Grichuk rallies for handsome finish
Handsome Randy is being Puzzled Randy. And a bit of Wry Randy. Maybe even Peacock Randy.
“I’ve definitely heard worse, so I’m OK with it.”
The “Handsome” handle, Randal Grichuk means. Which has become a social media meme this past season, though no one is certain of its genesis.
But there are T-shirts out there now, with the Handsome Randy slug and a pseudo Al Hirschfeld line drawing of that apparently dreamboat mug. A deep dip into the database annals, however, reveals that Grichuk had previously been known as “Yum-Yum Randy”, at least on one studs-of-baseball website.
Forgive us for being all superficial and sexist, reducing a man to the sum of his pretty parts. But, heck, it’s the final weekend of the regular season and the Blue Jays were 35 games out before the start of Friday night’s game against Tampa Bay and it’s really hard to take any of this season seriously.
“No idea where it came from,” said Grichuk, discussing the provenance of Handsome with a reporter and trying hard to keep a straight face. A good lookin’ straight face. And what 27-yearold male is going to decline to own it?
“I just heard about it when I was in Baltimore, so a week-and-a-half ago? Pretty weird. Pretty wild.” Pretty, uh, pretty. Not permanently marred, even by a speck, from that close encounter with a metal stool at the Rogers Centre in early September. Even manager John Gibbons had expressed sardonic concern that the collision had messed up his outfielder’s face.
Anyway, we’re really not here, in the visitors’ clubhouse, to chat about Grichuk’s beauteousness. We’re here to suss out — review — the few grace notes of what has been an otherwise rotten, forgettable, bury-it-in-the-backyard season for the Jays. And Grichuk has uptick bona fides for 2018, although preening over them might seem unseemly amidst the wreckage.
Really, apart from Kendrys Morales setting a franchise record for consecutive games with a home run (seven) and glimmers of future sparkle from gems in the rookie rough — notably Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and his all-time rookie record of 11 straight multiple-hit games — Grichuk has been a nearly sole bright spot for Toronto. His three-run triple in the seventh inning Friday gave the Jays, down 4-1 at one point to the Rays, a 7-5 lead.
Considering how it started out so bad, it’s ended up rather good for the Texan who arrived via off-season trade from St. Louis as the designated successor to Jose Bautista in right.
Brutal out of the gate? Jawdroppingly awful. Struck out more than 30 per cent in April, with a paltry slash line through 25 games of .106/.208/.222, with a .119 BABIP. Could scarcely put a ball in play, overwhelmed by every pitcher who confronted him, was getting murdered on fastballs.
Then he sprained his right knee.
Practically a godsend, vanishing from Toronto as he did, rehabbing far from prying eyes and jeering voices in Dunedin, simultaneously making the rather dramatic batting stance alteration that had been urged upon him by Gibbons and hitting coach Brook Jacoby: standing up taller with the bat less straight-up, closer to the shoulder, allowing a cleaner bat path, harder contact, more velocity, putting more balls in play.
“I started messing with it before I got hurt. Obviously when I did get hurt, I was able to work on it hours a day and not worry about four at-bats that night. You need to get some production out of your game to stay in the lineup.
“But I was able to just go swing. It took me a while to buy into it. But down in Dunedin, I got a good feel for the change.”
The results were instantaneous when Grichuk returned to the lineup on June 1. That month marked his lowest career K-record and the numbers have trended up through the balance of the season: .242 average, .792 OPS, and tied with Justin Smoak at a clubleading 25 home runs.
“I would say it went pretty well,” he mused. “It could have been a lot better if I didn’t start out absolutely terrible and didn’t get hurt in May. But if I take both of those months in consideration, I feel like I finished strong.”
That early bust was probably predictable. It’s the way Grichuk rolls. Career first half: .225/.282/.437. Career second half: .274/.318/.549.
Since his June 1 return, his wRC+ — a weighted stat that totally makes me gag — sits at a plump 131. The turnaround seems credible and definitely a la Grichuk. He’s got no expla- nation for the front-end/backend splits, though.
“Your guess is as good mine. I’ve always struggled at the start of the year and came on strong at the end of the year. I don’t know what causes it. I don’t know what fixes it.”
Ask him to a pick a personal favourite moment of the season and it doesn’t take Grichuk long to land on it — a pair of Father’s Day jacks. “Pretty cool. My dad wasn’t there but he was definitely watching. It was a special moment for me and him.”
He had a trio of double-homer games in 2018, actually.
Under team control for another two years, Grichuk is arbitration eligible this winter, as he was last year. He doesn’t want to ponder his arbitration case yet but the numbers will stand him in good stead in that always touchy process.
It’s a guessing game, how the rest of Toronto’s outfield — or infield, or pitching rotation, or bullpen — will line up six months from now.
In this clubhouse, doesn’t look like anybody’s looking ahead much. Russell Martin, who hasn’t played since Sept. 3, has his head stuck in a video game. Luke Maile is talking about all the work his golf game needs. Jon Berti, who made his major-league debut in Toronto’s last home game, is recounting for reporters the three concussions he suffered, 2015, 2016, 2017. Hard-luck head case. “Twice hit by a pitch, once in a collision.”
Tyler Clippard, tied for fourth among American League relievers with 72 appearances, has a couple of days left on his one-year contract and would love to come back. “That’s kind of who I am,” he says, explaining that nearly fourscore mound appearances in a year is well within his comfort zone. “Overall, I’m relatively happy with the season. The only thing was, when I did give up runs, I gave them up in bulk. As a reliever, if you give them up, you want to give them up one at a time. I wasn’t able to do that this year.”
Across the room, Casey Jansen and Devon Travis are working a crossword puzzle, old-style, pen and paper.
The oft-injured Travis almost made it wire-to-wire this year without a body part squawking. A sore knee ended the season prematurely last week. Under different circumstances — meaningful games, real grass versus the hard turf at Tropicana Field — he would have gutted it out. “At this point, it’s not really worth it.” It wasn’t even a play that caused the flare. “Actually, I’ve been battling my hammy for quite a bit. I think my hammy finally said, no more. This is my good knee that’s hurting me now. The other knee has been amazing all year.”
Un-amazin’ year. Un-amazin’ Jays.
Handsome Randy notwithstanding, not pretty.