The Toronto Blue Jays can no longer afford to wait for Adam Lind to find his stroke.
On Thursday the team optioned the struggling first baseman to the triple-A Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League and called up utiltyman Yan Gomes in his place.
The club also announced Thursday that third baseman Brett Lawrie has dropped the appeal of his four-game suspension and will begin serving it Thursday night at home against the New York Yankees.
The 28-year-old Lind is batting .186/.273/.314/.586 this season with six doubles, three home runs and 11 RBIs in 34 games. He also has 14 walks and 24 strikeouts.
"He's gotten off to a slow start this season and really from the all-star break on last year, he did not do as well," said Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos during a Thursday afternoon conference call. "We tried multiple things to get him going, John (Farrell) experimented with different spots in the lineup, I know he's been working tirelessly and diligently with everybody in the organization including (hitting coach) Dwayne Murphy and so on.
"We just felt like obviously this was an opportunity for him to clear his head and be in maybe an environment where he can work on things."
Anthopoulos added Lind's stint in Vegas could be a short one.
"That all depends on Adam and how well he plays down there and if he can get his timing back," said Anthopoulos. "It'll be up to Adam. If he's performing the way that he can, then he'll certainly find his way back up here."
As for Lind's contractual status, with Thursday's move the Blue Jays have used his last option, meaning the team can move him between triple-A and the Majors as many times as they see fit for the remainder of 2012, but Lind would have to clear waivers in 2013 should they try to send him down again.
In the meantime, the 24-year-old Gomes will become the first Brazilian born player to appear in a Major League game Thursday when he starts at third base for Toronto against the New York Yankees.
The Sao Paolo native has appeared in 33 games this season in Las Vegas batting .359/.391/.565/.956 with 12 doubles, five home runs and 22 RBIs.
Anthopoulos said in addition to third, Gomes-who has played nine games at first base, 10 games at third base and 12 at catcher for the 51s in 2012-can also be expected to back up first while with Toronto.
"Brett would be back and activated on Monday, you may see us make more changes to the roster at that point, I'm really not sure," said Anthopoulos. "But at least for the next few days this is the way that we're going to go. It could be longer than that as well. We're just going to evaluate it as time goes on."
Keep it here all afternoon for quotes from Alex Anthopoulos' afternoon conference call and John Farrell's pre-game scrum.
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