Toronto Blue Jays: Granderson signing another sign of Jays 2018 direction

The Toronto Blue Jays made a signing on Monday that confirmed the path that they’ve been taking this offseason.

Coming into the 2017-2018 offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays were truly at a crossroads. With a number of valuable trade assets and some youth ready in the upper minors, the Jays were in a good position to consider more of a “re-tool” than a full scale rebuild. However, those players, when all healthy, could take the team to the playoffs, and with some minor additions, the team could even have some success in those playoffs.

After entertaining offers for multiple players on the roster through the early part of the offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays have made a few moves now to show that they are definitely taking the latter strategy.

Previous moves

The first MLB move of the offseason didn’t really rattle any cages as a trade for a backup infielder rarely does, with the Blue Jays sending cash considerations to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gift Ngoepe. Ditto for picking up Rob Refsnyder off of waivers from the Indians.

The team started making some changes when they traded a player to be named for infielder Aledmys Diaz from the St. Louis Cardinals.

As the calendar changed to 2018, the Blue Jays were one of the first moves, trading away two prospects for Padres infielder Yangervis Solarte.

Many thought the acquisition of Solarte would preclude the return of Josh Donaldson, and trade rumors began to really fly around the All-Star third baseman until Friday, when the Blue Jays signed him for a record arbitration deal of $23 million.

Granderson’s fit

The deal with Donaldson was the shot across the bow that truly indicated to the rest of baseball that the Toronto Blue Jays would be competing in 2018. Signing Curtis Granderson was the second.

Many have thought for some time that Granderson would be an excellent fit with the Blue Jays. The team preaches patience and swinging with intention, even if that leads to some strikeouts.

There’s few in the league who embody that better than Granderson, who may not hit .300, but he still walks at a high rate (13.5% in 2017), keeps his strikeouts in check (23.3% in 2017), and puts the ball in the air with hard contact.

Granderson had one of the lowest rates of ground balls to fly balls in the majors in 2017 (5th lowest in MLB among qualified hitters), the 4th highest fly ball rate with 48.8%, and had just 17.8% of his contact for soft contact, with 47.1% “medium” contact and 35.3% hard contact.

Granderson could fill a leadoff spot that was filled most often in 2017 by Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista. Bautista is a free agent. Pillar sported just a 5.2% walk rate, with a lower on base than Granderson, in spite of having a batting average 40+ points higher.

If it all crashes down

Last season, the Blue Jays followed up a very successful 2016 with an injury-riddled 2017 and found their depth behind those injured players to be less than adequate replacements. Their first deals this winter certainly shores that issue up as the middle infield was the biggest issue for the Blue Jays in health the last few years.

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However, if the Blue Jays come out and absolutely stink, they really can return to the initial “re-tool” decision fairly easy at midseason the way that they have structured the team.

Granderson’s deal was for 1 year and $5 million. The Jays also have J.A. Happ, Donaldson, Marco Estrada, Steve Pearce, and Aaron Loup each on their last season before free agency.

The Blue Jays also have some very valuable chips that are either headed toward an affordable option year or into arbitration for the 2019 season. Justin Smoak has a $6 million 2019 option with a $250,000 buyout. Solarte has two more options left at $5.5 million and $8 million for 2019 and 2020.

Arbitration players that could bring back a decent haul and may not be in the team’s long term plans may be Devon Travis, Ezequiel Carrera, Pillar, or Joe Biagini.

While Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin may be near impossible to move with $20 million 2019 contracts, Kendrys Morales only has one more year on his deal after 2018 for $12 million, so he could also be moved if the season ends up belly-up.

Next: Donaldson's ripple effect on the game

While the team has committed to their success in 2018, the Toronto Blue Jays have done an excellent job of leaving the door open if the worse would occur rather than backing themselves into a competitive-only corner.