Blue Jays give Ernie Clement cool honor in first lineup of Spring Training originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Toronto Blue Jays will be back on the field against an opponent Saturday for the first time since Game 7 of the World Series.
It’s just Spring Training, but it’s still gotta be nice to finally be back out there.
And in the process, they’re giving Ernie Clement a cool little honor.
Clement will bat leadoff in the first lineup of the season.
The full lineup looks like this:
- Ernie Clement 2B
- Andres Gimenez SS
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B
- Alejandro Kirk C
- Addison Barger RF
- Kazuma Okamoto 3B
- Daulton Varsho DH
- Davis Schneider LF
- Nathan Lukes CF
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The key, of course, is that George Springer is getting to rest to start the spring. He’ll be the regular leadoff hitter when he plays.
In the meantime, though, Clement gets rewarded just a bit for his exceptional playoff run, in which he set a new MLB record for most hits in a single postseason.
Clement will be departing the Blue Jays soon to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. For the United States, Clement will likely be a utility player off the bench.
But for Toronto, Clement will be crucial to their hopes of going back to the World Series, and he’ll start the spring by leading off.
More MLB news:
- Team USA has a finalized WBC roster and an awesome lineup
- Dominican Republic WBC roster is loaded with stars
- An Edwin Diaz nightmare looms for the Mets
- Buster Posey will change Hall of Fame voting forever
- How Jose Ramirez is on pace to become Cleveland’s Derek Jeter
- Yankees have signed a catcher from the country of Hungary
