Grichuk standing taller
Randal Grichuk’s game is driven by confidence, so it helps to know your role when you arrive at spring training.
The 27-year-old right fielder is one of the few Blue Jays locked in for opening day, after cementing his spot in the lineup over 124 games last season.
Sometimes confidence comes from unexpected places. That was the case for Grichuk after arriving from the St. Louis Cardinals in January 2018 — in a trade for right-handers Dominic Leone and Conner Greene.
In his first month as a Jay, he hit .106 with seven RBIs. By the end of April he was on the injured list with a sprained right knee, after a diving catch at the Rogers Centre. He’d spend much of May in Florida, rehabbing and working on his batting stance — in particular, standing taller at the plate. He felt pretty good by the time he returned to the lineup on June 1.
“I could have folded easily, but for whatever reason I didn’t and it played well for the remainder of the year,” he said. “That’s definitely a lot of confidence built up going into this year.”
Grichuk slashed .271/.319/ .553, for an .873 OPS, the rest of last season. He wound up with 25 home runs, a career high and tied with Justin Smoak for the team lead. His strikeout rate dropped to 26.4 per cent — from 30.1 per cent the previous year in St. Louis — according to FanGraphs, and his walk rate held steady at just under six per cent. He says those are two stats he’ll be watching closely this coming season.
“Guys have a bad week or two to start the year and they kind of feel like the season’s over,” Grichuk said. “I had arguably the worst month ever, so it’s just about understanding that a month doesn’t make or break your year, that I can still come back from that.”
Putting the barrel of the bat on the ball consistently, even if the result is a line-drive out, lets Grichuk know that his approach at the plate is in a good place.
“Now I think there so much more that goes into it, from a mental standpoint … Was the thought process there? Did I stick to an approach? Did I venture away from an approach? Do you feel good? Are you barrelling balls up? Are you on time? I think that’s the main thing, because hits are going to come.”
Having a better handle on what opposing pitchers have to offer in the American League will also help this time around, he says.
“I was pretty much coming in blind,” Grichuk said of the tran- sition last year. “I hadn’t seen (Boston’s Chris) Sale before, had faced (David) Price maybe once, hadn’t faced (Nathan) Eovaldi. A lot of the aces in this league I hadn’t faced, not to mention some of the good bullpen arms. With them, it was needing to see how much their sinker sank, how much their slider broke, what was their fastball doing?
“I took a beating in April, but I did pretty well at the end.”
Grichuk was scheduled to make his spring debut — at des- ignated hitter — on Tuesday against the Red Sox before the rains came. The outfielder battled plantar fasciitis last season and the Jays’ medical staff is taking a cautious approach this spring. Manager Charlie Montoyo wants Grichuk healthy for the long haul, and the outfielder is looking forward to finding out what he can do with a full season, using all that he’s learned.
“I’m excited to see what that looks like this year,” Grichuk said, “and hopefully I can do it.”