Granderson back in race, on fast track

The Brewers have made several significant moves this season to compete with the Cubs in the National League Central, including the signings of Lorenzo Cain and Jhoulys Chacin and the acquisitions of Christian Yelich and Mike Moustakas.

One overlooked move that already has paid off for general manager David Stearns is the Aug. 31 deal that sent a minor-leaguer to the Blue Jays for 37-year-old outfielder Curtis Granderson.

It was a line on the agate page to most fans, but Granderson isn’t just a spare outfielder brought in to give Ryan Braun some rest. He’s a winner, having been on seven postseason teams for four franchises over a 15-year career, dating to the Tigers’ World Series run in 2006.

Granderson signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Blue Jays in late January of a slow offseason for free agents. After the Jays’ season went south, they dealt him to the Brewers just before the Sept. 1 deadline to be eligible for the postseason roster.

Though he had only 17 plate appearances off the bench for the Brewers entering the weekend series with the Pirates at Miller Park, Granderson had five hits and five walks for a .647 on-base percentage and had scored eight runs in eight games. He went 3-for-4 with a homer Wednesday in a 5-1 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field, giving the Brewers their biggest series victory to date.

Clearly there’s something about being in a race that rejuvenates Granderson.

“I was super excited,” he said of the move to Milwaukee. “One was being thrown into the mix of September, which is where you want to be. You basically control your own destiny. If you win series, put yourselves in opportunities to be able to win, and if you do happen to lose games, you rebound back, like we have.

“It’s a big month, but it’s a very micro month. One day, one series at a time.”

A graduate of T.F. South and UIC, Granderson is active in the community and donated $5 million to UIC for the construction of a new baseball stadium that was named for him and opened in 2014.

His family and friends are mostly a mix of Cubs and White Sox fans, so they have mixed feelings when he comes to one of the Chicago ballparks.

“I’ve never played for either one, so they mutually want to see me do well, but when we play them, they don’t want to see my team do well,” he said.

So why has he never signed with the Cubs or Sox?

“It’s funny, but everyone always mentions stuff like that,” he said. “I went undrafted by both of them, gone through two rounds of free agency and not a call from either one of them.

“Everyone’s like, ‘When you going to come home?’ I tell them, ‘Tell them to pick up the phone.’ They haven’t done it.”

But never say never. How many years does Granderson think he has left?

“Physically and mentally I’m all good,” he said. “We’ll see if that ends up being something that happens.”

Last hurrah: Mets third baseman David Wright will play one more game and retire, ending a long and ultimately unsuccessful comeback that earned him the respect of anyone who appreciates the qualities of determination and perseverance.

The 35-year-old Wright, who has battled neck and shoulder injuries for years and hasn’t played in the majors since May 27, 2016, will get one last start Sept. 29 at Citi Field.

“I’m just very appreciative of being able to run out there again and kick third base,” Wright told reporters. “It’s going to be emotional for me, but at the same time, I’m accomplishing the goal. It’s weird for me to put the uniform on when I’m not playing or on the disabled list. It just doesn’t feel right. But it’ll be great to put that uniform on again and really feel like a player.”

It should be an emotional day, one that Wright richly deserves after all he has been through.

Standing tall: Kudos to Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who led a team delegation in January to distribute aid in his native Puerto Rico after last year’s hurricane and who spoke out this week against President Donald Trump’s tweet downplaying the number of people killed in the disaster.

“I hate that people make it a political issue,” Cora said. “This is about human beings. The people that went through this, they know what happened.”