E5 Getting Nix-ed?

I knew coming into the season with a new coach, the Jays would be a different entity than the steady-state club of the Cito years. Only a handful of games have been played this season, but there have already been a Cito-season's worth of changes to the Jays roster under John Farrell, with the wheelin' and dealin' of Alex Anthopoulos contributing behind the scenes.

The first big shocker was the proclamation, just 3 days prior to Opening Day, that Jose Bautista would be the team's starting right fielder, despite the fact that he was penned in at 3rd base throughout Spring Training. The word from Farrell was that they felt this was the best defensive configuration for the team, with Edwin Encarnacion as the third baseman, and the cannon attached to Jose Bautista in right field. Also pointing to the fact that Edwin was in top physical form this season and a more capable fielder than ever.

The blogosphere was understandably weary of such a setup, with Edwin's .934 career fielding percentage, and 18 errors at 3rd last season, both standing as ominous signs. Also much like Bautista, Encarnacion had spent most of his time in spring training working at other positions, mainly preparing to be Adam Lind's backup at 1st base and starting at DH, with only a couple games played at 3rd base.

Conspiracy theorists guessed that this might have been a strategy by management to save face, after Bautista publicly asserted that he would prefer to play right field, right around the time of his contract extension. Rather than straight up concede to the new franchise player's demands, maybe they decided to make him sweat, who knows, but he ended up getting his wish. Bottom-line is, when it came time to make the first big league lineup of his managerial career, Farrell looked at the 5, and just couldn't help but think... Encarnacion.

In a short stint at the hot corner Edwin quickly reverted to his evil alter-ego... E5! In 4 games at the hot corner, Edwin had already accumulated 4 errors and Blue Jays management was quick to jump to their insurance policy. Utility infielder Jayson Nix was left off the Indians roster out of spring training and was quickly grabbed by AA for cash. Now a career .215 hitter doesn't exactly scream saviour, but so far, Nix has been quite adequate. Defensively, he's been slightly better than E5 with a few strong plays coming to mind, but he has made 2 errors in 10 games, so hard to tell if he'll be able to settle down, or just end up earning his own error-related nickname.

The question now arises of where does Edwin fit? I still think Edwin deserves some time to redeem himself at 3rd base, but at the same time, does anyone else remember what happened when a so-called "utility player" was given regular playing time last season?? He arose like a (bearded) phoenix from the ashes of a border-line career to a legit everyday player, if not an All-Star (Yeah, I'm sayin it!). For now it looks like when Edwin returns he should be back to DH along with Juan Rivera, and could pick up the odd start at 1st or 3rd base, but it should be interesting to see how this position progresses through the season... As most Jays fans also know, there's a certain sexy newcomer 3rd baseman down in Las Vegas right now too, and when a sexy newcomer gets involved, all bets are off!