Blue Jays Release Thomas

Frank Thomas was released by the Toronto Blue Jays a day after he was left out of the lineup. He has been struggling at the start of this season, but was that the reason behind releasing him? For those who have followed Thomas after his White Sox career, you saw him have slow starts. In Oakland, retirement speculation surrounded him because of his slow start, however, if you were to compare his numbers between 2006, 2007, and 2008 in his first 16 games, you would see very little difference.

	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG
2006	56	8	10	4	9	0.179	0.246	0.429
2007	58	8	12	2	5	0.207	0.333	0.345
2008	60	7	10	3	11	0.167	0.306	0.333

So why release him now? There has to be another reason other than lack of production because the Blue Jays will struggle to replace his power in the middle of the lineup. They have Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, but then who else? Shannon Stewart, David Eckstein, Aaron Hill, and Gregg Zaun are not known for their power. Lyle Overbay provides good power but not enough to replace Frank Thomas. Scott Rolen could perform enough to replace Thomas, but how often will he be around during the season. Rolen has been known for his history of health issues.

Now look at how Thomas ended his 2006 and 2007 seasons after his slow starts.

	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG
2006	466	77	126	39	114	0.270	0.381	0.545
2007	531	63	147	26	95	0.277	0.377	0.480

Between 2006 and 2007, there was a power drop off and he's not as good as he was in his prime, but he's still got plenty left in his bat. There had to be some sort of behind the scenes issue to prompt this release, because this is not a good move for the Blue Jays who hope to overtake the Yankee-Red Sox strangehold on the AL East.