The Blue Jays have placed outfielder Randal Grichuk on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’s dealing with a knee sprain that is likely to cost him at least three weeks or so, as MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm notes on Twitter.
Toronto will promote infielder Gift Ngoepe to take the open spot on the active roster. That’ll likely be a temporary measure, as Josh Donaldson could soon be ready to return to the majors.
The move comes as Grichuk, who was acquired over the winter, has struggled badly out of the gates. The out-of-options 26-year-old is carrying a hard-to-fathom .106/.208/.227 slash through 77 plate appearances.
With Teoscar Hernandez emerging in recent weeks, Grichuk has increasingly found himself on the bench. Presuming Grichuk ends up on a rehab assignment, he’ll have a chance to try to find a groove in the minors before returning to the MLB roster.
No big loss for the Jays
He stinks
On the DL for being trash with no options
Jays searching for a “doctor” who determines Grichuk’s knee sprain is far worse than originally thought and recommends the 60-day DL or, better yet, season-ending surgery.
If the Jays actually thought that little of him, then they would just release him and be done with it.
Hard to believe the Jays are above .500 with so many players having bad starts to the season. Morales, Martin, Grichuk, Travis, Stroman, and others having just dismal stats.
And no Donaldson
Cuz others are doing really well. See hernandez, teoscar. So when they all wake up they have a solid wild card chance (greater than the twins at least at this point). And if they find themselves sellers at the deadline, there’s a lot of retooling available. While I’m not a Jays fan they’re very exciting to watch and are in a win win situation. Go to playoffs with a solid team, or trade off Donaldson and Estrada and other rentals for soon to be mlb ready, tread water next year as bo and vlad Jr. prove themselves, and be great in 2020.
It’s encouraging. But expecting much of anything from morales, tulo or Martin anymore is probably a lot to ask. Grichuk won’t be playing as long as Teoscar keeps playing like he’s capable.
> expecting much of anything from morales… is probably a lot to ask
You’re right. But tonight he hit two home runs…and stole a base!
They won’t be a .500 team when all is done, unless they get a new starting rotation, new catchers, new SS. As I said in spring training, good start but out of the playoffs by deadline time and sellers.
The bullpen has been outstanding.
Why are they bringing up Gift Ngoepe? The guy has 1 minor league season with an ops over .700 and he only played in 27 games that year. He has a .476 ops in AAA this year. They must have better options, like anyone with a pulse.
Better options to sit on the bench? Nope, they don’t, he’s perfect for that role.
They had the perfect guy – Ryan Goins. Gift is not major league calibre unless you are a last place team in a rebuild.
> They had the perfect guy – Ryan Goins.
Maybe “perfect” at the league minimum, but Goins would have got a relatively big raise in arbitration. He would not have been worth it.
At 1.9 million that would have been less than what the Jays paid Darwin Barney in 2017. He would have also been paid less than what the Jays paid John McDonald years ago. Goins is also miles better than Gift, better overall than McDonald and is better than Diaz. Goins would have absolutely been worth the money.
Maybe they should give Johnny Mac a call.
He can play defense for a couple days and is on the 40 man. Who’d you rather call up?
“Sprained Knee”
Isn’t this the guy the Angels picked over Mike Trout?
Uhh…
Pretty sure the angels picked trout.
They had two consecutive picks and picked Grichuck before Trout cuz it would suppress Trout’s signing bonus if I remember correctly.
19 other teams passed on Trout. It happens. Trout was from a northern state and he just wasn’t scouted as heavily by teams. Some teams only got one look at him and some scouts thought his body wouldn’t age well. Other players picked before Trout: Donovan Tate, Matt Hobgood, Tony Sanchez, Jacob Turner, Drew Storen, Grant Green, Bobby Borchering, Alex White…you get the picture.
Randal Grichuk’s dismal start is not “hard to fathom”. In fact it was called after the trade. This guy was a 4th outfielder for the cards for a reason. Everytime he slumped which was alot, they would send him down. He belongs in the minors.
Who cares about out of options. The BlueJays executive who green-lighted this trade should be fired.
You know as well as I do how it seems they Jays trade for or sign more reclamation projects than any other team. The weakness of this team is still the starting rotation. JD should have been traded in the offseason or last years deadline while he had more value. Now any trade will have health question marks all season long.
Yes, yes, yes. Agreed.
Oh, and here I thought the rotation was suppose to be our position of strength this year. Stupid Fangraphs.
> I thought the rotation was suppose to be our position of strength this year.
Season’s not over, ya know.
Ya, who would trade from a position of strength for a plus WAR, 20+ home run guy who takes great routes to the ball and can lay out like Keirmaier. So shortsighted.
Before looking up who took the lead on the negotiations with St Louis I was going to bet on Andrew Tinnish. A holdover from the Anthopoulos regime who is a know-nothing. Then looked up the trade and yes, Tinnish was in-fact the lead negotiator. He should have been let go 5 years ago, and he was supposed to go to Atlanta with Anthopoulos only to change his mind.
DFA morales while you’re at it
Grichuk is a solid defender in the OF, but that can only take you so far