The Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies have swapped outfielders according to Matt Snyder of CBS Sports on Thursday. The Blue Jays acquired left fielder Raimel Tapia of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic and Venezuelan shortstop prospect Adrian Pinto for outfielder Randal Grichuk of Rosenberg, Texas.
Tapia batted .273 with six home runs and 50 runs batted in with the Rockies in 2021. In 487 at bats, he scored 69 runs, and had 133 hits, 26 doubles, two triples, 20 stolen bases, 40 walks, 181 total bases, four sacrifice flies, and one sacrifice bunt. Tapia had career highs in runs, hits, doubles, runs batted in, stolen bases, walks, total bases and sacrifice flies. The Blue Jays must also like the fact that Tapia had an impressive .321 batting average in the coronavirus-shortened 2020 Major League Baseball regular season.
Where Tapia has the edge over Grichuk is consistency. Last season Grichuk only batted only .241, which was 32 percentage points less than Tapia. Where Grichuk has the edge over Tapia is power, where he had 22 home runs and now gets to hit in the hitter friendly ball park of Coors Field in Denver.
It is not overly surprising the Blue Jays went after Tapia. That is because Tapia bats lefthanded. Heading into the season, the Blue Jays have a righthanded heavy lineup. Expect Tapia to be a fourth outfielder in Toronto as he play behind Teoscar Hernandez, George Springer, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
