Deeper but no closer with Grichuk
Swap with Cardinals helps corner outfield, AL East gap still wide
The Blue Jays crashed their own party, scheduled to be a celebration of 15 of the most talented youngsters in the farm system at the Rogers Centre on Friday. Instead, they announced that they had acquired right-handed hitting outfielder Randal Grichuk from the St. Louis Cardinals for a pair of pitchers: breakout major-league reliever Dominic Leone, 26, and stalled minor-league starter Conner Greene, 22.
GM Ross Atkins came downstairs and met with Jays’ media at a hastily-called press conference in the home clubhouse to suggest the 25-year-old Grichuk will become the regular right fielder, replacing the departed free agent Jose Bautista.
In three-plus major-league seasons in the majors, Grichuk has a .249 average with 66 homers and a .785 on-base plus slugging mark. He is rated slightly above average defensively, which makes him a substantial improvement over the projected corner outfielders listed on the depth chart headed into January.
“We are very pleased with our process,” Atkins commented. “To get to the point where we feel we’ve acquired an everyday player in a position of need is a good outcome. Actually our objective and subjective information is very, very good on him defensively. I think there’s a lot to like.”
“Between the options that we have — having Steve Pearce, having Ezequiel Carrera, having Curtis Granderson — we have a solid group. How that ends up looking will largely depend upon the rest of our off-season, the remaining acquisitions that we make, the health of our infield (Troy Tulowitzki and Devon Travis) at the start of the season. Having depth and having options is where we stated we wanted to be, and we’re getting closer to being there.”
Grichuk has never been an everyday outfielder. He owns a single-season high of 132 games and 446 at-bats in 2016.
He has the ability to play all three outfield positions, but with Kevin Pillar holding down centre field the priority for Atkins, in even dreaming of being competitive with the haughty Yankees and the deep-pocketed Red Sox, was the corner outfield.
Earlier in the week, the Jays agreed to a one-year deal with veteran freeagent Granderson and now have swung this deal for Grichuk. The 37-year-old Granderson, a lefty swinger, would likely platoon in left with Pearce, a right-handed hitter, or 24-year-old Teoscar Hernandez. They may choose to allow Hernandez, acquired last July from the Astros in a trade for Francisco Liriano, to play every day at Triple-A Buffalo and be ready in case of injury.
Grichuk was eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, but settled with the Cardinals before the trade for one year and $2.6 million. He is under club control for the next three years before hitting free agency following 2021.
Grichuk’s availability was likely revealed as part of any discussion regarding their failed attempt to acquire third baseman Josh Donaldson. There was never any formal offer from the Cards for the Jays’ best player, but they would have been made aware of Grichuk’s availability and cobbled together the package that convinced the Cards to help the Jays in their most pressing area of need.
The Jays have a deep bullpen of mostly no-name, but very effective, relievers. Leone was one of the pleasant surprises of 2017, acquired on waivers from the Diamondbacks and establishing himself as an eighthinning setup man after Joe Biagini was moved to the rotation.
Leone was seen as a valuable bullpen piece in 2018, but if the Jays spend the extra $10 million they have remaining — in comparison to last year’s opening day payroll — on a veteran mid-rotation starting pitcher, then they can fill the Leone void with Biagini, the veteran Al Alburquerque or the surprising Carlos Ramirez.
“We were definitely working from a position of depth and we had multi- ple teams contact us about that,” Atkins said. “Now we’ll have to look and backfill for Dominic. He had an incredible year for us. We expect him to have another incredible year and it will be for another team. It was very tough loss for us. It’s the overall depth and guys that are in our system that we feel strong about that can help — then some of the players that are in the market as well.”
As for Greene, he has been able to hit 100 m.p.h. on the radar gun, but has not progressed in terms of his command and the ability to go deep into starts, just as other talented young Blue Jays arms are set to trample him on the way to the majors. Some of those youngsters were in the room Friday, including lefty Ryan Borucki and right-hander Sean-Reid Foley.
To be sure, the Blue Jays off-season has not yet made them a contender. They could contend if they receive unexpected performances from current roster players or a mid-season boost, likely from one of the 15 youngsters in the Jays clubhouse watching Atkins answer questions about the Grichuk trade.
Where do we think the Jays, in reality, stack up relative to the Yankees and the Red Sox? Let’s proceed to a pop-culture comparison using music industry power couples, easily understood by baseball and non-baseball readers alike.
Let’s see. The Yankees are like Jay-Z and Beyonce, at the top of their game, with everyone waiting to see what they do next. The Red Sox are like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian — with similar traits to Jay and Queen Bee but clearly a pale imitation, unable to generate the same reverence and respect. The Jays? Even after the Granderson and Grichuk acquisitions, they are like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez — interesting and talented enough to keep you interested, but you just have that feeling compared to the others that there is a train wreck around the corner.
Spring training for Jays pitchers and catchers is 26 days away. They’re better than they were at the end of last season, but further from a pennant.