The Diamondbacks announced that they have signed outfielder Randal Grichuk to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. It’s reportedly a $5MM guarantee for the Excel Sports Management client, broken up into a $2MM salary, followed by a $3MM buyout on a $5MM mutual option. He can also earn another $500K via incentives: $250K for getting to 200 plate appearances and another $250K for getting to 275. There’s also a one-time $250K assignment bonus if Grichuk is traded. The club had a 40-man roster vacancy and doesn’t need to make a corresponding move.
Grichuk, 33, signed a similar deal with the Snakes around this time last year. He and the club agreed to a deal with a $2MM guarantee in the middle of February, which turned out to be a big win for the D’Backs. Grichuk played a part-time role, getting into 106 games and stepping to the plate 279 times. He hit .291/.348/.528 in those, production that translated to a 139 wRC+.
Most of that production came in a platoon capacity, which has been a trademark of the righty swinger. He has a .273/.324/.509 line and 121 wRC+ against lefties in his career, compared to a .242/.288/.449 line and 93 wRC+ without the platoon advantage. Arizona sent him to the plate 184 times against southpaws last year and he responded with a huge .319/.386/.528 line and 151 wRC+. They limited him to just 95 trips to the plate against righties, but he actually fared well in those, hitting .242/.274/.527 for a 116 wRC+.
Strikeouts have often been a problem for Grichuk in his career, as he was in the 26 to 32% range in each season from 2014 to 2019. But he then got that down into the low 20s for a few years before dropping all the way to 16.5% in 2024.
That production fit very well on a Diamondbacks club that had a lot of prominent lefties bats and will again in 2025. The outfield mix features Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy and Alek Thomas. This offseason, the Snakes acquired lefty Josh Naylor to replace righty-swinging Christian Walker at first base. Last year, lefty Joc Pederson was the primary designated hitter, though he became a free agent and signed with the Rangers. It’s possible that the club will redirect some of Pederson’s plate appearances to Pavin Smith, another lefty.
Grichuk gives manager Torey Lovullo plenty of ability to shuffle those lefties out of the lineup whenever he sees fit, either by sending Grichuk out into the field or by putting him in the designated hitter slot. Defensively, Grichuk is capable of playing any of three outfield slots, though he’s a bit better in a corner than in center.
From a financial perspective, it’s not a huge deal in MLB terms, but it still pushes the Diamondbacks farther into uncharted waters. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the club ran an Opening Day payroll of $163MM, which was a franchise record by a significant margin. Thanks in large part to their shocking Corbin Burnes deal, RosterResource projects them to get to $198MM this year. That’s in spite of the club’s broadcast deal falling apart in 2023, leaving them to pivot to an MLB-run model which likely brings in less revenue.
Trading Jordan Montgomery and the $22.5MM he’s owed this year would bring those numbers down, but it’s possible the budget is getting a bit tight at the moment. That might explain why Grichuk’s option buyout is actually higher than his salary, as it allows the club to kick that payment down the road to the end of the season.
On the heels of his solid season, Grichuk got plenty of interest around the league. He was connected to the Orioles, Pirates and Giants throughout the winter. Anne Rogers of MLB.com relays today that the Royals were interested as well. When Jurickson Profar signed with Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, all the surefire everyday outfielders were off the board. That seems to have pushed clubs to pivot to the part-time role players. Austin Hays was signed last week, while Ramón Laureano and Grichuk put pen to paper today. For clubs still looking for outfield help, guys like Harrison Bader, Mark Canha, Jason Heyward and Alex Verdugo are still available.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported that the Diamondbacks were bringing back Grichuk with a $5MM guarantee and incentives that could take it to $5.5MM. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first provided the full breakdown.
Worked for them last year. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
They missed the playoffs after making the world series the season before without him.
Did it really work?
Yeah Grichuk was clearly the reason they missed the playoffs, only hitting .291/.348/.528 (139 wRC+).
Those numbers got him 5 million while other players are getting 700 million.
Kinda lame as a Dodgers fan to say something like that.
Players? Plural? Relax.
Maybe Grichuk took a little less money because he’s in his mid-30’s and wants to settle down in Arizona with his family?
