The Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies have agreed to swap outfielders. The Rockies are getting Randal Grichuk while the Blue Jays are getting Raimel Tapia. Teenage prospect Adrian Pinto also goes from the Rockies to Blue Jays in the deal while the Jays are sending some cash to the Rockies, the teams announced Thursday.
It looks like Tapia found out when everyone else did, too.
Tapia, 28, hit .273/.327/.372 (80 OPS+) with 26 doubles, two triples, six homers, 50 RBI, 69 runs, 20 steals and 1.0 WAR in 133 games for the Rockies last season. He’s mostly played left field in his career, but was slated to play right for the Rockies and that’s where he’ll likely take over for Grichuk with the Blue Jays.
Of course, the Blue Jays could also play Teoscar Hernández in right field, which would open up designated hitter at-bats for someone who wasn’t previously slated as a starter (Alejandro Kirk or Greg Bird?).
Grichuk, 30, hit .241/.281/.423 (89 OPS+) with 25 doubles, 22 homers, 81 RBI, 59 runs and 0.8 WAR for the Blue Jays in 149 games last season. He’ll likely just slide into right field.
Being this late in spring training, seeing a swap like this is pretty surprising. Perhaps there are more moves in the works from the Blue Jays.
We do know that Grichuk is slated to make over $10 million both in 2022 and 2023 before hitting free agency. Tapia is set to make $3.95 million this season and has one more year of arbitration before hitting free agency. The Blue Jays did send some money to the Rockies, but it’s possible this was at least partially to save some money while looking to maximize the franchise’s resources somewhere else.
As for Pinto, the 19-year-old Venezuelan plays second, shortstop and outfield. He hit .360/.487/.543 with 41 stolen bases in 54 games in the Dominican Summer League last season, his first in professional baseball. There’s high upside here and the Blue Jays add him to the organization.
The Blue Jays went 91-71 last season, missing the playoffs by one game, and were aggressive in the offseason while pushing to return to the playoffs. Here is CBS Sports’ full Blue Jays preview.
