Travis Snider hopes to return in 2012 and build on the progress he made in a fragmented season.
There is resoluteness in Travis Snider as he reflects on a long, trying and truncated season, along with a keen awareness of both the problems that caused his struggles and their implications on his status with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Issues with his swing led to not one but two demotions to the minors, the erosion of his place on the organizational depth chart, and ultimately the overuse injury to his right wrist as he worked relentlessly to find himself at the plate.
Now back home in Lynnwood, Wash., to begin the four-to-six weeks of rest prescribed to clear up the tendinitis that cost him a September call-up to the Blue Jays, Snider is under no illusions about where he's at as a player.
Already he's thinking of ways to take the best of 2011 and apply it to 2012, and the 23-year-old outfielder knows he must hit the ground running next spring to reassert himself in the Blue Jays hierarchy.
"I look forward to competing," Snider said in an interview. "Competition is going to be the big word moving forward because we've got a good group of young guys who have all had some success at that level as well as some failure, and looking at the way my position in the organization is not the same as it was a year or two ago.
"I look forward to a good off-season of some hard work preparing myself to build off the positives and negatives of the last year, really just going down there hungry and doing whatever I can to make that team, and help the team win."
That the 14th-overall pick in the 2006 draft failed to entrench himself this year ranks as one of the bigger disappointments of the season for the Blue Jays. Even to the untrained eye, Snider's natural talent is obvious and his professionalism and work ethic only add to the package.
Many have been left scratching their heads as to why it all hasn't come together yet, and adding to the mystery is that the Blue Jays have done remarkably well with taking underachieving players from other teams and placing them in an environment where they could finally find success.
One theory is that he has never been given an extended run in the majors, with his 232 games in the majors coming in multiple stops and starts.
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