For the St. Louis Cardinals and Randal Grichuk, they agreed that it was time to part ways. The Toronto Blue Jays decided to pickup the 27 year old outfielder knowing that Grichuk still has some work to put in, but can reach his potential in a matter of his first season in Toronto. This isn't the first that the Cardinals and Blue Jays decided to make a deal with a young outfielder. The Cardinals sent there young touted outfielder to the 6th in Colby Rasmus. Rasmus never reached his potential in St.Louis but produced well enough in Toronto to be their everyday starter and to move on in his career getting the contract he wanted with another team. Randall shows a lot more promise then what Colby did. Rasmus only wanted to leave St.Louis because he didn't like how they ran the club and St.Louis didn't like his attitude and lack of performance which got him to where is he now. For Grichuk, he just needed a change of scenery for letting the Cardinals high expectations of him get to the best of him. This weakened his confidence and performance of play which got him sent down to the minors for a little bit to work on his swing, but only weakened his confidence more. Last year Grichuk played in 122 games batting .238 with 22 home runs and 59 rbi's. For his ceiling he can do a lot more. The Cardinals thought he could be a .280-300 hitter with 25-35 home runs and 80-100 rbi's but the bat never came along and got to stuck on trying to hit the long ball rather than just hitting the ball in general. Grichuk has natural power to all sides of the field with a solid glove in the outfield. With a change of scenery for Grichuk we can see that he can be more relaxed with less expectations, and can improve on his game with star players Josh Donaldson and Tulo and veteran presence Curtis Granderson to mentor him. He can now relax at the plate more be slated lower in the lineup and can expect more home runs being in the AL and for being in Toronto a hitter friendly ball park. For his defense he doesn't have to worry about running the outfield for defensive star Kevin Pillar will be in Center and Randall will be pushed to Right Field with some playing time in Center. Randall will be their everyday right fielder turning 27 in 2018 with a lot positive things to look forward too. We could see Grichuk be named the most improved player of the year in 2018 with the opportunity that he's been given and team that he's with. We can project Grichuk to play in 125-145 games batting .255-285 with 25-32 home runs and 65-85 rbi's. Grichuk still shows a lot of promise, he just needs to build his confidence up and with the move to Toronto. We can see a new 6th God emerging this season.
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