@darren: bait used to be believable
Should’ve signed with the Pirates but obviously he had this strange desire to play with a team with an over .500 record.
I actually agree. Soto’s not much better than Grichuk. The Mets will soon discover that they blew their future on a boring over-hyped guy who takes lots of walks. Snooze. I now await all the WAR geeks’ heads to explode.
@Darren. What does Grichuks contract now have to do with the Diamond Backs missing the playoffs? You just trying to be right about something?
Pirates are just cheap stupid losers. Just 1 cheap stupid loser Bob Nutting. 7 8 million he would gladly lose with them. Just think of it as extended spring training until he gets traded to a winner in July.
Silly to blame him as a Dodgers fan.
Just incorrect analysis to say Grichuk was not good because he did not get Soto money.
Grichuk gets only $5 million because he is an aging but highly effective platoon player. Definitely a smart signing. It is the year of the “Wood Snake”. You can’t make up stuff like that! (Well, for the Asian calendar, not the Division race.)
Tell It
Just as bad a trolling job as Darren.
Soto is a brilliant professional hitter who is only an average athlete and who will need to shift to DH in a couple years. Probably was only worth two-thirds of what they paid but the Mets still won’t regret having him.
@Tell. Soto is an obvious future Hall of Famer. You may think he’s overpaid, but there were three or four teams offering him 600M or more.
Soto just a poor mans version of Travis Janokowsi except he can’t run and can’t play gold glove cf defense.
Yes. Ohtani and Soto both got 700 million. Which makes it plural.
I am not sure any free agent *should* sign with the Pirates. The beautiful ballpark, occasional Skenes starts, pierogi races and hot dog launches begin to lose their appeal after May
DBacks won 5 more games in 2024 than 2023 with what could be considered a more competitive NL West division. The answer is yes, it did work as the team did improve over a 162 game season.
He made a worthwhile contribution to the team, generating 2.2 bWAR in only 254 AB’s on a reasonable contract.
The team missing the playoffs is not on him. He played his role well.
I thought the Giants would be in on Grichuck but I guess they’re determined to give Matos and Encarnacion at bats—Encarnacion, in particular, is a very interesting player, surprisingly agile for his size with a loud bat.
I agree with the decision.
Grichuk would just block development of younger players.
He’s not all that.
Another miss for preller
And Posey
Yeah I saw him as a good fit on the padres.
He would’ve been a nice righty option, but $5M for a short-side platoon LFer is not in the budget this year. Verdugo, I think, will be an okay bounce-back guy and a better spend for a cost-conscious team.
Guy hits LHP like a all star. Good fit and miss for a lot of teams. Biggest miss is Pirates. He’s a everyday player for them.
Pirates crapped the bed on this. His “bad” handed splits were better than almost every Pirates wRC+
He would undoubtedly improve a few team’s LF situations that begin with “P”s…
I’m more disappointed about losing Perez for $5M.
AZ is closer to Grichuk’s home in TX. Also makes sense politically.
Exactly, not even that that is the reason but fans on here always say another miss by their gm when it’s very possible that the player they’re talking about had no interest in signing with the Padres, Giants and Pirates for example.
$5.5M for 2.2 WAR is a steal nowadays. He must feel basically set on the Big Life Changing Pay Day Money and just be playing to keep playing now- and $5.5M is still $5.5M haha.
A total steal if he is anywhere close to last season or even 2023.
Yup and I assume if his 2025 performance is worth 2.2 WAR or more, in 2026 he should demand and should receive at least $10M if not like $12.5M etc.
I’m not a Grichuk fan and I understand that WAR value doesn’t absolutely dictate salaries, but there’s some correlation there and I think that’s a fair barometer of whether players are being underpaid, overpaid or paid in that goldilocks zone.
I stand corrected as I would bet that the mutual option gets picked up if 2025 is anything like 2024 for Grichuk.
Basically it’s an 8MM one year deal, so less of a steal but still nice. Basically a guarantee the both sides won’t opt in. Grichuck would only have to top 2MM on the free market to best his guarantee.
Toptim
Check your math. It’s basically a 1 year $5M contract.
