Blue Jays free agent target: Randal Grichuk

There is a reunion out there that makes perfect sense for the Toronto Blue Jays.

If you told me back in 2022 that I would have uttered the phrase “the Blue Jays should bring back Randal Grichuk”, I would have called you crazy. But thanks to Grichuk becoming one of the best LHP mashing outfielders in baseball and the Blue Jays’ inability to hit southpaws in 2026, here we are.

Back during the 2017-18 off-season, the Blue Jays landed outfielder Randal Grichuk from the St. Louis Cardinals. Grichuk spent four seasons with the Blue Jays before he was traded. Since then, he’s bounced around the league.

He’s the exact type of player the Blue Jays’ bench needs.

Randal Grichuk’s profile

Grichuk was acquired in the winter of 2017 for Dominic Leone and Conner Green. He immediately gave the 2018 Jays some pop, hitting 26 home runs in 462 plate appearances. In 2019, a rebuilding season for the Jays, Grichuk hit a career-high 31 home runs over 628 plate appearances.

He remained productive, albeit streaky, over the next two seasons. With the team suffering a handful of injuries to begin the 2021 season, Grichuk’s production helped the team win some games, slashing .305/.346/.508 with six home runs over his first 127 plate appearances. 

Eventually, he tailed off, and shortly before the 2022 season, he was traded. The Blue Jays sent Grichuk to the Colorado Rockies for Raimel Tapia and prospect Adrian Pinto. That marked the beginning of the journeyman portion of Grichuk’s career.

Grichuk served as an everyday player with the Rockies, slashing .259/.299/.425 with 19 home runs in 538 plate appearances with the team in 2022. He began the 2023 season slashing .308/.365/.496 with eight home runs in 263 plate appearances, but before the 2023 trade deadline, Grichuk was sent to the Los Angeles Angels.

His numbers with the team that drafted him one spot before Mike Trout weren’t great, but Grichuk rebounded in 2024 while serving as a platoon player. With the Arizona Diamondbacks, 163 of Grichuk’s 279 plate appearances were against left-handed pitchers, where he batted .319 with six of his 12 home runs for a 152 wRC+.

Grichuk had a subpar 2025 season, especially after he was traded to the Kansas City Royals, but yet again bounced back the following season. Mainly spending this most recent season with the Chicago White Sox, the outfielder slashed .299/.328/.598 with 15 home runs in 247 plate appearances, good for a 152 wRC+. His 1.7 fWAR was the highest mark of his career since his 2018 season.

The outfielder has always been a better hitter against southpaws, but he’s taken it to a whole new level since departing the Blue Jays. In his five seasons since the trade, Grichuk has finished with a batting average of with a batting average and wRC+ of .315 and 140 respectively in four of the five years.

Looking at the Blue Jays’ numbers from last season, it’s safe to say they could’ve used Grichuk. Overall, they slashed .229/.298/.361 with 44 home runs and an 85 wRC+ in 1777 plate appearances against southpaws. They ranked bottom five in MLB in all five of those statistics.

The fit on the roster is a bit more difficult. Anthony Santander and Addison Barger should be back next season, and there’s a good chance they add a free agent bat in the off-season, such as Seiya Suzuki or Teruaki Satō. Brett Bateman and Nathan Lukes will also likely be on the roster.

There is a way to get around this, of course. Barger is capable of playing both right field and third base, which allows the team to use the platoon of Lukes and Grichuk on those days. Lukes is also capable of playing centre field, so essentially Grichuk would be taking Straw’s spot in the lineup.

Grichuk’s tenure as a Blue Jay wasn’t great, especially after the pandemic, but bringing him in as a left-handed pitching masher is a good idea.