Hernandez, McKinney likely to platoon in LF

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays appear to be leaning toward having Teoscar Hernandez and Billy McKinney platoon in left field instead of putting one of the young outfielders in Triple-A at the start of the season.

Randal Grichuk and Kevin Pillar will be two of the starting outfielders for sure and then the other two spots likely will go to McKinney and Hernandez, while others such as Dalton Pompey, Dwight Smith Jr., Jonathan Davis and Anthony Alford will compete as well.

Toronto isn't committing to anything quite yet, but general manager Ross Atkins was asked whether his preference would be to name an undisputed starter in left or have the two outfielders split time, and his answer was rather telling.

"We'll see, as it stands right now, the latter," Atkins said in reference to a platoon for Hernandez and McKinney. "We’re going to have a fourth outfielder. It’s not necessarily [McKinney] platooning with Teoscar. There will be other opportunities for him, too.

"Grichuk and Pillar have more established track records, but being open to different configurations and different ways and matchups will be a strength of this Major League staff, and that will influence the playing time of all of those individuals."

Hernandez and McKinney have options remaining and technically could be sent to the Minors without having to clear waivers. The issue is that Hernandez is already 26 and McKinney is 24, so there might be limited value in continuing their development in the Minors. Both are ready for the next level.

The big loser in all of this would be Pompey, who is out of options and cannot be sent to the Minors without clearing waivers. Pompey appears to have fallen out of favor with the organization, and last year he was the only healthy member of the 40-man roster who wasn't invited to play for the Blue Jays in September.

"We have some time, we have some time," Atkins said about the looming deadline for Pompey. "We’ll see. We feel like a lot could happen in the way of performance, in the way of alternatives. I wish he certainly did have an option, but in some ways it’s good for him to now find out, ‘OK, is this going to work at the Major League level, or am I going to be doing it with someone else?'"

The last two years have been quite the fall from grace for Pompey, who used to be one of the club's top prospects. He opened 2015 as the starting center fielder at age 22 but lost the job within two months, and since that season has played just 13 games at the big league level.

A wide variety of injuries, including a serious concussion in 2017, derailed his career, but he is still just 26 years old as he looks to bounce back this spring in Florida.

"I’m sure he would agree with me, not what he expected out of 2017 and 2018, tough for any player," Atkins said. "To deal with the injuries, to deal with not meeting expectations of his own, to not meet expectations of fans, it’s not something that you or I as non-performers in elite levels of ... can really understand how difficult and frustrating it is.

"What we’ve tried to focus on with Dalton is just his routines and work ethic and focusing on very small things that he can control and see if it turns into doubles and home runs."