Mutual options are never picked up, so Grichuk signed for 1 year at $2m and then opts out at the end of the year to get $3M more.
There are minor performance standards to up that $5M slightly. The contract would max out at $7.5M over two years in the unlikely event the mutual options were to be picked up.
Thanks, my mistake. I was basing it off the first edit of the article so I mistakenly thought it was a 5MM salary in ‘24 with a 3MM mutual option in ‘25.
Should have been paid more before. Should have got 10 this year. Teams don’t like him for some reason. Next year he will be older. But that would be what these gms do. Late to the party and finally pay him what he’s been worth.
There could be some reasons why he did not get more money that we do not know.
He may have wanted to go back to Arizona.
Maybe BC thought $7-8M was too much to pay.
He is not much of a fielder.
But if they would have paid him $8m and given him first chance to start regularly it would have given the Pirates some credibility.
But,then again,it’s the Pirates.
They would rather sign Frazier who they absolutely do not need.
he’s had a nice career and already banked 55MM. nobody in the Grichuk camp is feeling under-compensated at this time.
For all you know the Pirates offered him exactly what you said and he turned them down. Pittsburgh isn’t exactly a place free agents are flocking to these days. Just because your favorite team doesn’t sign a guy doesn’t mean they couldn’t have tried. The player does have a choice on where he winds up.
If you take everything he’s accomplished & condense it down to one season, it looks DECENT! Ahahahahahaha!
@TrillionaireTeamOperator It is a steal if he repeats, but he’s not likely to do so and that he settled for $5m is powerful evidence that no FO of 30 believes he’s going to do so.
There was also __some__ good luck in his .313 BABIP in 2024, and his .363 BABIP with Colorado in 2023 that fueled his modest but still useful 1.2 bWAR that season.
He’s also an awkward player to shoehorn into a 26-man roster, the short side of a DH platoon who you really should avoid giving time in the OF since his work there pro rates to -11 in a full season in 2024, and to -14 in 2023.
At around his 2025 salary he would have been a solid pickup for the Mets. They’re not going to start the 2025 season with Marte as their DH against LHP given Marte can’t play the OF any longer, and at 36 only projects to a 95-97 OPS+ against pitching from either side.
Grichuk’s was both a significantly better hitter than Marte in 2024 (though fr 2021-2023 his 94 OPS+ was obviously awful for a bat first guy) and as bad as Grichuk’s OF defense is, it’s still better than Marte’s. You can kinda squint and pretend Randall’s your 5th OFer, or on the Mets your 6th given McNeil is still capable in the corners and can even fake CF on occasion.
A little surprised the Mets don’t appear even to have inquired politely about his availability.
Unlikely to repeat? His OPS against LHP:
2024 – .914
2023 – .995
2022 – .926
2021 – .733 (still an OPS+ of 108)
2020 – .950
He’s got one core job, and he’s very, very good at it. For $2M ($5M after the buyout), you get 150-200 All-Star caliber AB’s. Even if he faces RHP for 50-100 AB’s, that’s a solid bet to be worth the cost.
Was really hoping the rays would grab him
Tommy Pham will work for food.
Lap dances and beer for Pham
That’s no more than Austin Hays got. Why are the Giants so cheap they aren’t beating Grichuk’s production this year.
Why block needed development ?
Sheesh Pirates….
Old friend Marte is available to platoon with Suwinski for sure @ 5 million.
Or we believe in Jack so much we are going to do Nutting!
Too expensive for Nutting
You really think the Mets would eat that much salary to move Marte?
I’m thinking Pirates sign Duvall for like 1.6 mil
Hahahahaha. You’re still at it, and I commend your hopeful stance
But this will be yet another pipe dream
They got their “stud” in Horwitz
Yes. It’s hard to write that without blowing my coffee through my nose
Verdugo is still available! They can out coach LA BOS NY and make him even better !!!!! Marte back in Pittsburgh around Cutch Frazier will have a resurgence!!!!!
Yes, might as well bring Neil Walker back and see what AJ and Russell Martin are doing, while they’re at it
If the Mets will pay everything but $5m I would take Marte back for Eddy Yean and Wil Crowe,who they will first have to purchase back from his Asian team.
