NASHVILLE – Last July, after the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Troy Tulowitzki in the first salvo of Alex Anthopoulos’s trade-deadline blitz, manager John Gibbons defied traditional baseball convention by sticking his new shortstop atop the batting order.

Tulowitzki had always been a middle-of-the-lineup hitter in Colorado, with more than twice as many plate appearances as the clean-up hitter (behind Todd Helton and Justin Morneau, among others) than any other position in the order.

The idea was to load up the top of a lineup that already included eventual MVP Josh Donaldson and sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to give the best hitters as many opportunities as possible to do damage.

And it kind of worked. Sort of.

In 26 games with Tulowitzki leading off, the Blue Jays went 22-4, an incredible rate of success. But the shortstop himself hit only .227/.331/.373 – an OPS drop of 181 points off his career number with the Rockies.

Amazingly, though, Tulowitzki really only struggled when he was actually leading off the game. In his first at-bat, Tulowitzki was 2-for-24, walking once and being hit by a pitch. In the rest of his plate appearances as the Blue Jays’ leadoff man, he hit .267/.370/.453, which is the goal – have the better bat up sooner, later in a game.

Ben Revere was installed in the leadoff spot on Aug. 30, with Tulowitzki moving to fifth, and Revere hit .311/.336/.393 the rest of the way. Good-looking numbers, for sure, but an OPS only 25 points higher than the “badly slumping” shortstop he replaced. The move down in the order didn’t cure what ailed Tulowitzki, either – he hit just .244/.271/.356 before breaking his shoulder on Kevin Pillar’s chin in The Bronx.

Without Tulowitzki, and with Revere in the leadoff spot, the Blue Jays kept winning though not at as incredible a rate as before. The Jays were 19-9 from the point when Revere moved up until they clinched the American League East in Baltimore.

And even though at the time Gibbons said Tulowitzki’s move down the lineup was only temporary, and that he’d get his shortstop back in the leadoff spot once he started to hit like himself again, that’s not going to happen.

“I liked the way it looked when we finally put Ben up there,” said Gibbons at his media availability at the winter meetings. “Put him up there out of necessity, it wasn’t like it was a strategic move, and he responded, like he always did.”

The skipper added: “to be honest, I think Tulo likes it a little bit further down in the order there. I don’t know it for a fact, but that’s my guess.”

So does that mean we won’t be seeing Tulowitzki leading off for the Blue Jays again? “Not as long as Revere’s here,” Gibbons said with a chuckle.

Which brings up another question: how long will Revere be here? The light-hitting left-fielder is scheduled to make between $6.5 and $7 million in 2016, and the Blue Jays’ one surplus seems to be in corner outfielders, with young Dalton Pompey and the presumably-healthy Michael Saunders combining to make less than half of what Revere will. There’s potential to free up some money that could help bolster a bullpen that’s pretty thin beyond Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Brett Cecil and Pat Venditte.

“First we gotta see if Michael’s healthy,” said Gibbons, when asked what Saunders’ role with the team might be. “Reports are good, but he’s gotta get back in the swing, he basically missed a year and that thing’s probably going to nag him for the rest of his career, I would think.”

The Victoria, B.C., native suffered a torn meniscus before 2015 spring training officially began, tripping on a sprinkler head while shagging fly balls on the since-torn-up Field 1 at the Bobby Mattick Complex in Dunedin. Saunders suffered several setbacks along the way and wound up playing in only nine games with the Blue Jays, pretty much missing his entire age 28 season.

In his three years prior – two of which saw Saunders play more than 130 games – the left-handed batter posted a combined OPS of .743 while playing his home games in the pitcher’s paradise that is Safeco Field in Seattle. By comparison, Revere has never had a season with an OPS higher than .719.

“We’ve always liked (Saunders),” said Gibbons. “I think he can be a valuable part of this team. Going in you gotta believe Revere’s the guy (starting in left field) – he’s done that for us, he’s healthy, we know that, and he’s a sparkplug for us. But hopefully we can find plenty of time for Michael. He can help us.”

If they’re confident enough in Saunders’ health (or in Pompey’s readiness) to trade Revere for that needed boost in the bullpen, Saunders may wind up helping the Blue Jays a whole lot in 2016. And the leadoff debate will open up once more.