but you’ll know exactly on June 1st when the monthly rankings update is released.  

NOTE: Late word... the Blue Jays might waste little time inserting Travis into the leadoff spot says his manager

Cameron Maybin has been blazing hot since his return. Ben Revere is back to his old ways. Jonathan Villar is running wild on the base paths. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO.
 

TREVOR STORY UPDATE

Trevor Story struck out in all four at-bats Tuesday against the Red Sox. That ran his games played streak to 14-straight games with a punchout and, amazingly, Story has struck out in 40 of the 43 games he’s appeared in. That’s staggeringly ineffective. The all-time single season mark is 223 punchouts. Story’s on pace for 243. Story is still hitting .272 but it is highly likely that his average will continue to fall with that amazing 33.7 percent K-rate and sky-high .359 BABIP.

Story has hit one homer in 16 games and two in 22 games. To review… Story had 10 homers his first 21 games and has hit two in his last 22 games. For half the season he was the best home run hitter in the league. The last half the season he’s been Adeiny Hechavarria with the power stroke.
 

Julio Teheran has been solid even though he can’t get a win. Justin Verlander has been looking like his old self of late. Jeff Samardzija has huge potential this season. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO.


OTHER MIDDLE INFIELDERS…

Carlos Correa has four homers, 12 RBI and 10 runs scored in 22 May games. That’s a slowish month, but it’s certainly passable (the .231/.314/.385 slash line is way below expectations). He’s been on the field for 144 games as a big leaguers and has 29 homers and 22 steals with a .824 OPS. He will obviously be fine.

I’m a big Brad Miller fan. He’s struggled, totally fine with admitting that, but he has been improving and at this point he’s on pace to go better than 15/15. Not much wrong with that. He needs to get the .233 average up .020 points… and I think he can do it. If he does you will be happy you own the dual position player.

Addison Russell is hitting just .240. Not surprised at all (I mean, he did hit .242 last season folks). Note that his walk rate is up and his strikeout rate is down this season. That’s what I’m concerned with, not his raw batting average. Even with his struggles his .341 OBP is better than Jason Kipnis (.330) and his 29 RBI are more than Jose Altuve (27). Let it wash over you…

Jonathan Schoop is hitting .275. It won’t last. He has 34 strikeouts and just five walks. You should know what he is by now.

Marcus Semien is second at shortstop with 10 homers. He’s hitting a mere .217 and has only scored eight times when he hasn’t homered since he’s hit 9th in the order 30 times for the Athletics. When batting 9th he has a .847 OPS.

Eugenio Suarez is batting .188 with a .610 OPS in May. Yikes. He’s hitting a mere .231 with a .282 OBP. Those are deficient numbers. All about power but nothing else at the moment. Can’t say I’m overly surprised.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).