Blue Jays: Evaluating the return for Curtis Granderson

While many were disappointed with the Blue Jays’ return for veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson, the prospect brought back is rather impressive and could bring decent upside if developed correctly.

Known league-wide as one of the nicest guys in baseball, Curtis Granderson was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers Friday in a deal that was officially announced less than an hour before the August 31 waiver trade deadline. In return, the Blue Jays received Demi Orimoloye (born Oluwademilade Oluwadamilola Orimoloye), a 21-year-old Nigerian-Canadian outfielder who was drafted by the Brewers in the fourth round of the 2015 draft.

Orimoloye, who was drafted in the same round as St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong (and a round ahead of top Yankees pitching prospect Chance Adams) has only appeared at Single-A levels this year, evenly splitting his time between High-A Carolina and Class-A Wisconsin.

In 126 games (525 plate appearances) with both those teams, the native of Lagos has slashed .248/.322/.393 with 12 home runs, 55 RBI, 20 doubles, six triples and 22 stolen bases. Having scored 57 runs between both levels, Orimoloye was fourth on his team (the Carolina Mudcats) in stolen bases, sixth in RBI, eighth in hits and ninth in doubles.

Though he wasn’t ranked on the Brewers’ top prospect list this year or last year, he was their #23 prospect in 2016 and their #20 prospect in 2015, according to MLB Pipeline. He was never a “blue chip prospect” (if such a thing exists), but he was solidly one of their top outfield prospects for his first pair of seasons in the organization.

It was perhaps his first pro season that earned him the initial ranking. In 33 games for the Rookie-level AZL Brewers in 2015, he slashed .292/.319/.518 with 19 steals and nine doubles in just 137 at-bats. Though his stock has been considerably lowered since then, he has been on fire lately slashing a healthy .300/.364/.640 over his last 12 games, adding a triple and three doubles since August 19.

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In short, Orimoloye is a prospect with some upside who will head to either High-A Dunedin or Class-A Lansing so the organization can gauge just how valuable he’ll be. While there appears to be some doubt, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet said that a scout told him that the young Orimoloye is “big, physical, can hit for power and run”. The scout also described him as “very raw, but [has] tremendous upside”. Though that’s just one evaluator’s opinion, it’s encouraging.

Now, the question remains: was this a good deal for the Blue Jays organization? At first glance, it appears that way. Granderson, 37, was having a solid season, slashing .245/.342/.430 with 11 big flies and 35 RBI in 302 at-bats, also driving 21 doubles and adding two stolen bases. All in all, the veteran Grandy, who was signed in January for a modest $5 million, was worth 0.6 WAR.

Signing Granderson was a classic example of rebuilding or retooling teams signing veterans only to reconstruct some of their value and ship them off for prospect capital late in the year. This month alone, Mike Fiers, who went from the Tigers to the Athletics, was able to fetch Oakland’s #28 prospect from 2017, epitomizing the strategy.

By that standard, the Blue Jays did pretty well, essentially acquiring a low-level prospect (with years of control) for one month of Granderson. It’s far from a sure thing that Orimoloye will ever put on a big league uniform, but just the chance of that happening should be deemed as worth it for Blue Jays fans.

Now, if Granderson’s intangible leadership in the clubhouse is taken into account, the debate shifts slightly. With over 10 seasons of major league experience, Granderson was not only a positive influence on the youngsters on the team but also on his coaches and management. He was an incredibly likable human being who loved baseball. It will be a shame to longer get to experience that.

At the end of the day, I think it’s fair to say that the Blue Jays made a fair, beneficial trade that helps them not only in their current situation but in the future. It’s not exactly an earth-shattering move, but it’s these kinds of moves that build up to something bigger.