Jays reshape outfield, Grichuk gets long-term deal, Pillar moved to Giants

The Blue Jays re-created their outfield on Tuesday: CF Kevin Pillar, left, was traded to the San Francisco Giants for three minor leaguers and RF Randal Grichuk was given a five-year $52-million US contract extension. Anthony Alford was promoted from triple-A Buffalo to play centre.

The Blue Jays make Randal Grichuk part of their rebuild

By Lucas Casaletto

Canadian Baseball Network

The Toronto Blue Jays will have a bit of handsome when the team is ready to compete.

On the same day centre fielder Kevin Pillar was traded to the San Francisco Giants, the club announced a five-year, $52-million US contract extension with outfielder Randal Grichuk.

According to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, who was first to announce the extension, Grichuk, 27, will have his 2019 salary reworked to $7 million (he was set to earn $5 million this season), and is rewarded with a $5 million signing bonus.

In 2020, his salary will be bumped to $12 million and will be followed by $9.3 million, which will cover the final three years of the contract. The new commitment comes without club options and has no opt outs.

“I love the city, I like the direction the team is going,” Grichuk told reporters after Toronto’s 2-1 loss to Baltimore.

“I see the vision, I see a lot of young, talented players that can be very impactful. They have a vision and I want to be a part of it.”

What this indicates is that general manager Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays front office are comfortable with Grichuk as a key member of the outfield moving forward. Atkins and Mark Shapiro have been busy as of late, parting ways with several members that made up the Blue Jays heralded 2015 core.

With the most recent trade, only Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Justin Smoak, Ryan Tepera and Dalton Pompey (Mississauga, Ont.) remain from the club’s postseason days. That’s significant, if only because of how drastic the roster turnover has been. Outside of Lourdes Gurriel, who was signed to a seven-year contract as an International free-agent ahead of the 2016 season, Grichuk is the first player the new regime has rewarded with a long-term deal.

Grichuk’s first season in Toronto brought with it some mixed results but he impressed for the most part, particularly in the second half of 2018, in which he hit .280/.326/.569 (141 wRC+) with 14 home runs and a team leading .376 wOBA. The Blue Jays clearly feel Grichuk has more to offer now and in future years when the club is ready to make a statement in the American League East.

Early indications are the Blue Jays made a rather prudent investment in the 27-year-old. Starting with his defence, though Grichuk has graded out as a slightly below-average centre fielder, he appears to be locked in to the starting job in right field. It should be noted, however, that Grichuk performed relatively well playing centre with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2015 to 2016; two seasons in which he accrued 12 defensive runs saved in over 1,000 innings.

The Pillar trade seems to point to the Blue Jays entrusting the young Anthony Alford with centre field duties, which is the right move considering where the Blue Jays are at. Grichuk is all but guaranteed to get some looks there in 2019 but it’s the prospect’s position to lose. That means Grichuk will man right field for the foreseeable future; a spot in which he appears to be the most comfortable. The results are there.

Grichuk started playing right field more regularly with the Cardinals in 2016, and then with the Blue Jays last season. In roughly 1,200 innings, Grichuk has proven to be a valuable defender, combining to four defensive runs saved and a positive 6.9 ultimate zone rating - which quantifies how many runs a player saved or allowed through their fielding ability. Health permitted, at the very least, Grichuk should be able to maintain and even improve on those numbers in the next few years.

There is more to dissect with Grichuk at the plate.

When he was acquired by the Blue Jays, Grichuk was known as a player with solid upside, albeit an inconsistent one with swing and miss tendencies. All of that is still true but Grichuk did make some noticeable adjustments last season.

In four seasons with the Cardinals, Grichuk struck out at a clip of 29.4 per cent. His strikeout percentage dropped to 26.4 per cent in 2018, fueled by a solid stretch from June to August in which Grichuk struck out only 21.4 percent of the time. Unfortunately, he still swings and misses too often - his SwStr% of 15.0% was among baseball’s highest (minimum 400 PAs).

If Grichuk is able to cut down the whiffs at an even better rate than 2018 and make gradual improvements moving forward, there’s greater potential to be had here.

In terms of hard contact, the Blue Jays seem to be enamored with players with a batted ball profile that carries with it above-average exit velocity. Brandon Drury is one of the several that fits this bill. Grichuk is another.

Since 2015, among players with 150 plate appearances, Grichuk is in the league’s top 100 hitters in hard contact (38.5 percent). If that doesn’t seem overly sexy, consider that Josh Donaldson, whom Blue Jays fans know well, has hit the ball at an identical rate. That is also in the same neighbourhood as Nolan Arenado (38.3 percent) and Bryce Harper (38 percent), respectively.

Sticking with exit velocity, there’s a lot to like about Grichuk. Throughout his career (with the exception of 2016), Grichuk has been among the top-5 percent of the league in terms of barrelling the ball. That has helped the outfielder’s profile at the dish as Grichuk enters the 2019 season having combined to an exit velocity of 91 percent.

The 27-year-old has been able to maintain a relatively strong wOBA (.337) en route to an encouraging xwOBA (.338). In simpler terms, Grichuk is a good hitter with power, but is held back due to his high strikeout totals and a frustrating lack of discipline at the plate.

The transition from American League Champions highlighted by a roster of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Donaldson to the current rebuild and retooling of a team, is understandably tough for a fan base to endure. Russell Martin - a fan favorite and Canadian-born catcher - is gone, and the same can now be said for Pillar; a player deserving of praise for his willingness to put his body on the line and embrace a country starved for a winner.

For the Blue Jays, the Grichuk extension is an integral move. Atkins and Shapiro are picking and choosing which players will be part of the future. Every decision the front office has made to date has been calculated and carefully examined.

Players in their mid-30’s aren’t usually around for the duration of a full rebuild. Losing Kendrys Morales was one thing, but Pillar is soul crushing for many still holding on to the past glory days. Smoak is likely the next to go, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stroman and Sanchez follow suit (that is, of course, they aren’t signed to extensions, which is possible).

It’s all about the future in Toronto. Atkins and Shapiro have a plan and they’re putting it to good use. Grichuk is symbolic in the sense that he’s the first one of many the club is going to commit to for the long haul.

There have been a ton of subtractions, the latest being Pillar, and that’s tough, but the Blue Jays appear to have done well in extending Grichuk; a player that could very well be part of something special when all is said and done.

Statistics courtesy: FanGraphs, Statcast, Baseball Reference, Sportsnet.