Toronto Blue Jays' Brett Wallace takes batting practice in the cage at the Blue Jays' spring training baseball facility in Dunedin, Fla. Tuesday, March 2, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren CalabreseDarren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
The Toronto Blue Jays have waited five years to get Brett Wallace to the Rogers Centre, so a couple months more won't kill them, even if they're out of the pennant race in the American League East.
Wallace, 23, has waited his entire life for the chance to hit major-league pitching. A couple months more won't kill him, either.
Patience is the watchword in Toronto and in Las Vegas, where Wallace is making rapid progress in the Pacific Coast League with the Triple-A 51s.
"I'm on a pretty fast track," Wallace said at Cashman Field as he discussed his baseball future. "I know it's going to come, so I don't really worry about it."
The Blue Jays see Wallace as their first baseman of the future. He played a little bit on that side of the field while at Arizona State. But the former third baseman said he's feeling comfortable taking throws from across the infield.
More important, his hitting hasn't suffered as he learns a new position.
As the calendar neared the midpoint of July, Wallace was batting .296 with 14 home runs and 45 RBIs.
"I've tried to keep the two separate," he said of his fielding and his batting. "I've put in a lot of hard work trying to get comfortable at first and I think I'm finally playing on instinct. Instead of thinking about what I'm supposed to be doing around the bag, I'm just reacting and doing it.
"At the plate, I've always been comfortable, so what I do in the field really doesn't enter into it."
Las Vegas manager Dan Rohn said his approach, when it comes to Wallace the hitter, is to write his name on the lineup card and get out of the way.
"We've pretty much left him alone," Rohn said. "A tweak here and there and that's about it."
Defensively, Rohn has seen the growth.
"He's comfortable around the bag now," he said. "He's not as robotic. We've worked with him every day on his defence and he's come a long way. It's hard to learn a different position, especially when you get to this level."
But the hard work is paying off for Wallace. He was named to the PCL squad for Wednesday's Minor League All-Star Game, one of three 51s players to earn an invitation. (Catcher J.P. Arencibia and outfielder Chris Lubanski were the others.)
"It was a great honour," Wallace said. "It's like being rewarded for all the work I've been putting in."
Wallace was originally drafted by the Jays in 2005 out of Justin-Siena High School, in the San Francisco Bay Area. But he had already decided he was going to college, and being taken in the 42nd round didn't sway his decision to attend Arizona State.
The move was a wise one. He was the Pacific-10 Conference's player of the year two years running, and the St. Louis Cardinals took Wallace in the first round (13th overall) in 2008. However, he wasn't in the Cardinals' organization long; he was traded to Oakland the following year in the Matt Holliday deal. But while he was with St. Louis, Wallace got some sound advice.
"Don't worry about things you can't control," he recalled being told. "Work hard every day and worry about yourself."
Sounds like a cliché, but it became his mantra. Especially when he found himself on the move again last winter after the Athletics traded Wallace to the Blue Jays for Michael Taylor, who had come to Toronto from Philadelphia after the Phillies obtained Roy Halladay.
Maybe it was destiny that the team that originally drafted him now had him in its organization. Wallace wasn't complaining.
"It's always nice to be wanted and it's exciting to be part of an organization that's rebuilding and you're part of their plan."
Still, Wallace doesn't allow himself to get caught up in the what-if game.
He doesn't root against Lyle Overbay and hope he goes into a horrific tailspin, or, worse, get injured. He's not that way.
"I could hit 1,000 home runs and not get called up," he said.
Because he's not on the Blue Jays' 40-man roster, it's difficult for Wallace to be called up right now. However, a trade could open up a spot, and when the day comes that he gets the call, it figures to be the last time Wallace plays at Cashman Field.
"I think once he gets called up, you'll never see him here again," Rohn said.
Wallace has enjoyed living in Las Vegas. He keeps close tabs on his money. His aunt and uncle live here, so there's always a place to escape to for a home-cooked meal and to get away from baseball.
"It's been great," Wallace said of his Vegas experience. "The people have been wonderful to me. I've never been to Toronto, but I hear it's a wonderful city. I'm looking forward to getting there."
It shouldn't be much longer.
Special to The Globe and Mail