Billy McKinney finally getting a chance with the Blue Jays

By Cole Shelton
Canadian Baseball Network

When the Toronto Blue Jays traded starting pitcher J.A. Happ to the New York Yankees for infielder Brandon Drury and outfielder Billy McKinney, many thought the Blue Jays lost the trade, as Drury struggled from the get-go, while McKinney was in triple-A. 

However, not even a month later and Toronto appears to have received a very good player in McKinney who was the Yankees left fielder in the second and third game of the season at the Rogers Centre after centre fielder Aaron Hicks was injured opening night.

Since getting promoted Aug. 17, McKinney has been in the lineup regularly and showing why he deserves to be a starter on this team. 

McKinney is currently slugging .391/.517/.870 in 23 plate appearances over eight games, a small sample size, yes, but McKinney is proving he can hit major league pitching. When McKinney is making contact with the ball, the outfielder is hitting the ball hard which in turn is resulting in home runs, in which he has already hit three with Toronto. 

The 24-year-old outfielder is getting a good launch angle on the ball at 23.9% which means he is hitting it in the air, not weak grounders. While with a good launch, McKinney is hitting the ball to an exit velocity of 90 mph, and a hard hit rate percentage of 37.5%.

From hitting the ball hard and far, McKinney is doing more than just that. The outfielder has already shown manager John Gibbons that he can bat anywhere in the lineup and have success. McKinney has batted leadoff, sixth, seventh and ninth. Having that versatility is a huge bonus for McKinney given that the Blue Jays don’t really have a set leadoff hitter and if the outfielder can prove he can get on-base, the job may be his next season. 

Besides hitting, McKinney is proving his worth in left field, a place where Teoscar Hernandez has made errors. Yet, with McKinney taking his place, the errors are no more. During his time in the majors, which spans 10 games, McKinney has yet to make an error in either left or right field. While a bigger sample size is his minor league career, in which McKinney has made 25 errors in the outfield, to a .978 fielding percentage.

While McKinney has made some errors, he has made up for it with his 31 assists from the outfield in the minors, making McKinney a reliable left fielder, and a way better fielder than Hernandez. 

With McKinney off to a hot start to his big league career with the Blue Jays, and proving he can be a reliable outfielder, he seems destined to be a starting outfielder next season, however it is still early on and McKinney needs more at-bats and more reps in the outfielder at the major league level to prove himself. 

For now, however, McKinney is finally getting a chance to play every day in the outfield, something most thought would happen when he was drafted in the first round by the Oakland Athletics in 2013. Since then, the Texas native, has been in the minor leagues in the A’s farm system, the Cubs' organization after he was part of the Jeff Samardzija deal and the Yankees system after he was included in the Aroldis Chapman trade from the Cubs to New York. 

Already the young outfielder has been traded three times in his career and now on his fourth team, McKinney is proving why he was drafted in the first round and showing he can be an everyday outfielder for the Blue Jays. 

All he needed was a chance, and Toronto has given him that chance.