Rowdy Tellez may have an uphill climb to make the Blue Jays' Opening Day roster

The Blue Jays face some interesting decisions with their bench mix. Slugger Rowdy Tellez might not make the Opening Day roster, as the Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm observes.  Since minor league signing Joe Panik “is almost a sure bet to be included on the roster” as a utilityman and outfielders Derek Fisher and Anthony Alford are both out of options, this trio might have the advantage over Tellez, who is defensively limited to only first base.  

Tellez has shown some strong power (25 homers, .475 slugging percentage) over 482 MLB plate appearances, though, is somewhat one-dimensional at the plate, as evidenced by his .241 career average and .299 OBP.  Fisher and Alford will both need to perform well this spring to block Tellez, however, and Chisholm notes that Brandon Drury also isn’t a lock for the roster, as the Blue Jays could opt to cut Drury and just go with Panik as the primary utility player.  

Since Drury was an arbitration-eligible player, releasing him before Opening Day would leave the Jays on the hook for just a small portion of his $2.05M salary.  If Drury was released, Chisholm speculates Toronto could potentially put those savings toward signing another veteran player who might become available as teams trim their rosters in advance of the season opener.

As Yankees righty Luis Severino gets some unwelcome news on his birthday, here’s more from around the AL East…

• Ron Roenicke was Jonathan Lucroy’s manager with the Brewers for over four seasons, and with Roenicke now serving as the Red Sox interim manager, he was the motivating factor in convincing Jonathan Lucroy to sign with Boston.  “He called me and he wanted me to come.  It was a big one,” Lucroy told reporters, including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo and MLB.com’s Ian Browne.  “He’s like, you’ll get an opportunity to come here and make the team.  Right now, that’s all you can ask for with a guy in my position.”  Lucroy signed a minor league contract with the Sox after a pretty quiet stint in free agency, as Cotillo notes that Lucroy “negotiated with a few clubs who backed out of deals at the last minute.”  This isn’t to say that Lucroy is surprised at how his trip through the free-agent market went, given his struggles over the last three seasons: “Analytically, I’ve been terrible.  Seriously. I’m not trying to make excuses.  I’m not surprised I didn’t get a big league offer.”  Now, Lucroy is reunited with his old skipper and will compete with Kevin Plawecki for the backup catching position.
• The Rays are known for cycling different players through a position rather than having a set everyday starter, and MLB.com’s Juan Toribio examines how the club will juggle its many third base options.  Yandy Diaz, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Joey Wendle, Daniel Robertson, Nate Lowe and Mike Brosseau could all factor into Tampa Bay’s choices at the hot corner, while also being rotated around to other positions on the diamond.  Diaz is expected to get the majority of playing time, while Tsutsugo’s readiness at third base is perhaps the biggest wild card in the mix, as he hasn’t played the position since 2014 as a member of the Yokohama BayStars.