Jays vs. Indians May 31

Quick preview here.

Brandon Morrow will destroy Cleveland hitters, and Mitch Talbot will be destroyed by Jays hitters.

Anthony Castrovince has a story about Jose Baustista on MLB.com.  I think I've heard this one before.

Keith Law runs down his top 25 prospects, including Brett Lawrie.

Speaking of Lawrie, Trent Rosencrans expects to see him with the big club pretty soon.  Something he doesn't mention is the fact that the Jays 40-man roster is currently full, and Lawrie is not on it.  Now, if Lawrie comes up and someone on the 40-man is injured at the time, they can be placed on the 60-day DL as a temporary solution to that problem.  The much more likely scenario is that someone useless is removed from the 40-man roster to make room for Lawrie, whether that is through trade or a DFA.  Looking through the roster, I don't see anybody in the minors that appears to be worth cutting loose, save for maybe Scott Richmond or Josh Roenicke, who will be 32 and 29 respectively by the end of the year.  What would make more sense?  The DFA/outright release of a fellow 3b, either Edwin Encarnacion or Jayson Nix.

Along those same lines, let's not forget about Dustin McGowan, who is also on the 60-day DL, but is approaching the end of that stint.  My best guess about what's going to happen there, in order of likelihood:

• A member of the bullpen or Jojo Reyes is traded for someone who is not on the 40-man of the other team (or cash/player to be named later), and Mcgowan (who is out of options and must be placed on the 25-man roster or exposed to waivers upon his return from the 60-day DL) takes that spot in the bullpen.  If it's Jojo, Carlos Villanueva will start.*  This kind of hinges on Jesse Litsch and Brett Cecil's return.
• One of Edwin or Nix is DFA'ed or released, Mcgowan gets his spot, and the other is disposed of when Lawrie comes up.  This would shorten the bench even more (unless the Lawrie move happens first), and crowd the bullpen, however.
• Dustin gets traded for anything anybody wants to give back.  This all hinges on what Mcgowan does during his rehab appearances and how scouts and pitching coaches view his progress.  I doubt the Jays would want to move him in a trade, considering that, in two straight offseasons, they've resigned him and continue to give him chances to come back.  He's 29 and still under team control, but hasn't seen MLB action since mid-2008.  I have no idea how that fits under team control (i.e. whether his time on the DL is eating up service time or not), but I can't see them giving up on him yet. 

*Apparently, according to Tony Ambrogio, the Jays are considering letting Mcgowan start again, and will begin stretching his arm out with 2 inning stints in rehab.  I hear he struck out someone the other night with a 95-MPH 2 seam fastball that was downright nasty, but I don't remember where I read that, or if it's true or not.  Comment section??

As of right now, I wouldn't consider Juan Rivera as someone in danger of being released/DFA'ed.  He's actually been pretty good over the last little while, so I'll admit that my calling for his immediate release a few weeks ago was a little premature.  That's why AA is AA and I'm here writing a blog.  I don't see Rivera being on this team next year, and he could be a bat for someone to buy at the deadline if he can keep hitting the way he has over the last few weeks.  If that's the case, I expect a contending/playoff NL team to pick him up as a pinch hitter.  Otherwise, non-tender (they won't offer him arbitration) him, re-sign for $2MM or say bye.

Not that he would have gotten the start tonight anyway, but Edwin Encarnacion had a toenail removed yesterday, and is unavailable until tomorrow.  I've had a toenail removed twice, and had no interest in doing anything other than sit on the couch for at least 3 days, so take that for what it's worth.  Granted, if this isn't a big toe, I have no expertise on the matter.

Lineups

Jays

Escobar SS

Patterson LF

Bautista RF

Rivera 1B

Arencibia C

Hill 2B

Thames DH

Davis CF

Nix 3B

Morrow P

Indianos

Brantley DH

A. Cabrera SS

Choo RF

Buck LF

Santana C

Sizemore CF

O. Cabrera 2B

LaPorta 1B

Hannahan 3B

Talbot P