Chris Who? The Blue Jays Have the Answer!

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Christopher Adrian Colabello, a good Italian name if there ever was one. Number #15 for the 2015 Blue Jays had to earn his stripes the hard way. So hard, that he may not be willing to let it go. At this early stage he is hitting .355 with an On Base Percentage of .427 and Slugging .547 . Those gawdy numbers are keeping him in the line-up. His ultimate role with the current Blue Jays a valid point of discussion. The 6’4, 238 lbs. 31 year old is without question a defensive liability in the outfield, in fact his better use would be at 1B and maybe the best at Designated Hitter.

The Blue Jays acquired Colabello on December 8th 2014 on a Waiver claim from the Twins. They designated him for assignment to AAA Buffalo on February 11th, 2015. He lit up the International League for the Bisons, so much so that he was named the International League Player of the Month. Literally on fire, he hit .337 with 5 Homeruns and 18 RBI. Toronto brass noticed and rather remarkably he has virtually duplicated those numbers with the parent club. As he now exceeds 100 at bats he is becoming more than a passing novelty or curiosity.To assess his potential value this year a few steps backward are required to gain a better perspective on Colabello’s grit, tenacity and drive. Parent club an interesting MLB term because it refers to the feeder Minor League system where the Major League teams go to replace injuries or promote and/or delegate. Chris by-passed the entire affiliation system and played Independent Baseball for Seven(7) long years from 2004-2011 with the Worcester Tornadoes. Growing up in Italy and his family moving to New England this was his home comfort zone but in retrospect a long and tedious route to the Majors. No moving on up, just produce eye popping numbers and hope to get noticed by a MLB team in need. A key component to Chris shaking free of independent baseball was his stint with the surprisingly good Italian National team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Finally in 2012 the Minnesota Twins came calling and assigned Colabello to his first affiliated team, the New Britain Rock Cats. And rock it he did, .284 with 19 Homers and 98 RBI over a full Season. It also earned him an next Year Call Up to the AAA Rochester Red Wings. Levels changed but numbers didn’t- he hit .358 with 12 Homeruns in 46 Games.

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The Twins noticed and on May 22, 2013 the affiliated Colabello got called up to Minnesota. The Call Up was precipitated by a concussion injury to OF Trevor Plouffe. His immediate results were negative at 1-11 resulting in an almost immediate return to AAA. But another injury to Plouffe gave Colabello a second chance and this time he lasted the rest of the MLB Season. By the end of 2013 he got 229 At Bats in 59 Games and hit with decent power at 13 Doubles and 6 Homeruns. The negatives shouted a pending release at 66 Strikeouts and .229 Batting Average with sub-standard Defence. He was streaky enough and showed enough flashes of brilliance that he made the Twins 2014 Opening Day Roster. Colabello responded with breaking a 20 year Kirby Puckett record of 26 RBI in April. He cooled dramatically and the rest of 2014 he hit .308 with 3 Homeruns in just 23 Games. After the explosive April he only managed one more RBI the rest of the Season. His days at Minnesota now were numbered.

As expected Twins released him on Waivers in December 2014 and the Toronto Blue Jays picked him up on December 8th and on February 2015 designated him for Assignment. to AAA Buffalo. In typical Colobello early season fashion he tore apart the International League pitching to the tune of .337 Batting Average, 5 Homeruns and 18 RBI. Just like the Twins before them, the Blue Jay brass could not ignore the International League Player of the Month. He earned himself a half million dollar contract and was back in the Major Leagues. There was a time back in 2013 when Colabello almost gave up on his MLB dream. Korea wanted him and offered Colabello 1 million dollars and as per MLB rules his MLB club a matching One Million dollars for Colabello to play in Korea. As tempting as it was, Chris declined- he wanted to be a Major Leaguer not a star in the Korean League. As torrid as he can be the rest of the 2015 Blue Jay season is consumed by questions. Can Colabello keep his hot start going? His history says no and he has been in a similar position many times in his career both in independent baseball, minors and MLB. Perhaps the truest indicator of his ability are his MLB career totals in his short 3 year MLB career. At the end of the day he is a .245 hitter with 17 Homeruns and 72 RBI. It will be fascinating to see how the rest of 2015 works out- can he buck trend or follow past fades. Only time will tell The last few days hint at something different, something special.

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