Blue Jays Watch: Juan Rivera – career resurgence candidate, or odd man out?

It seems like the over the course of the last couple of seasons, the Toronto Blue Jays has been a preferred home for unexpected career years from MLB veterans. Marco Scutaro, who came to Toronto as a 33-year old utilityman, was a .282, 100-run player by the time he signed with the Red Sox. Ditto Alex Gonzalez and John Buck; the former was traded midway through a season in which the shortstop had hit 17 home runs in 85 games, and the latter via free agency, after Buck put up a batting average some 40 points higher than all of his previous seasons. The headliner on this list of players is, of course, José Bautista, whose career-year in 2010 capped a season in which the Blue Jays squad led the league in home runs. The 30-year old breakout slugger was rewarded with a long term contract from the Jays, and now enters a pivotal season in which expectations for his performance are wildly disparate amongst fans. This brings us to this year’s Blue Jays roster, in which outfielder Juan R...