Hitting is the most challenging component for scouts to evaluate, but it?s also the most important thing for any position prospect to be able to do, and it?s the area where Travis excels. With a quick, simple stroke, Travis has excellent plate coverage and routinely barrels up balls for hard contact. He?s small but has a strong, compact frame, generating surprising exit speed off the bat for his size. Travis missed six weeks early in the season with an oblique injury, and the effects carried over into May, but from June on he batted .312/.379/.481.
Travis? tools aren?t flashy, but scouts come to appreciate him the more they see him because of his ability to hit, manage the strike zone and play smart, fundamentally sound baseball in all areas of the game. He can turn in times a tick slower out of the box, but he?s an average runner underway who moves well going first to third, with sharp instincts that make him an efficient basestealer. He?s an adequate defender at second base who makes the routine plays and is smooth on the double play pivot.
The surgery Travis had in September cut his offseason short, but the Tigers expected him to be fully ready at the beginning of spring training. The next logical step for Travis would be Triple-A, but the Blue Jays could push him more aggressively, and he?s likely to make his major league debut at some point in 2015.
In a more prospect-laden Blue Jays farm system, Travis won?t stand out quite as much, sliding into the mid-range of their Top 10. Nobody?s projecting a perennial all-star, but if Travis can be a steady, league-average player while the Blue Jays have him under cost control for six seasons, the trade will be a win for them.
