Music: {allcanada} Jays recall Cecil from Vegas

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TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays believe the gains Brett Cecil made during two months in the minors will pay off in the majors, and with the team wanting another lefty in the rotation and innings starting to become an issue for Carlos Villanueva, the time was right for his return.

The 24-year-old was recalled from triple-A Las Vegas on Tuesday morning, with right-handed prospect Zach Stewart optioned back to double-A New Hampshire, and inserted into the rotation for a Thursday outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

That day originally belonged to Villanueva, who threw just 67 total innings last year in with the Milwaukee Brewers but is already at 65.2 so far this season. Villanueva will next pitch on Saturday, and then again July 7 at Cleveland, allowing him to make two starts instead of three before the all-star break.

Cecil, sent down to Vegas after going 1-2 with a 6.86 ERA in April, also draws dates July 5 at Boston and July 10 versus the Indians before the break as he tries to re-establish himself in the big-leagues.

He returns throwing in the low-to-mid 90s again, and with a better downward plane in his delivery.

"Gaining some velocity added another weapon to his mix, it gives him the ability to have greater success with his secondary pitches," said manager John Farrell. "The fact that he went down and pitched effectively gets him on a little bit of a roll both physically and mentally."

While the Blue Jays are looking for Cecil, the team leader with 15 wins last season, to rebound, they are facing a much more pleasant problem with Villanueva.

Initially relegated to mop-up work in the bullpen, he's emerged as a steady hand in the rotation. He's within two starts of matching his previous big-league high of nine and is on track to surpass the 114.1 innings he logged for the Brewers in 2007.

The general rule of thumb that teams use for pitchers is no increase of more than 20 per cent year over year in innings. But given that Villanueva logged a total of 182.1 innings at three levels of the Brewers system in 2006, there may be some leeway in that guideline.

Farrell says the team will monitor him closely, but that "the most important thing is how effective he's been, and really how valuable he's made himself with the move to the rotation and the consistency and total numbers of innings pitched."

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SNIDER TO CENTRE: The Blue Jays are going to take a long look at Travis Snider in centre field once he returns to action after suffering a concussion.

Snider already has four games in centre under his belt with triple-A Las Vegas, plus four emergency innings with the Blue Jays in Anaheim this season, and the team is intrigued enough with what they see to give him an extended look.

"The Las Vegas centre field is probably the biggest, maybe second to Detroit and possibly Colorado, because of the dimensions of the field, so we'll get a more accurate read on (how suited he is for the position)," said Farrell. "And we would not limit his positioning in the outfield to just the corners when he returns here."

Farrell added the initial reports of Snider's performance in centre indicated that "he played it effectively. With his ability to take very good routes off the bat, he's got very good running speed underway and has enough range to cover the position. He's got plenty of arm there."

With Jose Bautista's move to third base, the Blue Jays are using a four-man outfield rotation of Eric Thames, Corey Patterson, Rajai Davis and Juan Rivera. Snider would certainly add a unique dimension to the equation.

First things first, he must pass through MLB's concussion protocol and he is expected back in the Vegas lineup Friday.

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HOT CORNER FOR JOSE: Jose Bautista made his season debut at third base on Tuesday after four days of workouts to prepare for the move to the hot corner from right field.

Although it was not his preference, Bautista says he made the move because the Blue Jays felt that would give them the best nine.

"I still feel strongly that my best position is in right field, not only because it's where I play the best, but because (it's where) I'm going to help the team the most," said Bautista. "I don't think just because I'm moving to third is how we can get the bats in the lineup. I think there's ways of staying in right field and still getting the same nine bats in the lineup, it's just Edwin (Encarnacion) is hurting right now and somebody else needs to play. The way it's shaping up, that person is me. "

Bautista says adjusting to the speed with which balls fly toward third base will be the most difficult part of the move. He'll also miss running after balls in right, something he feels helped keep his legs loose.

Interestingly, Bautista's next game in right field will likely be the July 12 all-star game in Phoenix. In the final voting update before the results are announced, he continued to lead all vote-getters with more than 5.2 million ballots cast, describing the possibility of finishing in top spot as an honour.

He also said it was surprising.

"I'm not one of those guys whose name is blasted all over TV all the time on (ESPN) Sportscenter or MLB Network or major papers in the United States, which everyone knows are in the bigger markets in baseball," he said. "That's just why (it was a surprise)."

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OVERBAY'S OVATION: First baseman Lyle Overbay was back in Toronto as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday and received a mostly warm ovation from the crowd.

There were some boos mixed in, although he told the Pittsburgh Review-Tribune coming in that he expected worse, adding that Canadian fans had yet to forgive baseball for the 1994 cancellation of the World Series since "they're not as forgiving as Americans, I guess."

"Everyone says, 'Oh, what happened?' Well, they haven't drawn since the '94 strike, I mean it's not rocket science," Overbay said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm not saying baseball is dead here, it's just not the same. I apologize if I hurt some people's feelings or whatever, I was just kind of stating the facts."

As for the booing, he said "I expect them to do whatever they do to everybody. I'm not any different, I'm not immune to anything."

Overbay came into Tuesday's game batting .228 with six homers and 30 RBIs on a Pirates team playing surprisingly well at 39-38.

"There's room for improvement," he said. "There's nothing wrong with being over .500, but at the end of the day we want to be in a playoff race. Once we get clicking on all three cylinders I think we're going to surprise a lot more people than we have already."