Length of game is a measuring stick of success in the American League East, so it's understandable that manager John Farrell is on record as saying he wants to see a deeper, more experienced Toronto Blue Jays lineup finding itself in deathly long games in a year's time. Screw your deadlines, fellas.
Farrell would also prefer being in a pennant race next fall, instead of answering questions such as those presented on Tuesday about the balancing act with September call-ups like Adam Loewen. But for the next 20 games, Farrell will fiddle with the integrity of the pennant race, with games against postseason aspirants the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, while rewarding Loewen and David Cooper and Brad Mills for yeoman minor-league duty. Farrell will also see if Chad Beck's power arm and Daniel Farquhar's lower-slot delivery might have a place in a bullpen that will be nuked at the end of this season – chances are Casey Janssen will be the only veteran standing when it's done – and will massage the ego of Kyle Drabek.
It is safe to say that most of the attention on September call-ups will be focused on Dustin McGowan (who received a warm ovation Tuesday night in a relief appearance that marked his first major-league action since July of 2008 and his first relief stint since Sept. 19, 2006) and Loewen, the former gilt-edged pitching prospect and fourth choice overall out of Surrey, B.C., as well as Drabek.
Drabek was a mess when the Blue Jays sent him out, and while his numbers at Triple-A Las Vegas (5-4, 7.44 with a WHIP of 2.03) suggest a double-dip recession in his status, general manager Alex Anthopoulos is buying Triple-A pitching coach Tom Signore's bullish prediction of recovery: a fastball hitting 96 miles an hour, and a curve in his last start that was viewed in person by Anthopoulos. "The curve for strikes he never had here," the GM said, adding: "I was just so much more encouraged with what I saw down there than what I saw when he was here."
If Farrell wants to play along with the narrative as far as Loewen is concerned, he might want to give the left-hand hitting first baseman/corner outfielder some at-bats this weekend when the Baltimore Orioles come to town. It was the Orioles who drafted Loewen, and for whom the 27-year-old made 35 big-league pitching appearances before injury and reality turned him into a minor-league position player with the Blue Jays organization. Playing on a minor-league deal since 2008, Loewen hit .306 with 17 home runs and 85 runs batted in this season and had a .508 on-base percentage.
The Blue Jays did not call up shortstop prospect Adeiny Hechavarria, who hit .389 at Triple-A and finished the season on a nine-game hitting streak while making hard contact, because the Cuban exile is only a month away from earning U.S. citizenship and the Blue Jays say his agent says if he were to leave the United States for Canada, the process would likely have to start all over again.
Hechavarria will play in the Arizona Fall League, and you can forget any talk about his shifting to second base. "No way, no chance," Anthopoulos said. "I know I get asked that all the time, but there's no way this guy's coming off of shortstop." Okay, then.
Anthopoulos said Loewen, who will still be under the team's control next spring but is out of options, was "not a charity case," and that he likely deserved to be a call-up more than any of the players accompanying him.
"There's a lot of tools there," Anthopoulos said. "He can run, throw and draw a walk and has tremendous raw power.
"I think he fits. It's really going to come down to how the bat plays, but there's definitely enough there to be a major-league player."
The odds still might seem stacked against Loewen, but with every fly ball hit in Eric Thames's direction and with all the twist and turns the organization has gone through with Travis Snider, who knows? It's September, and unfortunately the Blue Jays have nothing to lose.