Blue Jays: How is Jordan Groshans doing since being traded to the Marlins?

At this year’s trade deadline, the Blue Jays were pretty quiet up until the latter hours of the day, eventually making four deals before the trade deadline passed on August 2nd.

They acquired Whit Merrifield from the Kansas City Royals and Mitch White plus prospect Alex De Jesus from the Los Angeles Dodgers, sending Max Castillo and Samad Taylor to the Royals and Nick Frasso and Moises Brito to the Dodgers, as well as trading Jeremy Beasley to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash considerations.

The highlight of the trade deadline for the Jays was the Miami Marlins deal, where the front office acquired relievers Anthony Bass and Zach Pop as well as a player to be named later (Edward Duran) and sent top prospect Jordan Groshans to the Marlins.

Bass has been outstanding this year, authoring a 1.41 ERA through 44.2 innings prior to the deal while Pop can hit the upper 90’s with his sinker, is under team control until 2027, and is returning to home soil (product of Brampton, Ontario). Bass has continued this strong stretch with the Jays while Pop was optioned to AAA just over a week ago when Tim Mayza was ready to return.

Heading to Miami was highly ranked prospect Jordan Groshans, who was the Blue Jays first-round draft choice back in 2018 out of Magnolia High School in Magnolia, Texas. Regarded for his bat at the time of the draft, Groshans signed for $3.4 million, roughly $800K below slot value which helped the Jays sign his teammate Adam Kloffenstein in the third round (almost $2 million over slot).

With the Blue Jays

Since then, Groshans has been working his way up the Minor League ladder, occupying shortstop and third base with a little bit of outfield work mixed in between. While a foot/ankle injury limited him to just 23 games in 2019, the righty batter returned from the cancelled 2020 MiLB campaign and really excelled in AA New Hampshire last year, putting forth a .291/.367/.450 slash line through 278 at-bats while adding seven home runs, 40 RBI, and a .817 OPS in the process.

Prior to the trade, Groshans had lost some of his power and was doing alright in AAA, owning a .644 OPS with eight doubles and one home run through 240 at-bats on the year, starting the 2022 campaign on the IL with an oblique injury.

The Blue Jays traded former top prospect Jordan Groshans earlier this year to the Miami Marlins. Let’s take a look at how he is doing since the deal.

The Blue Jays #4 prospect at the time of the trade, Groshans has found his bat with the AAA Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, sporting a .304/.387/.435 slash line with six doubles, two home runs, and eight RBI with a .822 OPS through 92 at-bats. He also has 13 walks compared to 16 strikeouts since joining the Jumbo Shrimp and has nine multi-hit games through 25 contests.

From mid-August to the start of September, the righty-batter was riding a 10-game hitting streak but has hit a small rough patch since the month turned over, going 0 for 11 through his last three games with three strikeouts. Defensively, Groshans has made nine appearances at shortstop and 10 at third base, sporting a .974 and .950 fielding percentage respectively.

Now ranked as the Marlins’ #13 top prospect, some thought there was a chance the infielder might be called up to the big league roster when rosters expanded on September 1st, although he would need to be added to the 40-man roster. That didn’t happen and Groshans will likely finish the year in AAA and potentially fight for a roster spot next year in Spring Training.

Moving forward, it seems like this trade is going to work out for both sides, as the Marlins get Groshans, who was likely blocked from the Blue Jays roster by Bichette, Matt Chapman, and Orelvis Martinez, and the Blue Jays acquired some bullpen arms to help with the playoff push this year and beyond. It should also be noted that Groshans is Rule 5 eligible following this season, another reason the Jays likely were ok with dealing the top prospect at the deadline.

While it will take a few years to finally see who “won” this deal, both sides are benefitting from the deal and it will be interesting to see if Groshans can crack the Major Leagues next year.