Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Randal Grichuk

Since Rogers won’t show us today’s game (nice to see that Steven Matz gave up just one hit with 2 strikeouts in his two innings).

In the three seasons since we traded for Randal Grichuk, he has played 330 games and hit .244/.292/.477 with 75 home runs for a bWAR of 3.1. Considering that we didn’t give up all that much to get him, we can’t complain too much. But.....

He’s had hot streaks, where we thought he’s figured this out’. Last year he talked about letting the ball travel’ and, after 21 games he had a .344/.400/.656. But then, in his last 26 games, he hit .245/.279/.367.

Randal finished with a .273/.312/.481 (PECOTA was pretty close, predicting a .245/.304/.459 line). Not awful, but we’d like him to strike out a little less, walk a bit more. And we would like him to find a way to make the cold stretches shorter and not as deep a trench.

PECOTA predicts 93 games, 18 home runs, and a .239/.295/.457 line. ZiPS has 142 games 31 home runs and a .249/.297/.493 line (but ZiPS doesn’t look at playing time closely).

The other question is where he’ll get his playing time. With Gurriel, Springer, and Hernandez ahead of him in the outfield and Rowdy Tellez (and Vlad) needing time at DH, Randal looks to be the fourth outfielder, likely getting time when Springer needs a day off from center and right field when Hernandez DHes. He might play a bit left if they go through with the idea of Lourdes Gurriel getting some time at first and third. I like Randal better defensively in right than in center.

There is likely a question on how he will take to being a part-time player. He’s been a full-time guy up until now. Maybe it will be a challenge that gets him to be a little more consistent? Will he, or one of the other outfielders be shopped for a starting pitcher at the deadline?