Poll time: The Granderson signing

The off-season, which seemed to have been in a coma, is waking up.

• The Pirates traded Gerrit Cole to the Astros for Michael Feliz, Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran and Jason Martin. I expected a better return for Cole. He makes the Astros starting rotation pretty amazing.
• Howie Kendrick signed with the Nationals, 2-years, $7 million total, plus incentives that might make him an extra $2.25 million.
• Twins signed Addison Reed, for 2-years and $16.75 million. I’m surprised he took such a short contract. I thought he’d get 4 years.
• Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen to the Giants for Kyle Crick, Bryan Reynolds and half a million in international bonus money. I expected the Pirates to get much more. It makes me wonder if return we’d get for Josh Donaldson would be disappointing too.

And the big news for us, Curtis Granderson signed with the Blue Jays for 1-year and $5 million.

Granderson will be 37 this season. He had a down year in 2017, hitting .212/.323/.452 with 26 home runs, playing for the Mets and Dodgers. Not the best places for a hitter.

He’ll play better defense than Ezequiel Carrera, and have a lower batting average. More power, and likely would get on base at least as well.

I’m thinking the Jays signed him to allow them to start Anthony Alford and, perhaps, Teoscar Hernandez in Triple A. Teoscar is 25 now, I don’t see that more minor league time is really important. At 25, I think he should either be a major leaguer or he’s not going to be.

But I like the idea of adding a better glove. We have had crappy defensive corner outfielders for the past few years. He seems like a good guy, which doesn’t really carry any baseball value, but it doesn’t hurt.

Let’s have a poll: