This morning’s minor league update turned into an interesting discussion of who the Jays might call up when the rosters expand. With September about two weeks away, I decided to take a look at the issue more closely and see what history might reveal about names we can expect to see in Toronto blue in September.
Several names were bandied about in the thread, with John Northey suggesting Jeremy Accardo, John Parrish, Brian Wolfe and Robinzon Diaz were locks, while WillRain thought those four plus Davis Romero and Scott Richmond would all come up. Whiterasta80 suggested Ricky Romero and David Smith to go along with Davis Romero and Diaz. Tstaddon proposed an extensive list of callups that included Accardo, Parrish, Richmond, R. Romero, Wolfe, Diaz, Smith, Buck Coats and Scott Campbell. John Northey and WillRain also raised Curtis Thigpen and Russ Adams as possibilities.
I think it’s at least worth looking at who the Jays have called up in previous Septembers while JP has been in charge. This list is only looking at players who were promoted to the big team during the first week of September. A couple of times the Jays have promoted players in the middle of September, but those were usually direct injury replacements. For example, this occurred last year when Joe Inglett replaced Troy Glaus when Glaus went on the DL in the middle of September and John-Ford Griffin did the same when Wells went on the DL a week later.
So, here is the list of the players the Jays have called up each of the previous six seasons:
2007: 6 – Josh Banks, Joe Kennedy, Brandon League, Sal Fasano, Hector Luna, Adam Lind
2006: 5 – Dustin McGowan, Francisco Rosario, Josh Towers, Kevin Barker, Lind
2005: 3 – Shaun Marcum, Ken Huckaby, Griffin (4 if you want to count activating Ted Lilly from the DL during the first week of September)
2004: 5 – Chad Gaudin, Ryan Glynn, Guilermo Quiroz, Eric Crozier, Russ Adams
2003: 4 – Brian Bowles, Vinny Chulk, Dan Reichart, Howie Clark
2002: 5 – Jason Kershner, Scott Wiggins, Kevin Cash, Felipe Lopez, Jayson Werth
The Jays actually called more players up last year than they had any of the previous five seasons. The lowest total is 3 (or four) and the average is 4.66.
There are a few patterns that emerge, such as that the Jays have called up a third catcher any year they’ve had a reasonable option at the position. As Diaz is a strong candidate to be the backup catcher in 2009, has passed Thigpen on the depth chart, and there seems to be little gained from calling up Jeroloman at this point, I think it’s clear that Diaz will join the Jays in early September.
The Jays have usually added three pitchers and the only year they didn't add at least two was 2005. As speculated in the thread by every poster, Wolfe is a lock to join the team when rosters expand. He’ll almost certainly be joined by Accardo or whomever goes to Triple-A if Accardo comes off the DL in the next two weeks. However, that leaves the team with one pitcher in order to reach the highest previous total of three.
There are at least three obvious candidates in Parrish, Richmond and Davis Romero, plus Ricky Romero is the one dark-horse candidate I could reasonably see getting a call. As I speculated in the thread, there simply aren’t enough innings for the Jays to go with an twelve-man bullpen, which is what would be happen if they called up Richmond, Parrish and Davis Romero. I said in the other thread that I can’t see more than two of them getting the call and I stand by that statement. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was only one, but the Jays won’t add more than four pitchers to the staff. I’d list the four contenders with Parrish as the most likely to come up in September, followed by Richmond and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ricky Romero ahead of Davis Romero.
The Jays have always added at least one position player who isn’t a catcher. Also, if you’ll notice, this is one position where they sometimes will add players who clearly don’t have a long-term future with the team, such as Kevin Barker, Eric Crozier or even Hector Luna. The Jays used to do that with pitchers, as the team called up Wiggins, Glynn and Reichart, but they have tended not to do that any more. I think this is partially a reflection of the organisation’s pitching depth in that players who might otherwise get cups of coffee are squeezed out by legitimate pitching prospects. So, although there are no outstanding candidates on this year’s roster, I think the Jays will call up someone from Triple-A who is a position player.
The team already has a lefty bat off the bench in Wilkerson/Stairs and a righty bat in Mench and doesn’t seem to need an outfielder with those two on the bench. Therefore, an infielder makes the most sense, especially if Rolen gets shut down early, as WillRain alluded to. Thus, I think we might see the return of Russ Adams. He’ll work with Butterfield to see if he can still play the infield aside from 2B, will get a few starts and will do some pinch-running. Coats is another candidate and he is useful as a bench player, but I think he’s just going to fall victim to the fact that there are too many outfielders on the team, and guys who can simply play a competent outfield, such as Scutaro and Inglett. Plus, I think the Jays might want to get one last look at Adams before going into the offseason, when they’re going to have to seriously think about removing him from the 40-man roster or giving him some sort of major league role.
There you have it. The 2008 September call-ups, barring injury: Accardo, Wolfe and Diaz are certain to be promoted. My prediction is that they are joined by Parrish and Adams. Other possibilities include Richmond, both Romeros and Buck Coats, but I don't see any of them getting the call. Agreements? Disagreements? While this is my prediction of what will happen, do you think some other players should get promoted?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2008081718145685