{"id":11221,"date":"2018-01-19T18:40:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=11221"},"modified":"2018-01-19T18:40:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T23:40:22","slug":"randall-grichuk-traded-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2018\/01\/19\/randall-grichuk-traded-blue-jays\/","title":{"rendered":"Randal Grichuk Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/toronto-blue-jays\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> have added a power threat to the corner of their outfield, acquiring <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grichra01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Randal Grichuk<\/a><\/strong> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/st-louis-cardinals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> in exchange for a pair of right-handers, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonedo01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominic Leone<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=greene000con&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Conner Greene<\/a><\/strong>. The deal was confirmed by the Blue Jays official twitter account Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We&#39;ve acquired OF Randal Grichuk from the Cardinals in exchange for RHP Dominic Leone and RHP Conner Greene. <\/p>\n<p>Last season, Grichuk hit 22 home runs with 59 RBI and 25 doubles in 122 games. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/624iYWvEx2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/624iYWvEx2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJays\/status\/954462582328274944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Randal Grichuk Traded to Blue Jays<\/h2>\n<p>The Blue Jays will feature a new-look outfield group in 2018, aside from the familiar face of AL Gold Glove finalist <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pillake01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Pillar<\/a><\/strong> holding down the everyday spot in center. The two corner outfield spots are likely to be determined in Spring Training as the likes of Grichuk, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pearcst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Pearce<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hernate01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Teoscar Hernandez<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/carreez01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ezequiel Carrera<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alforan01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Alford<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pompeda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dalton Pompey<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=smithdw02,smithdw01&amp;search=Dwight+Smith&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwight Smith Jr.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0compete for playing time in left and right field. With the departure of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=bautijo02,bautijo01&amp;search=Jose+Bautista&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Bautista<\/a><\/strong>, the Jays will have a new opening day right fielder for the first time since 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Grichuk is coming off of back-to-back solid seasons, hitting a total of 46 homers to go along with 127 RBI and a .239 batting average over that two-year span in St. Louis. But with the <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/2017\/12\/13\/the-st-louis-cardinals-acquire-marcell-ozuna\/\" target=\"_self\">Cardinals&#8217; acquisition<\/a> of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ozunama01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcell Ozuna<\/a><\/strong> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/miami-marlins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Marlins<\/a> earlier this winter &#8212; plus\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fowlede01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dexter Fowler<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a><\/strong> already in the mix and higher on <strong>Mike Matheny<\/strong>&#8216;s pecking order &#8212; there didn&#8217;t appear to be much of an opportunity for Grichuk in 2018. The 26-year-old Rosenberg, Texas native will now have a clean slate with which to prove himself in Toronto.<\/p>\n<h2>Last Word<\/h2>\n<p>The Cardinals, meanwhile, will add an established middle-relief option to their bullpen in Leone, who posted an impressive 2.56 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 70.1 innings of work last season for the Jays. Despite appearing to find his form at the big league level in 2017, the Cardinals will be Leone&#8217;s fourth Major League team in the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Also heading to St. Louis in the swap is Greene, who was selected by the Blue Jays out of high school in the seventh round of the 2013 June Amateur Draft. The Jays number 11 overall prospect, Greene possesses an electric fastball that can frequently touch triple digits on the radar gun, but struggled last season at the Double-A level with Toronto&#8217;s Eastern League affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Greene amassed a 5-10 record, 5.83 ERA, and 1.69 WHIP in 132.2 innings (25 starts) for the Fisher Cats, but at just 22 years of age still has strong potential to develop in the Cardinals organization.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"i6695PXwRaxqB38bfAHIEQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/835769178\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'i6695PXwRaxqB38bfAHIEQ',sig:'IY8LeLE0CtGRxHG1BrzNbSQqWjm8BdqB6r43nUecy1Y=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'835769178',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St. Louis Cardinals have reduced their crowded outfield, with Randal Grichuk traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for RHPs Dominic Leone and Conner Greene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1842,"featured_media":11230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1071,35,25],"tags":[68,1870,1869,941,69,645,1089,168,36],"class_list":["post-11221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejays","category-mlb","category-news","category-cardinals","tag-baseball","tag-conner-greene","tag-dominic-leone","tag-latest-mlb-news","tag-mlb","tag-nl-central","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Sean Couch (Senior Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1842"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}