Toronto Blue Jays Mike McCoy

On November 9th the Toronto Blue Jays acquired infielder Mike McCoy off of waivers from the Colorado Rockies and added him to the 40 man roster. Who is Mike McCoy and could he be the Jays new starting shortstop?

At 28 years old Mike McCoy has played 12 big league games. He isn’t considered a prospect in the classic sense. He failed to register in his organizations top 30 prospects in any of the Baseball America’s prospect handbook from 2007 – 2009.

McCoy began his career St. Louis and was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for the beginning of the 2008 season. He was then acquired by the Rockies on July 19th, 2008 for infielder Juan Castro. He’s been plugging away without notoriety until a breakout 2009 PCL season in which he placed third in league runs scored and fourth in both OBP & SB. He also walked (80) more than he struck out (70).

McCoy benefited from a very strong .361 BABIP in 2009. I have a hard time believing that this rate will keep, as his linedrive percentage was only 18.4% and he hit only 2 HR in 449 AB. The right-handed hitter was able to handle both righties and lefties effectively, walking more than he struck out vs both.

In 2008 he spent time in the International League as a part of the Baltimore organization. I find the IL to be more representative of major league baseball. In the IL McCoy put together a .726 OPS on a .277 batting average, with 2 HR in 175 PA. His BABIP was .328, we walked 20 times vs 28 strikeouts

Defensively

In 2009 McCoy was Mr. Utility. Here’s a list of his outs per position

2B: 12
3B: 49
LF: 4
RF: 14
CF: 17
SS: 81

His fielding runs at SS ended up being +7. During his career he’s bounced around between 2B, SS, 3B and the outfield. There’s two ways to look at this. The negative would be that his fielding isn’t up to par to stick exclusively at SS. The positive would be that his bat is so strong that managers are doing whatever they can to get him in the lineup.

Is he the Man at SS?

As of now McCoy has to be the front-runner for the starting gig at SS. The organization has no real options for this position outside of the newly acquired Jarrett Hoffpauir. And really Hoffpauir is a below average defensive second baseman that’s only played five minor league games at SS.

Mike McCoy comes across as Marco Scutaro lite. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Marco didn’t really breakout until 2009. McCoy should post a .700+ OPS in 2010 and could be a breakout OBP candidate with so-so D and great flexibility. If nothing else he should be an asset to a questionable Toronto bench.

I’ll give AA a thumbs up on this low-risk, potential reward transaction