Blue Jays likely to need outfield assistance

BOSTON -- The Blue Jays may be forced to go with a rather unconventional outfield in the near future when Rajai Davis eventually departs the club to attend the birth of his first child.

Davis' wife is expected to go into labor any day and when that happens he's expected to leave the club for at least two or three days. It's an understandable scenario but one that will also leave the Blue Jays short-handed in the outfield.

Following a season-ending injury to Colby Rasmus, Toronto currently only has four outfielders on its roster in Kevin Pillar, Anthony Gose, Moises Sierra and Davis. Another injury would then place either veteran Mark DeRosa or Munenori Kawasaki in the outfield.

"We have four now, when Raj, when she has the baby, I'm sure he'll be gone for a couple of days," manager John Gibbons said. "We'll make do, we're at the end here so we don't have a lot of time anyways. But DeRosa has played some outfield, Kawasaki can go out there, so we have some guys that can do it."

Kawasaki has never played the outfield during his professional career, but DeRosa has played 250 games there throughout the course of his 16 seasons in the big leagues. DeRosa played one inning in left during Friday night's game against the Red Sox and he also appeared in the outfield 16 times with the Nationals in 2012.

It's not exactly an ideal scenario, but the Blue Jays should be able to get through it with just over a week remaining in the season.

"His foot speed is not what it used to be, but he's going to make a play if he gets to it," Gibbons said of DeRosa. "He's going to give you a good at-bat, too. You may not get the results that you want, but he's going to give you a good at-bat."