Jays pick up option on Jason Grilli

I don’t imagine anyone’s surprised about this, but the Jays picked up the $3 million option on Jason Grilli.

Grilli helped settle down the Jays bullpen when he was picked up in trade at the end of May. As you’ll remember, the Jays sent Sean Ratcliffe to Atlanta in exchange for Grilli on May 31.

A month later Joaquin Benoit came over from Seattle for Drew Storen, and our bullpen covered the late innings far better than they had earlier in the season.

Grilli pitched in 46 games with Toronto and had a 3.64 ERA in 42 innings. He allowed 28 hits, 19 walks, with 58 strikeouts. You do have to like a reliever that strikes out 12.4 batters per 9 innings. He had 2 saves and 21 holds for Toronto.

He had a tough end to the season, but pitched 3.2 scoreless innings in the playoffs, allowing just 1 hit, no walks, with 3 strikeouts.

Grilli is fun to watch, I’m glad he’ll be back.