The last time I checked, JP Ricciardi is no longer running the Blue Jays, so it seems a little odd– if not a bit nostalgic– that a new tidbit of information about the club could be coming out of Boston. But that could be what we’ve got, by way of Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. He writes:
“What needs to happen – maybe not immediately, but perhaps by next season – is that Escobar must move to second base to make room for Cuban shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria. Escobar loves being a shortstop, so there is a bit of trepidation among some in the organization as to how he will accept this. Escobar is a very good shortstop who could start for many teams, but the Jays have their version of Jose Iglesias; they think Hechavarria is going to be pretty special.”
OK, so maybe anybody could have told you that it’s probably going to be a bit weird to ask an in-his-prime shortstop like Escobar to move over for Hechavarria, once he’s ready to make the jump to the Majors– and, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, there are still big questions about whether his bat will play at the MLB level– but it’s interesting to hear that the Jays themselves, at least some of them, think this might be a problem. It’s not quite akin to working up the nerve to ask Vernon Wells to move out of centre field, which the club never seemed prepared to do, but it’s close.
Perhaps more interesting is that the club thinks Hechavarria is going to force the issue.
