Throughout his career, Frank Thomas has been susceptible to sticking his foot in his mouth every now and then.
He did it again over the weekend. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons informed a slumping Thomas that his playing time would be cut.
Thomas, not surprisingly, went straight to the media and complained the move was based on the Blue Jays' desire to prevent him from reaching contract incentives. His comments were out of line, and Toronto management had every right to take exception to them.
However, it was shocking to see the Blue Jays release Thomas on Sunday. For all his faults, Thomas was Toronto's leading run producer last year, finishing with 26 homers and 95 RBIs. The man can still hit.
Sure, he's off to a slow start, hitting just .167 so far. But Thomas is a notorious slow starter, April the only month his career average is below .300.
Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi explained the move by saying, "I don't know that we have a luxury of waiting two to three months for somebody to kick it in because we can't let this league or this division get away from us."
True, the Blue Jays play in the rugged A.L. East. They currently sit at 10-10, 3.5 games behind first place Boston.
Nevertheless, it is hard to see how Toronto made its team better by releasing Thomas and deciding to use a platoon of Matt Stairs and Rod Barajas at DH. Just two Sundays ago, I watched Thomas hit a grand slam home run off Boston's Manny Delcarmen that helped the Blue Jays complete a three-game sweep of the Red Sox.
Good luck waiting for Stairs or Barajas to deliver a big hit like that. Bad move, Blue Jays. You should have exhibited more patience with Thomas, despite his chronic whining.
Thomas will probably catch on again with another A.L. team that needs a DH. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in Oakland, Seattle or Minnesota soon.
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