Mets paid Orioles 19 out of 24 million to Orioles for McCann in 2023 for a ptbnl.
Interesting. I mean ya I’d definitely take Marte back since it’s just a 1 year commitment
You ever considered the possibility that free agents aren’t lining up to play in Pittsburgh. Just because they didn’t sign him doesn’t mean they didn’t try. If a guy has a choice of playing in Arizona or Pittsburgh, chances are he’s going to sign with the team that has had more success recently.
Thank you! Dude was great last year for us. Kills lefties and can hit righties as well
A Reno Ace.
Pederson and Grichuk made the ultimate platoon. Too bad it was short lived.
True, but y0u can’t carry a strict platoon at DH.
If the guys can’t play anywhere else it leaves you with just three backups—two, after accounting for the backup catcher. That’s one backup OFer and one backup IFer. Tough to get away with that for more than a few days.
Maybe you squeeze it out with a Deadline addition, assuming your regulars are healthy and you have one superutility guy, but that’s a rare parlay. You’d also have to be in a situation where your DH numbers against LHP or RHP are so hideous that improving them with a Grichuk or a Joc might actually add that marginal win or two you need to make it to the postseason dance.
Royals let another one get away.
Tommy Pham will work for food.
It’s beer and strippers for Tommy.
It seems a lot teams just want to sign minor league deals with the players to cut costs grichuk fit on alot of teams
Tommy Pham just fell to his knees in a dimly lit sports bar somewhere
Big Tommy Pham I take it.
Yes. Continually ranting, “Pittsburgh. Please tell me it’s not Pittsburgh”
As of this writing, I see there is “more to come” so I assume the writer will note that the RHH Gueriel is also part of the Dbacks OF mix.
What a great deal for the Snakes.
Agreed. Thought incorrectly that the Pirates would pay him around 8-10mil for ’25 since that’s still “inexpensive” these days and a short-term risk aversion to support their good SPs with a decent bat. Not sure how low cost they think they can go to add a much needed proven hitter.
How low cost? How about Nutting! Jack and Palacios will be fine. If not there’s Yorke Cool.
Pirates prob offered like 2 mil
Keeping my fingers crossed for Adam Duvall… I think…
A++++++ Arizona
F to any team needing outfield help
He sure could’ve helped the Astros. Verdugo might be a better fit anyway
Grichuck thrived in Arizona in a platoon role last season. No reason to think he won’t do it again
Randall did not get a lot of love in Toronto. Varsho is better in the field. When the Varsho trade happened I thought he was just a left handed Randall. I thought it was a lot to give up. Looks even worse now.
For Varsho, who put up 4 then 5 bWAR in two seasons with Toronto and saved more runs than any other player in MLB in 2024?
He can’t hit. Save all the runs you want. He bats 8th.
On a horrible team. I like him just not what they gave up for him.
They traded Grichuk for Tilapia, who was awful at all aspects of the game.
I forgot about that trade. Man Atkins has been fleeced a few times. Only trade he won was the Rowdy Tellez trade.
So now the Dbacks “only” lost Christian Walker’s and Joc Pederson’s production from last season’s most prolific offense in the MLB. Added Josh Naylor, and counting on Pavin Smith this season to backfill those losses.
With the pitching addition of Corbin Burnes and maturation of several young pitchers, this team is already 5 wins better in 2025. That means, expect at least 94 wins this year!
@scottaz It doesn’t work that way comrade. It’s the projection for each player based on their work from 2022 to 2024 (with a frisson of 2021 tossed in in a few systems), not what they produced in 2024, only.
Jack
I fear you’ve lost your way in StatsWorld, that fantasy realm where geeks live and thrive. I was referring to the real world of baseball played on a field of grass (or artificial turf). In this real world of actual baseball, the Dbacks lost two players from the ‘24 team.. An actual 1b and an actual, primary DH.
Those two players have now been replaced on the actual roster for ‘25 by two different players. This new team will now actually play 162 games of real baseball. My take on this actual team is that they are strong enough as a team to win more games in ‘25 than they did in ‘24. I hadn’t slipped down into the abyss of StatsWorld.
You seem to be misunderstanding him; Jack is simply pointing out that projections are formulated by using data from the last few years.
