Raimel Tapia

2022 - 3 - 24

Grichuk - Randal Grichuk - Tapia

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Purple Row"

Rockies trade Raimel Tapia to Blue Jays for Randal Grichuk (Purple Row)

The Rockies swap outfielders in an effort to improve offense at the plate.

Signed by the Rockies in 2019, Pinto spent his first professional season with the DSL Rockies in 2021. Tapia was originally signed by the Rockies out of the Dominican Republic in 2010 and later made his big league debut at the age of 22 in 2016. In his career, Grichuk has batted .245/.293/.473 with 156 home runs and a career 10.5 fWAR. He will now enter the mix to play center field and be a designated hitter. He spent parts of six seasons with the Rockies, including being an everyday starter from 2019 to 2021. Grichuk played in 149 games with the Toronto Blue Jays last season, batting .241/.281/.423 with 22 home runs and 81 RBI to go along with an 85 wRC+. Originally drafted in the first round by the Angels in 2009, Grichuk was traded to the Cardinals in 2013. According to Patrick Saunders, general manager Bill Schmidt feels that Grichuk will give the Rockies needed power in their offense.

Blue Jays trade Randal Grichuk to Rockies for Raimel Tapia ... (Delta-Optimist)

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Centre-fielder Randal Grichuk was traded Thursday by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Colorado Rockies. Toronto got left-fielder Raimel Tapia ...

Grichuk played four seasons for the Blue Jays after starting his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014. Tapia, 27, avoided arbitration with Colorado last week and signed a one-year, $3.95 million deal. Springer injured his quadriceps at spring training last year and missed the first 23 games of Toronto's season. The right-handed Grichuk hit .241 last season with 22 home runs, 81 runs batted in, and a .703 OPS. Tapia, a lefty, had a .273 batting average with six home runs, 50 RBIs and 20 stolen bases last season with a .699 OPS. Grichuk became expendable with George Springer beginning the season healthy and the Blue Jays' presumptive starter in centre. "Tapia is exciting.

Blue Jays-Rockies trade: Raimel Tapia to Toronto, Randal Grichuk ... (CBS sports.com)

The two teams have swapped outfielders just two weeks before Opening Day.

There's high upside here and the Blue Jays add him to the organization. Here is CBS Sports' full Blue Jays preview. According to @Feinsand, it's to the Blue Jays or Randal Grichuk. The Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies have agreed to swap outfielders. 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. We do know that Grichuk is slated to make over $10 million both in 2022 and 2023 before hitting free agency.

Blue Jays solidify their bench with trade for Raimel Tapia (Blue Jays Nation)

Grichuk was one of the first big Major League acquisitions by this front office that you thought would be a part of the team's next core.

His launch angle was -4.4 degrees; he was the only player in the league to have at least 50 batted balls and a negative launch angle, per Baseball Savant. This is really not the approach you want a hitter to be taking, especially not in Colorado where the ball flies. The Blue Jays aren’t going to turn Tapia into some type of elite slugger but if he can make marginal improvements offensively he can be someone you can trust to fill in should one of the regular outfielders go down, and not be a total black hole at the bottom of the order. He complements the team nicely as a fourth outfielder. The thought with Grichuk was he had tremendous power and if he could just cut down on the swing and miss and improve his walk rate he could be a very good player and a major part of the team’s core. Ideally, the Blue Jays can help Tapia hit a few more line drives and become more of a gap-to-gap hitter. He played enough centre field in the minors where you can trust him to play there in a pinch and not hurt you. His contact rate last season was 87.0% and his rate inside the zone was 92.7%. He swung and missed just 6.6% of the time. Tapia has played just 189.2 innings in centre in the Majors. Tapia came up as a minor leaguer as a centre fielder. He played primarily left field for the Rockies and in 952.0 innings there last year he had seven defensive runs saved. He’s a good defender, especially in right field, though he is a little miscast in centre. He was one of just 44 players to be worth three runs above average from base running. Grichuk was one of the first big Major League acquisitions by this front office that you thought would be a part of the team’s next core.

Blue Jays: Raimel Tapia shouldn't be expected to replace Randal ... (Jays Journal)

While the Blue Jays are trading Randal Grichuk to the Colorado Rockies for Raimel Tapia, the two players aren't exactly alike.

Tapia won’t bring the same rollercoaster of production and emotions to Blue Jays fans. He certainly won’t start for the Blue Jays ahead of the trio of George Springer, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Teoscar Hernandez. Tapia is a backup plan to give him a day off when needed and ensure Springer doesn’t experience the same injury-plagued season as he did a year ago. But he’s capable of playing anywhere in the outfield; while he didn’t play center often in the majors, he did appear there in more than half of his games in the minors. He won’t replace Grichuk, but for the Blue Jays, he doesn’t have to. Tapia is a player who could give one of the Blue Jays’ valuable outfielders a much-needed day off, come off the bench to steal a base (he stole a career-high 20 in 2021), and be trusted not to strike out in a key moment.

Reports: Blue Jays trade Randal Grichuk to Rockies for Raimel Tapia (Rocky Mountain Outlook)

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Centre-fielder Randal Grichuk has been traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Colorado Rockies according to several media reports.