Blue Jays’ Cluttered Outfield: The Grichuk Problem

With Steve Pearce, Curtis Granderson, Kevin Pillar, Randal Grichuk, and Teoscar Hernandez all vying for playing time something may have to give.

All of Toronto’s outfielders are really lighting it up as we’re almost through a month of baseball. All but one. Randal Grichuk has so far not lived up to the hype that many Toronto fans thought he would bring, and one might even say he has disappointed so far this season. Grichuk has a slash line of .086/.206/.244. These aren’t great numbers by any standards and he has really become the odd man out.

As for the other four outfielders they have a combined line of .308/.402/.561. Those more than make up for where Grichuk just isn’t producing.

The outfield is mostly great the way it is right now, but what if there comes a time when you don’t need five outfielders. With Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki coming back at some point management is really going to have to re-evaluate the team.

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What To Do?

The easy call would be to have Lordes Gurriel Jr. get sent back down to make room for returning players but changes will still have to come in the outfield as five people is too many to take up on the roster.

The logical explanation would be to send Grichuk down to the minors as everyone else in the outfield is producing more than enough for the team. Unfortunately to do that he has to go through waivers in order to get him to Triple-A Buffalo.

That would make him prime real estate for any team who wants him. He is still a young, talented, and a very promising ball player.

The best plan of attack would be to wait it out and see what happens. I’m sure they will do that seeing as they are winning games, and why would you fix what isn’t broken?

This isn’t a bad problem to have. Yet. The season is still very young and who knows, the Blue Jays just might be able to pull this off.

Next: We should be giving J.A. Happ more credit