Blue Jays’ Daulton Varsho’s Lack of Offence

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After discussing Alek Manoah’s inability to prevent other teams from scoring, John Gibbons and David Bastl switch it around and chat about newcomer Daulton Vasrsho’s struggles to help the Jays get runs.

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Daulton Varsho’s Problems at the Plate

Hoopla was made when the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Daulton Varsho in the offseason in exchange for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno.

In a bitter twist for Jays fans, Gurriel Jr. is having a great season in the desert, sporting a .319 batting average, nine home runs, and 29 RBI’s. Conversely, Varsho has only mustered a .211 hitting efficiency. While the defensive play has been good, Toronto obviously signed him for some offensive production as well. As Bastl points out, Ernie Clement pinch hit for him in a recent game versus the Tampa Bay Rays.

How can his poor season at bat be explained?

“It’s not necessarily unusual for guys who switch leagues (Varsho came from the National League). Sometimes in baseball, the harder you try the worse it gets. He’s probably getting advice from everybody and their brother.”

The former Toronto coach expresses hope that the current managerial staff at least gave Varsho the heads up that someone would be batting in his place. Otherwise, getting blindsided like that could do some damage to confidence and, generally, the relationship between player and coach. Being the “clean up” hitter could potentially make such impromptu decisions come off as even worse.

Benching Big Frank Thomas

Gibbons relates the importance of sitting and talking with a struggling player to his own experiences with a player who later earned their way into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Chicago White Sox superstar Frank Thomas.

At the time in 2008, Thomas was nearing the end of his career. It was his second season in Toronto and “Gibby’s” first stint as Blue Jays manager. After a dreadful start to the season – .167  batting average after 20 games – Gibbons pondered benching the living legend.

“The toughest part that is aging superstar players, they don’t want to admit it, but they get old. J.P. Ricciardi, he was the GM at the time, he said ‘Stick with him. He’s a slow starter.’”

Shortly after the general manager gave Thomas his vote of confidence, the latter had yet another subpar performance. Suddenly, Ricciardi changed his tune. He gave Gibbons his blessing to do what he felt was best for the team.

“Yeah! So I told one of the coaches to go get Big Frank. But I made sure I had another coach with me in the room because you don’t want anything to get lost in translation. It didn’t go so well. Frank stormed off and said he wanted to talk to the GM!”

“Gibby” jokingly concludes that, for all he knew, Ricciardi was probably listening in on the conversation with his ear pressed against the door.