And Corey Patterson and Taijuan Walker
Randal Grichuk turns 33 today.
Randal played five seasons with the Blue Jays. In his 479 games, he hit .243/.289/.461 with 90 home runs, putting him 25th on our all-time list in home runs. He had a 4.2 bWAR in the four seasons.
You will likely remember that we picked him up from the Cardinals in May 2019, sending Conner Greene and Dominic Leone to St. Louis. Neither did much for the Cards: Greene pitched in 24 games in the majors and is now pitching in the minors for the Astros. Leone is pitching for the White Sox this year—his seventh team since the Jays.
Randal was a polarizing figure around here. He started every season hot, and we get told that he’s figured things out and he’s ‘letting the ball travel.’ And then the hot streak ended, and we were back with a guy who wasn’t quite good enough for a regular spot in the outfield.
He played four seasons with the Jays. He hit .243/.289/.461 with 90 home runs with the Jays in 128 games in 2022 and left as a free agent after the season.
We traded him to the Rockies for Adrian Pinto and Raimel Tapia. Tapia hit .265/.292/.380 in 128 games for the Jays and left as a free agent after the season. This year, he started with the Red Sox and was released and picked up by the Brewers. Released again, he is now a Ray.
Pinto is playing for the Canadians after missing most of the season with a rib injury. Since returning, he has hit .415/.436/.679 in 13 games. He turns 22 in September. Adrian was number 29 on our top 40 prospects list this year. Unfortunately, injuries have slowed his climb up the minor league ladder.
Since leaving the Jays after the 2020 season, he’s played with the Rockies and now the Angels.
Happy Birthday, Randal.
Corey Patterson turns 45 today.
Corey was a Blue Jay for 89 games in 2011. He hit .252/.287/.379 with 6 home runs and 13 steals (caught eight times).
He played outfield in a rather Gurrielish manner (without the great arm).
At the plate, he had a habit of swinging at head-high pitches, and occasionally, he’d hit one (which seemed to encourage him to try it more). But when he did hit one, it was fun to watch.
He had an unfortunate tendency to steal third base. He was 0 for 3 in attempts to steal third base while having a good success rate stealing second.
Corey was traded to the Cardinals in the Colby Rasmus trade at the deadline in 2011. He hit .157/.189/.235 in 44 games down the stretch for St. Louis, which was the end of his career.
Patterson played 11 MLB seasons for seven teams. In his career, he hit .252/.290/.400 with 34 home runs and 218 steals. He had a couple of excellent seasons, the best of which was in 2006 when he hit .276/.314/.443 with 45 steals playing for the Orioles.
He could be a decent fourth outfield. He was a left-handed bat with a little bit of power and a little bit of speed, and he could play all three outfield spots. Unfortunately, by the time he got to the Jays, he had lost some of that speed, and he needed that speed to make up for some creative routes to fly balls.
Patterson did make a terrific catch for us:
Taijuan Walker turns 32 today.
Walker came to us in 2020 in a trade from the Mariners for Alberto Rodriguez (who is in Double-A now and has hit .225/.274/.312 in 79 games this year).
Walker made six starts for us, helping us to earn a Wild Card spot that year.
He went 2-1 with a 1.37 ERA in 26.1 innings.
After the season, he signed with the Mets as a free agent. He spent two seasons there. He’s been a Phillie for two seasons now. He has a 5.60 ERA in 10 starts this season and is currently on the IL.
He’s played in the MLB for 11 seasons and has a 72-59 record and a 4.05 ERA in 208 games.
Happy Birthday. Taijuan.