Will Wagner made quite the first impression with the Blue Jays but the transition to a new team hasn’t been nearly as smooth for fellow recent addition Joey Loperfido.
Loperfido picked up four hits across his first three games with the Jays and has been ice cold since. The 25-year-old entered Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels mired in an 0-for-22 skid, which included 10 strikeouts.
Since joining the Jays in a trade with the Houston Astros alongside Wagner and right-hander Jake Bloss, Loperfido is batting .111, with a triple against the New York Yankees his lone standout contribution at the plate.
While it has been a rough opening stretch, the sample size is small and the Jays aren’t about to change their opinion on the versatile outfielder because of one slump.
“It’s not the start he wanted to get off to, obviously,” Jays manager John Schneider said late last week. “We still have all the confidence in the world in him and he’s making some adjustments. He’s feeling it, but he has a good way about him and he understands this is going to be a bit of a process.”
Opposing pitchers appear to be attacking Loperfido with fastballs up in the zone and then getting him to chase low breaking balls — sliders, curveballs and slurves. It’s a common strategy and one that has caused Loperfido fits dating back to his time with the Astros.
Loperfido is batting just .073 on the 179 breaking pitches he has seen in the majors. He has swung and missed at 52.1 per cent of those offerings and has been limited to one extra-base hit in 41 at-bats. According to the Statcast data site Baseball Savant, Loperfido has a -5 run value on sliders and -1 on curveballs.
The numbers on fastballs are better but still not close to where Loperfido wants to be. Four-seamers, which are designed to be thrown up in the zone, have been creating the most problems. He’s batting .191 on those pitches with a -5 run value compared to a .350 average and +3 run value on sinkers.
“I think what we’re seeing is balls up in the zone and balls down in the zone,” Schneider said. “It’s a quick snapshot, so I don’t want to get too overly concerned with it. The guy has a ton of talent and we believe he’ll be fine.”
One of the only positives to come out of this failure of a season is that the Jays can afford to take that type of laid-back approach with their recent recruits. If they were battling for the playoffs, a slump by a starting position player would become a crisis.
The internal hope is that Loperfido will use this opportunity to make his case for a starting job next spring. If he does, left field will be one less thing the Jays will have to worry about in the off-season. If he doesn’t, the former seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft likely will slide into the utility role once occupied by Cavan Biggio or get sent back to the minors.
“I tried not to frame (the trade) as Houston doesn’t want me,” Loperfido said on this week’s episode of The Star’s “Deep Left Field” podcast. “I tried to look at the positives of the opportunities coming to Toronto, knowing I would be able to play more, knowing I would get my opportunities and chances here.
“If you look at this team, it’s a little bit of a younger group. I feel like there are some guys like myself who are trying to establish themselves as everyday players in the big leagues.”
The Jays aren’t that young, but they injected some youth into their system at the trade deadline. Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier, Trevor Richards and Kikuchi were among the aging veterans dealt to contenders in deals that brought back 13 prospects.
Of the players recently acquired, Loperfido and Wagner are the only ones with significant roles on the active roster. They will likely be joined in the not-so-distant future by Bloss and outfielder Jonatan Clase, who was added in the deal that sent reliever Yimi Garcia to Seattle.
Then there’s Spencer Horwitz, Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement and Leo Jimenez, who were on the roster before the deadline and are still auditioning. That group will be competing against each other and whoever performs the best will enter spring training with an inside track on whatever jobs are still available.
Loperfido doesn’t have to start looking over his shoulder quite yet. He’s going to be given ample time to showcase his skills and try to turn his rough opening stretch into something more positive.
Still, the production will have to come at some point before the end of the season if Loperfido wants to be factored in for 2025. Even a noncontending Jays team can only remain patient for so long.
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