Pillar getting his audition for 2015
Outfielder has chance to make statement in season's final weeks
TORONTO -- With so much uncertainty surrounding the configuration of Toronto's outfield in 2015, Kevin Pillar has an opportunity to make a statement that he should be considered for a job.
Colby Rasmus and Melky Cabrera are set to hit free agency at the end of the season. The club would like to re-sign Cabrera, but Rasmus is all but officially guaranteed of going elsewhere following a tumultuous tenure in Toronto.
That would leave at least one starting job up for grabs. Instead of looking for an outside solution, the Blue Jays could decide to move forward with Pillar and Anthony Gose. Before that can happen, though, both players will have to show something -- and they're currently getting everyday at-bats to do it.
"The key to everybody is getting a chance to play day in and day out without worrying about it," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "Usually the guys that fall into the roles of part-time players are your veteran-type players that have done it before.
"You can go out there and struggle one night, back in there the next night, and you don't have to worry about it. You don't have to sit for a couple days and all of a sudden you lose what you had built up anyway."
Pillar has been mostly viewed as a platoon player, but before that becomes a permanent label the Blue Jays want to see what they've got. That's one reason why Rasmus has been benched for the final month of the season as the club has decided to go with its youth and use Pillar and Gose as a platoon in center.
Even more playing time was opened up when Cabrera suffered a season-ending injury in Boston. Now Pillar has become the everyday left fielder and the Blue Jays want to see if his success at the Minor League level will translate to the big leagues.
The recent sample size is still way too small to seriously consider, but there have at least been some encouraging signs as Pillar extended his hitting streak to four games with a single during the second inning of Tuesday night's game vs. the Cubs.
"Kevin, when he has been here, has played sparingly," Gibbons said. "But he has always been one of the better hitters in the Minors at each stop along the way. Everybody tells you that has had him, you see this guy every day, this guy can do a lot of things. So he's getting that opportunity now."