Blue Jays land Grichuk from Cards for Leone, Greene

The Toronto Blue Jays acquired outfielder Randal Grichuk from the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday. Photo Credit: Toronto Blue Jays

By Andrew Hendriks

Canadian Baseball Network

TORONTO - On Friday, the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals teamed up to complete a three-player swap in which the Blue Jays sent right-handers Dominic Leone and Conner Greene to the Cardinals in exchange for outfielder Randal Grichuk.

Grichuk, 26, appeared in 122 games with the Cardinals in 2017, slashing .238/.285/.487 with 22 home runs and an OPS of .758 across 412 at-bats on the season.

Selected 24th overall in the 2009 MLB amateur draft, Grichuk is a career .258 batter with 66 round-trippers through parts of four seasons at the Major League level.

Although the right-handed swinging product of Rosenburg, Texas spent time at all three outfield positions in 2017, his defensive ability is best suited for a corner spot, and it's likely that he will add his name into the competition amongst Ezequiel Carerra, Curtis Granderson and Teoscar Hernandez this spring.

Claimed by the Blue Jays off waivers from Arizona prior to the 2017 campaign, Leone, 26, pitched to an ERA of 2.56 with 81 strikeouts, a K/9 of 10.4 and an overall WHIP of 1.05 through 65 appearances with Toronto.

Greene, 22, is a former seventh-round draft pick who has spent the last five seasons in Toronto's minor-league system. In 2017, the hard-throwing native of Santa Monica, Calif., went 5-10 with 92 strikeouts and an ERA of 5.29 over 26 appearances as a member of the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

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