Today in Blue Jays History: Jays Trade for Grichuk

Five Years Ago

The Blue Jays traded pitchers Conner Greene and Dominic Leone to the Cardinals for Randal Grichuk.

Greene had been a pretty good prospect. He was #100 on Baseball Prospectus’ Top 100 Prospect List in 2016. In 2017 Conner played in New Hampshire and had a 5.29 ERA in 132.2 innings. He was having trouble finding the strike zone; he walked 8ts6 batters (with 92 strikeouts). Conner didn’t have a great time with the Cardinals and was DFAed after the season. After that, he went to the Royals, Dodgers, and Orioles and has played in Mexico this past year.

He had 25.1 innings in the majors, with a 7.11 ERA.

Leone was a waiver pickup for the Jays from the Diamondbacks before the 2017 season. He did an excellent job in our bullpen, putting up a 2.56 ERA in 65 relief appearances, 23 walks, and 81 strikeouts in 70 innings. He wasn’t as good with the Cardinals. He had a 5.15 ERA in 64.2 innings in two seasons, with 30 walks and 72 strikeouts. They released him in November 2019. He pitched for Cleveland in 2020 and the Giants the last two seasons. He’s been up and down, mixing good years and bad years. Last year he had a 4.01 ERA in 55 games for the Giants.

Grichuk? He was a Blue Jay for four seasons, hitting .243/.289/.461 with 90 home runs. Hot and cold would be a way to describe him. He had his moments but didn’t become the star in envisioned. His bWAR was 4.4 for those four years.

We won the trade, but the Jays also gave Randal a five-year, $52 million contract. He was traded to the Rockies just before the start of the 2022 season, with the team sending $9.7 million along with him, getting Raimel Tapia and prospect Adrian Pinto. Tapia has been let go. Pinto was ok playing for Dunedin, hitting .242/.375/.363 with 18 steals.

I thought Denver might be a good spot for Grichuk, but he didn’t hit any better there, with a .259/.299/.425 batting line and 19 home runs in 140 games.