Toronto Blue Jays Season Preview: Outfield with strong potential

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Randal Grichuk

There was always the possibility of the Toronto Blue Jays trading for an outfielder, given the uncertainty they lied with their young prospects and the lack of suitable free agent options.

The team sent Dominic Leone and Conner Greene to the St. Louis Cardinals for Grichuk, who has had a big spotlight on him since the 2009 draft. As Melissa Couto of The Canadian Press writes, the former 24th overall pick was selected just before a player by the name of Mike Trout and we all know how his career has gone.

Now fast forward to 2018 with a chance to play a bigger role on the Toronto Blue Jays despite an early setback with a rib injury. He is a typical power hitter who will hopefully benefit from hitting at Rogers Centre, but luckily the pressure is not on him to carry the offensive workload.

He will certainly be asked to contribute lower in the lineup and took necessary steps to get himself ready, by purchasing a pitching machine. 

"“One of the things that I’ve been really trying to focus on is training the eyes,” Grichuk told Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. “I took a course on vision training, to work the muscles in the eyes. So many people don’t really work out their eyes and there are a lot of muscles in the eyes that are just like a normal muscle in the body. You need to train it, you need to work it out. I’ve been doing a lot of things to help improve plate discipline for the upcoming season.”"

One area Grichuk certainly has going for him is the power he generates from his swing, according to Chisholm.

"Grichuk topped 20 home runs during each of the last two seasons, but the Blue Jays believe there is potential for that number to go much higher. According to Statcast™, Grichuk had the second-highest barrel percentage among all National League hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. The only player who squared up more balls was Giancarlo Stanton."

That is certainly a big positive for Grichuk who is not a liability defensively either, especially since he could have also played in centre field. One thing he will need to avoid is swinging freely at bad pitches which is easy to say, but something that can become a part of a player’s mentality.

There is certainly a lot to be excited about with Grichuk; the real question is whether he can deliver when it matters.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Generated 3/28/2018.