And Sign George Springer
Seven Years Ago
The Blue Jays traded pitchers Conner Greene and Dominic Leone to the Cardinals for Randal Grichuk.
Greene had been a 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 had trouble finding the strike zone; he walked 86 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 for the last couple of years. And he played in Triple-A Sugar land in the Astros organization in 2024.
He’s 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. Dominic 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 for two years. In 2023, he pitched for the Mets, Angels and Mariners with a 4.67 ERA in 51 games. In 2024 he played in 23 games with the White Sox, with a 6.63 ERA.
In eleven MLB seasons, he’s played for nine teams. in 429 games, he has a 3.94 ERA. In 429 innings, he’s given up 192 walks with 444 strikeouts.
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 we 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 2022 season, with the team sending $9.7 million along with him, getting Raimel Tapia and prospect Adrian Pinto. Tapia was released. Pinto split 2024 between three minor league levels, hitting .330/.378/.573 in 26 games.
I thought Denver might be a good spot for Grichuk, but he didn’t hit any better there, with a .275/.321/.448 batting line and 27 home runs in 204 games over two seasons. In July, he was traded to the Angels. In 2024, he played for the Diamondbacks and had a very nice season, hitting .291/.348/.528 with 12 home runs in 106 games. He’s a free agent at the moment.
Four Years Ago
The Jays signed George Springer to a six-year, $150 million contract.
He’s played the first four seasons, and he’s gotten a little worse each season:
- 2021: .907 OPS.
- 2022: .814 OPS.
- 2023: .732 OPS.
- 2024: .674 OPS.
Which makes me worry about the last two years of the deal.