When I heard the Jays were calling up Sean Nolin yesterday, I got pretty upset.
“What is it with this organization and fast tracking young, inexperienced arms?”
I railed against it on Baseball Central. I railed against it on Blue Jays Central. Today, however, I’m done fighting it. After a night to sleep on things and consider all the angles, I’m fine with it. Fine with a few caveats.
After looking around the organization, what I found myself asking was; if you’re the Jays, who else do you call up that is going to be a building block for your franchise?
Not Claduio Vargas. Not Ramon Ortiz. Not Arron Laffey. Not Justin Germano, Not (insert stop-gap 3A talent)…
Then I asked myself, “would the Jays have called Nolin up this early if they didn’t have to?”
No, I don’t think so.
Would the Jays have called up Nolin if JA Happ and Ricky Romero weren’t recovering from head trauma? What If Aaron Laffey didn’t disappoint in his chance, or if Dave Bush didn’t give up 4 homers in his. What if Germano didn’t get roughed up, or Ramon Ortiz was not older than the GM?
It’s not that there aren’t other options, it’s that they didn’t impress with their chances, or aren’t part of the Jays long term future. And, as much as I feel like not taking the time to develop their player is a sign of an organization not having a plan for the future, I think calling up Sean Nolin shows that the Jays really do.
Nolin may have been expedited to the Big Leagues, but it’s not like he isn’t talented. He probably has the stuff to perform serviceably despite his limited experience. Could he, with more experience, hit the ground running, and endure—or avoid—the choppy seas he’ll find? Probably. But development time is a luxury the Jays don’t have right now.
When I talked with Alex Anthopoulus this Spring he said that more of his young pitchers would be passing through Triple A. He agreed that there are a lot of reasons to send young talents there, even if you think they could hold their own in the bigs straight from Double A. For starters, in triple A pitchers battle batters with distinct and polished approaches, which requires them to develop a polished approach of their own.
Triple A also gives you access to veteran arms who’ve seen their “stuff” dry up, but have learned to make do with cunning and experience.
And, maybe the most vastly underrated benefit of triple A: you learn what it’s like to be around bitter, self obsessed jack-asses that aren’t going to hold your hand, coddle, or pick you up when you fail.
Some say this is a negative factor to a pitcher’s development. I say it’s not. You think the players in the big leagues are always supportive of one another? You think the fan base can’t eat you alive for shattering their expectations? You think old dogs are going to happily mentor the young dog bidding for their job?
Anthopoulus knows this. But, again, a slow, steady developmental track is something you can tout when your organization is full of prospects fighting to get to the top, and healthy, performing arms already sitting there.
What the Jays are doing with Nolin is making the best of a less than desirable situation. They don’t have any high level prospects. They aren’t impressed with the replacements they have in triple A. They still have to think of developing building blocks for the future. So, Josh Johnson goes down, a window to audition a guy opens, Nolin jumps through it.
Sure, Nolin may not be polished to a fine shine, but he’s—so the Jays seem to infer—going to go back to the minors to get it when he finishes keeping Johnson’s seat warm. If Nolin gets his ass handed to him, fine, he’ll go back to the minors with something to work on—something the minors haven’t done a very good job showing him.
If he pitches well, all the better. He can go back to the minors confident, and hungry to come back.
Either way, Josh Johnson is coming back.
Nolin getting a taste of the show, good or bad, isn’t going to wreck him. A long term stay may delay him in reaching his full potential since it’s very difficult to work on adjusting your game at the top. But, as long as the Jays keep it short and focused, I think it could help more than it hurts.