Jays Trade Randal Grichuk to Rockies

This surprised me.

The Jays have traded Randal Grichuk to the Rockies for Raimel Tapia.

Tapia is a left-handed hitting outfielder. He’s 28, and has had 6 seasons in the majors. Career he’s hit .280/.325/.395 with 19 home runs, and 45 steals in 439 games.

Last year he played in 133 games with a .273/.327/.372 batting line. He’s played mostly left field, but has had a few games in center and in right. FanGraphs has him at a 7.1 UZR/150, so a good glove.

And he makes less money than Grichuk. Randal is to make $10.33 million this year and next.

Randal’s had 4 years with the Jays, hitting .243/.289/.461 with 90 home runs. Last year he hit .241/.281/.423, but Buck would like me to remind you that he drove in 81 runs.

This gives us a left-handed bat and saves us some money (though I’m imagining the Rockies may have asked for some cash along with Randal).

Bye Randal. I wish you the best. Denver will be a good place for you to play.

Update:

Jays are also getting 19-year-old minor leaguer, Adrian Pinto. He’s an infielder, hit .360/.487/.543 last year in the DOSL. That’s a nice batting line. He also stole 41 bases in 54 games.

Also Tapia was #49 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list before the 2017 season.