Travis Snider primed for success with Blue Jays
Don’t let his mustache and borderline mullet fool you, Travis Snider means business all the time with the Toronto Blue Jays. After all, he has gone through his share of ups and downs at the Major League level. Now, with the Jays fully committed to him, he’s ready to embrace the opportunity of having an everyday role with the team, including everything else that comes with it.
“It’s the understanding of the responsibilities that I’m going to be having as a guy that’s going to be in there every day,” Snider explains. “It’s an exciting opportunity for me but the work ethic has to stay there as [an everyday role]. It’s something I’ve got to continue to earn throughout the season.”
While Snider, set to contribute daily, won’t have to worry about a minor league assignment if he struggles, it hasn’t always been easy for him during his time in Toronto.
After rocketing up three minor league levels in 2008, Snider became the youngest position player in the Majors when he was a late-season call up by the Jays later that year at the ripe age of just 20 years old. He held his own during his 24-game stint with the Jays – going 22-for-73 at the plate with six doubles, two home runs, and 13 RBI – and it was enough to earn him a spot on the Jays’ 2009 Opening Day roster.
He picked up right where he left off and managed a .298/.365/.596 slash line in his first 16 games of the 2009 season, before running into what has turned out to be the worst overall slump of his career so far. Over his next 16 games, Snider struggled with a .192/.222/.212 line while drawing two walks and logging only 10 hits, one of which was for extra bases.
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Snider’s slump wound up earning him a demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas, as his chances of starting every day at the Major League level gradually diminished due to his poor numbers at the plate, and it appeared that he might have been called up too soon to stay in the Majors. The chance to start nearly every day in Vegas was ideal for Snider’s development as it gave him the opportunity to work on a few things and ditch some bad habits he had developed as a result of his slump.
“As things kind of snowballed for me, I got away from being able to handle the fastball, so they’d blow the fastball by me and have me out front chasing off-speed pitches,” Snider told the Las Vegas Sun at the time of his demotion.
Snider took the demotion in stride, and used it as an opportunity to get his confidence back at the plate. During the two months he spent in Vegas, Snider managed a .337 average with 14 home runs and a staggering 1.094 OPS in 48 games. It was a statement by Snider that clearly showed he had nothing left to prove in the minor leagues, and that the only option was to have him return to the Majors and stay there.
After closing out the 2009 season with a strong 18 game showing, Snider was set on putting the past behind him and focusing on spending an entire season with the Blue Jays the following year in 2010.
That idea was quickly erased when Snider, who struggled at the plate in his first month, suffered a wrist injury at the end of May that forced him to the disabled list. His injury, combined with the fact the Jays had to sort out a few roster issues prior to the trade deadline, saw him away from the Jays for over two and a half months, and he continued to struggle at the plate once he returned. Having gone through issues like these the year before in 2009, Snider got understandably upset and frustrated with his performance.
“At this level you try to conduct yourself as a professional whether you’re having success or failure, and it was at a point where some of my immaturities and emotions were taking over [in terms of] the way I was reacting to some of the outs,” Snider told The Good Point.
In addition to battling an injury and struggles at the plate, the 2010 season was also frustrating for Snider in terms of where then-manager Cito Gaston was putting him in the lineup.
After Marco Scutaro, the Jays’ leadoff hitter in 2009, departed via free agency over the offseason, it created a hole at the top of the Jays’ batting order that was never permanently filled. Instead, Gaston decided to rotate players at the position and Snider, who had already bounced around the bottom of third of the batting order during the season, was wrongfully slotted in as the Jays’ leadoff hitter in 19 games.
This season, Snider has a new manager that is well aware of his abilities in John Farrell, as well as a commitment to him from Jays management that guarantees he will see the field every day. That combination already started to positively affect him in Spring Training, where he hit .346/.382/.462 in 17 games following a rib injury, and it should be a refreshing change for him over the course of the regular season.
Even though he’s excited to finally be a regular contributor in the Jays lineup, Snider feels that the ups and downs he has endured in his career so far will make him stronger.
“Consistency is great from an individual standpoint, but there might be a time this season where things are going to get bounced around, and I think gaining some experience over the last few years of some uncertainties and how you prepare yourself in those situations is going to help prepare me for the long haul in this game,” the former first-round draft pick said.
While Snider has already noticed that Farrell has had an effect on him personally, he has noticed that the effects of the Jays’ offseason coaching changes have extended across the entire team, creating a much more optimistic and upbeat clubhouse than in years past.
“I think the morale has been great, the work ethic has been second to none since Day 1 of spring training, and we have some good leadership on this team,” Snider said.
Snider, among other Jays players, has also noticed the changes that GM Alex Anthopoulos has made to the organization’s farm system and Major League roster in an effort to build a dynasty in Toronto that will seriously compete for an extended period of time.
“We’ve got a lot of great personalities here, a good mix of veteran guys, some young guys, and some tweener guys,” the Washington native said. “It’s been, over the last few years, an accumulation of some guys we’ve got in trades, some young prospects that have been coming up, and some guys that have been here for a little while so I think it’s a great mix and I think that’s going to be a great combination going forward.”
Despite the fact the Jays have played only three regular season games so far, Snider has already shown that he has the ability to do it all. He’s drawn walks, notched a few hits, come up with RBIs in a pinch hit appearance, and used his arm to log an impressive outfield assist at home plate.
It is the kind of showing – albeit in an extremely small sample size – that has faithful Blue Jay fans salivating over the kind of numbers that Snider could put up this season with regular playing time, seeing as he managed to hammer 14 home runs last season in less than a half season’s worth of at-bats. Some fans can even see Snider sliding into the cleanup spot in the batting order and hitting behind home run king Jose Bautista before the end of the season.
To Snider, he just ignores what people say and only pays attention to the things that are within his grasp.
“I don’t read too much into it, I mean you show up to the field every day, the batting order is up there, and where you’re going to hit is where you’re going to hit,” the 23-year-old said.
“When the opportunities come up in a game to be able to deliver and drive in a run or move a guy over and do some of the things as a club that we have to do to win ball games, I think it’s easier to stay concentrated on that, which you can control, versus where you’re at in the [batting] order. You have to be ready for anything, and I think the last few years have really taught me that.”
If Snider manages to have more at-bats like the ones he had this past weekend and finds his power stroke this season, he could be in store for some impressive numbers. Personal achievements to Snider, though, aren’t exactly a priority, as his goals for the season are very straight forward.
“Trying to stay healthy so I can get out there on the field with my teammates every day and try to win,” Snider said. ” I’ve stepped into the box and have been seeing these pitchers for a couple years now, and I understand what it takes to stay at this level and be successful.”
“I’m excited to embark on that journey moving into this year, and I’m excited to do it with a great group of guys around me and a great coaching staff.”
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