Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Randal Grichuk

The Blue Jays aren't giving us any of the big news we were expecting, so let's continue with these.

I think we pretty much know Randal Grichuk by now.

Last year, at this time, we figured his playing time would be cut. We had George Springer. We pegged the over/under on his games played at 90, 59% of us were right saying over. He played 149.

We asked which outfield position he would play the most. 88% said right field. It turned out the 8% who said center were right.

And we asked if one of Grichuk, Gurriel or Hernandez would be traded. Of course, most of us were (68%) were wrong, but then we couldn't know that Springer would be hurt for most of the season.

Last year PECOTA predicted 93 games and a .239/.295/.457 line. He hit .241/.281/.423, so well within spitting distance.

He started the season on a hot streak, always a good move. Randale hit .282/.333/.506 in April and .295/.313/.491 in May. If you can arrange it, that's the way to do things in the MLB (or anywhere else). Start hot and they won't notice you've cooled off until long after they've moved you up to the middle of the order. Randal started hitting in the middle of the order by mid-April and stayed in the middle of the order until early July.

And Randal just looks like a ballplayer, good-looking (good looking never hurts, or so they ell me), fit, every athletic. I'm sure Buck and Pat have told us he's a ballplayer 100 times.

But then the guy hits .208.267/.355 for the second half of the season. We could have used his first-half bat down the stretch.

Defensively? He's pretty good in right and filling for a few games in center, he's ok. Playing 735 innings in center is stretching things. But then injuries happen.

This year, PECOTA figures him to play 127 games with 469 at-bats (PECOTA is expecting an injury? Or maybe a trade?) and a .248/.299/.445 batting line with 21 home runs.

Coming into camp, he looks like the fourth outfielder. Other than Gurriel, Springer, and Hernandez, the only outfielder on our 40-man is Josh Palacios (Corey Dickerson is a free agent at the moment). $10,333,333 seems like a fair bit of money for a fourth outfielder (he needs 655 PA to add $1 million to that $10.3 million in 2023, which seems a long shot).

In his four seasons with the Blue Jays, he's totalled 4.5 bWAR, which isn't all that bad, except that 2.5 of that came in his first season. Last year he had a 0.8 bWAR. Not really want I want out of 545 PA in the outfield.

Randal is 30 now, so expecting him to suddenly become a different player is a fool’s bet, but then he’ll start off hot and Buck and Pat (they are going to be in the TV booth again right?) are going to tell us that he’s a new guy, has a new feel for the game. And when he cools off, they won’t notice. Ground Hog season.