The Blue Jays Are Getting Unexpected Value from Insurance Pieces

According to the team's best-laid plans, Ezequiel Carrera and Darwin Barney did not figure to play much this season. They were insurance policies. In short order, the Blue Jays became big-time beneficiaries.

Owing to other players' injuries, Carrera and Barney have played in roughly two thirds of the Jays' games so far. And each has been far more valuable than the stereotypical replacement player.

"Zeke has put himself in a position where you look for opportunities to play him because he's been so good," says manager John Gibbons, referring to Carrera. "Same thing with Barney."

Entering Tuesday's action, Carrera was slashing .313/.382/.444. He has given the Jays speed in the leadoff spot (he has four of the team's eight bunt hits) and steady defence in right field, where he will see regular duty while Jose Bautista recovers from a severe sprain of his left big toe.

Barney is slashing .301/.346/.399 while playing his customary dazzling defence at both second base and shortstop. His latest highlight-reel play came on Friday night in Baltimore, when, as the second baseman, he sprinted down the right-field line to make a basket catch of a popup, then whirled and threw out Manny Machado trying to score from third.

Barney and Carrera have taken distinctly different paths to their roles as oft-used understudies. Each can play three positions. Each also takes a different approach to his game-day routine.

Herewith, a look at the men and their methods.

A natural shortstop, and a Gold Glove winner as a second baseman in 2012, Barney was a regular for three years with the Cubs. But gradually, he fell into a backup role, and the transition was exasperating.

"That was the hardest thing," he says. "When I first started not playing every day, I was in the cage every inning or two, just swinging away, sweating and getting my heart rate up. I didn't know what to do with myself.

"When I went to the Dodgers (in 2014), I learned from two really good bench players, Scott Van Slyke and Justin Turner, who showed me that the more you relax, the better off you're going to be. Get out of the cage and sit, watch the game, get a feel for it. Try and get a feel for what kind of role you're going to play in that game. That's what I do when I don't play. I try to get a feel for it as if I was at shortstop. I try to see where I might fit that day."

Barney's pre-game routine varies according to whether he's in the starting lineup or not. When he starts the game on the bench, he takes ground balls during batting practice at short, second and third.

He always takes about the same number of ground balls. "It's just something I like to do. It keeps your hands going."

And he concentrates on staying calm.

"On the days when you're starting, you want to peak for three hours," he says. "You spend your whole day trying to get your body and mind 100 percent for those three hours. When you're coming off the bench, you need to find a way to control your breathing and relax, and yet still be 100 percent focused on whatever your job is that day, whether it's to play an inning of defence or move a runner. You just don't know ahead of time. So being relaxed and controlling your anxiety in those situations is how I go about that."

Lately, Barney has worked regularly on peaking for three hours because he has been a regular. A career .250 hitter, Barney is at his best when he keeps the ball away from the middle of the field. When he pulls, he is batting .500. When he goes the opposite way to right field, he is batting .406.

Over the past four seasons, Carrera played in 329 games at Triple-A. You'd be forgiven if you figured that trend would continue.

But last year, his first with the Blue Jays, he slashed .273/.321/.372 in a career-high 91 games. While minor-league free agent Darrell Ceciliani earned a long look in spring training, Gibbons says Carrera had the inside track on the fourth outfield spot because of his work last season.

Carrera's offensive production is clearly a surprise. Given his .368 batting average on balls in play (league average is typically around .300), he has benefited from some good luck along the way. But his .329 career BABIP suggests his speed gives him an edge because it puts pressure on infielders to hurry their throws and his ability to drop down the occasional bunt draws them in at the corners early in the count.

A left-handed hitter, Carrera has reverse splits this season, batting .250 vs. right-handers and .452 vs. lefties. As a leadoff hitter, he is batting .346 with a .414 on-base percentage.

"It's a tough role," Gibbons says. "A lot of guys can't sit around and come off the bench and be productive."

Unlike Barney, Carrera says he does not vary his pre-game routine.

"I come to the field like I was going to play every day," he says, via club translator Josue Peley. "I keep my mind positive. If I don't play, I'm still going to do the same thing when I come to the ballpark. I just try to stay focused to be ready whenever the manager needs me."

An important part of that routine involves aggressive outfield work during batting practice. Last season, Carrera's defence was erratic, ranging from sensational to shaky. His reads off the bat were inconsistent and occasionally his late breaks forced him to dive when he shouldn't have had to. A few of those dives ended with the ball on the turf.

Now, before each game during batting practice, Carrera takes fly balls at all three outfield positions, no matter if he is playing that night. He is getting better jumps on balls because he practises as if he were in a game, says Jays' outfield coach Tim Leiper.

"He goes to the outfield every day for two groups (of hitters) during batting practice and runs every ball down," Leiper says. "He's throwing a lot more, and because he's throwing more, he's throwing better. He just feels comfortable.

"And his at-bats are always good. He can sit for a week and still go in and have a great at-bat, and he's everything you could ask for in a teammate."

Carrera is a native of Venezuela who lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife, 10-year-old son and twin 4-year-old daughters. Every year since 2007, he has returned with family to his home country, where his mother still lives, to play winter ball for one or two months.

He says it helps him stay sharp for the regular season. He also admits it can become grueling.

"The teams over there and the fans, they expect the players to come back and play there, and as a Venezuelan you want to play in front of your country," he says.

Bautista's injuries have given Carrera a rare opportunity for daily duty. That will last as long as Bautista stays on the disabled list or is limited to a DH role, as he was earlier this season.

But Carrera says the unexpected workload has improved every facet of his game and nurtured an enduring ambition.

"It helps a lot, knowing that you're going to get at-bats more frequently," he says. "It helps me to keep my confidence up. And, of course, my goal is to be an everyday player."

At the moment, that's exactly what he has become.