Kevin Kiermaier

The 32-year-old left-handed hitter has spent his entire 10-year career with the Tampa Bay Rays, but only played in 63 games last season after undergoing hip ...

The Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement with veteran free agent centre fielder Kevin Kiermaier on a contract, pending a physical, according to multiple sources. Kiermaier hit .228 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs in 2022. Report: Blue Jays in agreement with CF Kiermaier, pending physical

The Toronto Blue Jays have come to terms on a contract with free agent centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier, according to a report.

Last season, he played 63 games with the Rays, batting .228 with seven home runs and 22 RBI. He was also named Platinum Glove winner in 2015. Kiermaier, who underwent hip surgery in August and arthroscopic knee surgery after the 2021 season, has spent parts of 10 seasons with the Rays, batting a career .248 with 82 home runs and 316 runs batted in.

The deal is pending a physical. It'll be just the second team Kiermaier has played for, having spent ten big league seasons with the AL East rival Rays. He ...

[George Springer](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/springe01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=&utm_medium=referral) has been handling the bulk of the work in center field in recent seasons, but there’s been speculation that he’d move to a corner spot moving forward. Signing either of those two would give the Jays a more flexible outfield group, and allow them to rotate options through the DH position as well depending on matchups, form and workload. He still ranked in the 93rd percentile in sprint speed and ranked well above league average in arm strength. That’s largely built off his early work, and since 2018 he’s put up a wRC+ of 79, 79, 94, 101 and then 90. Certainly there are ways for Toronto to duck back beneath the barrier if required — a trade of catcher [Danny Jansen](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/janseda01.shtml), for instance, would clear his [projected](https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/mlb-projected-arbitration-salaries-2023.html) $3.7MM salary and bring back help in other areas of need — but there’s no indication that ownership has placed given the front office any such mandates. Since his first full year in 2014, Kiermaier has been worth 147 Defensive Runs Saved, according to He was activated July 1, but by July 10 he was back on the IL with the same problem, which ultimately ended his season early. The offensive production amounted to a below average wRC+ of 90, but his defensive work meant he was still worth 1.1 fWAR. Injuries played a big part in Kiermaier’s 2022 season, as he landed on the IL in June with left hip inflammation. He became a free agent for the first time after the Rays declined his $13MM team option for 2023. The deal is pending a physical. 15: The Blue Jays have formally announced their one-year deal with Kiermaier.

The Toronto Blue Jays addressed one of the holes in their outfield on Saturday by agreeing to a deal with veteran Kevin Kiermaier, according to Sportsnet's ...

Kiermaier joins George Springer and Lourdes Gurriel in the Blue Jays' outfield.

[Whit Merrifield](/mlb/players/1961293/whit-merrifield/) could also figure and Springer will surely see some time in center when Kiermaier is inevitably out with an injury. As such, their outfield right now looks like [Lourdes Gurriel](/mlb/players/2431991/lourdes-gurriel/) in left, Kiermaier in center and Springer in right. Kiermaier had his 2023 option declined by the [Rays](https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/teams/TB/tampa-bay-rays/) back in November, sending him to free agency. Instead, the defensive wiz kid will make $9 million on the one-year deal, [according to the Tampa Bay Times](https://twitter.com/TBTimes_Rays/status/1603115548614615040). He's still a superior defensive center fielder, even if he's lost a step from back in 2015-17 when he was the gold standard out there. Kiermaier, 32, hit .228/.281/.369 (89 OPS+) with eight doubles, seven home runs, 22 RBI, 28 runs, six steals and 1.1 WAR in 63 games last season.

Le voltigeur Kevin Kiermaier a choisi sa prochaine destination : Toronto, qui réalise finalement sa première signature d'agent libre de l'hiver.

On sait que Kiermaier est un frappeur gaucher et que les Jays s’en cherchent un. Le joueur de champ centre a signé, selon Shi Davidi, avec les Blue Jays. Après tout, offensivement, il n’est pas exactement Teoscar Hernandez.

A long-time Tampa Bay Ray, Kiermaier is one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball.

After a quiet week at the Winter Meetings in San Diego, the Jays have added a piece to their outfield and a left-handed bat to their order.

We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Kiermaier is coming off a season disrupted by hip surgery, which limited him to 63 games. Article content

Toronto still needs a corner outfielder to make up for the production lost in the Hernández trade.

More recently, he was involved in the 2021 controversy that saw him pick up one of the Jays' data cards after it had been dropped at home plate by catcher Alejandro Kirk. At the time, it was assumed that the Jays had another move or two lined up to replace him, but it has been almost a month since that deal was completed. Even if the Jays didn’t bring in Kiermaier to become a traditional starting outfielder, he’ll likely have no shortage of opportunities. If the Jays add a corner infielder like Michael Brantley, Michael Conforto or Andrew Benintendi, this deal becomes much easier to understand. The Jays appeared to have been considering a couple of scenarios to address their outfield situation: centring their resources on one elite player, or adding two guys to fill the equivalent of one spot. He was placed on the injured list three times in 2021 with a variety of ailments and didn't appear in a game after July 9 this year because of a hip injury.