It’s rarely (if ever) as simple as totalling up individual player WAR and adding it to the theoretical replacement level team (and as Jack pointed out, it weights the most recent season most heavily, but other seasons are considered).
Players also rarely hit their projections exactly (and it’s easy for people these days to just point at WAR for projections, completely forgetting that by using that stat they’re doing exactly what the “geeks” are doing, just with far less understanding of the “why” surrounding it).
Totalling up projected WAR is one of the worst ways to protect a team’s win total, because WAR is context independent, and the highest value swings in games will always be context dependent.
Projection systems themselves operate by evaluating probabilities; any time you see a projected win total, it’s actually the average of the win range that that system foresees.
Your “5 wins better in 2025” statement was a projection, so Jack explained how projections work. His comment quite literally said nothing about the DBacks lol
I agree with you that they’re a stronger team and should win more games, but there’s no need to get riled up when someone is sharing useful information that can help with your evaluation process.
Do you need to use that information? No, although I could tell you situations in which it would be relevant. No need to get sarcastic with the dude when he’s bringing up a legitimate point (not even a counterpoint; his assertation actually makes some player projections look more favorable with that understanding)
Geez. $5M. Was hoping the Phillies would get involved but was assuming he may get two years, or one year but more than $5M. Grichuk puts up MVP-like numbers against lefties, 3-years running.
@stevetampa I thought that was hyperbole, but it’s true. .926 OPS in 2022, 995 in 2023, .914 in 2024.
Platoon splits take A LOT LONGER to supply statistically significant and predictive numbers than most think, given how small sample sizes against LHPs typically are, year to year, but this is fairly convincing, ie predictive.
And Pirates fans die inside a little more.
Not me. Team needs to lose again for Nutting to wake up and fire Cherington. Grichuk might have got them to .500
Most of us have been dead for years. Elwood. You have some guys like Goku who is an optimist but I think even he knows how pathetic this owner is.
Nutting has perfected the idea of tuning out criticism. He’s not a fixture at games. Doesn’t do many interviews and doesn’t live in Pittsburgh. He has a marketing department that works to have promotions that distract fans from the poor baseball product, and some folks that tell you to not believe what you actually see. They’ll tell you that hey, some of these guys are really all-stars
There are a couple analytics clowns here that spew the same tripe
I disagree with Dream only in that Nutting does not care about winning on the field, only in the ledger. Wouldn’t matter who would be GM here, they’d have the same constraints. (Not that I’m defending Cherington. He’s terrible)
Would not have hated him in Boston. Can still play some good defense
who is alex thomas
Great signing by Hazen.
Another “we were in it until the end” Red Sox FA miss
Grichuk was picked 24th overall by the Angels in the first round of the 2009 draft — one spot ahead of Mike Trout.
Dbacks had two mid-first-round picks that year, but obviously didn’t need Trout.
What does that have to do with the now exactly?
@runningwithnailclippers Have mom explain to you that the past affects the future?
Something. Anything.
Gosh thanks Dad.
Unless he had no interest, it’s absolutely pathetic the Pirates couldn’t have significantly improved on this deal. Not sure if he’ll hit that well again but would have been a huge upgrade. Zero risk in 8-10m for a year.
Is there any reason to believe that the Pirates have made offers to *any* free agents this off season? Anyone have proof?
Let’s remember that literally all MLB media outlets were lauding the Pirates likely starting staff. Everyone. All they needed to do was add a few decent power bats
They chose not to
What else needs to be said?
Dbacks added some wins and kept some away from other teams. Huge win signing.
Good fit and value. Acquiring one more high leverage bp arm probably won’t happen. Might need a contender(s) to have an SP injury in spring training to have any hope to move Montgomery and free up some resources.
Good signing! I was really hoping the Tigers would sign him to go with all our lefty outfielders.
How come my reply to someone ends up as a reply to someone else?
Disappointing turn out. I thought bang for buck this was the best outfielder available. Was my #1 target.
You will have to learn what the rest of us have finally figured out.
It’s the Pirates.
I will bring glory to the desert.
Atkins prefers Straw for over double the money and double the years.
Yes. I made that team too handsome.