Blue Jays Address Lefty Issue in Economic Fashion

The Toronto Blue Jays have been said to be looking to balance out their righty heavy lineup and they’ve done so without breaking the bank

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The Toronto Blue Jays ended the 2021 season with a lineup that was heavily skewed to the right side of the plate. All offseason, we’d heard varying reports on just how hard they were pursuing players to address this issue. Some saying that they were absolutely dead set on getting a left handed hitter and others saying that it would be nice, but not a priority. Well, with the 2022 season about to begin, it looks like the truth was somewhere in the middle.

It should be acknowledged that the roster moves that were made may not necessarily reflect the efforts that took place during the offseason. There are likely many moves the club could have made, but for whatever reason, they did not. For example, we’d heard that Toronto was “in” on Corey Seager before he signed in Texas. As well, there was the rumour that captivated all of MLB for a period of time and that was Freddie Freeman. Obviously, landing either one of these would have shown just how desperate focused on a lefty the club was. As we all know, neither worked out and we will likely never know the extent to which Toronto was “in” on them.

Despite the two above stars not signing in Toronto, there was clearly at least some focus on balancing out the lineup. According to Fangraphs, the projected lineup, 3 of Toronto’s 4 bench players are lefty hitters to go along with Cavan Biggio. Reese McGuire, Greg Bird and Raimel Tapia will join Santiago Espinal, who is the only righty bench bat. Unlike the potential major contractual commitments that Seager or Freeman would have required, these bench bats didn’t cost the Blue Jays nearly as much and are likely to yield solid returns for the little investment they cost.

For his part, McGuire really didn’t cost the Blue Jays anything except a roster spot. He will make the league minimum and won’t hit arbitration until 2023. The cost to add him was paid long ago. He is perfectly acceptable as a backup catcher and will provide days off to either Danny Jansen or Alejandro Kirk, who looks to be set to occupy the DH spot. Of course, if Kirk is dealt, then McGuire’s value increases.

Tapia (along with Adrian Pinto) was acquired in exchange for Randal Grichuk and nearly $10M. Depending on just how much of a fan of Grichuk you were, the cost of this deal might look different. If you’re a fan of Grichuk, it might appear that the Blue Jays gave up too much. However, if you consider that he was the 4th outfielder on this Blue Jays roster, it looks a little less expensive. In Tapia, the Blue Jays actually acquired the skill set they actually need for their roster. They needed a real 4th outfielder and Tapia is as close to that as they could get, certainly closer to that than Grichuk was.

Tapia provides speed, for sure. That is incredibly valuable late in a game, as is his solid defense from the outfield. While he hasn’t played much CF in the big leagues, he should be capable of filling in for George Springer better than Grichuk. That’s on the surface. Below the surface is a hitting project screaming to be taken on. For a complete explanation of why this is the case, I suggest you watch this video: