DUNEDIN, Fla. – The disappointment of the ALCS loss faded as the off-season wore on, and Jason Grilli arrived at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium for his first spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays expecting even bigger things.
“We left some meat on the bone, but you look around here and you go: ‘Why not again?’” Grilli said.
That sort of optimism was nowhere to be found when Grilli first joined the Blue Jays in a trade for minor-league right-hander Sean Ratcliffe at the end of last May. He was recovering from a 2015 Achilles injury on an Atlanta Braves team that won just seven of its first 31 games. At the time, he was 39 with a 5.29 ERA and a career-worst walk rate, so expectations were muted. And yet as soon as he arrived in Toronto, his season turned around.
“I draw that from all the guys here,” Grilli said. “I walked into this clubhouse last year and there was an edge, there was a swag, not so much an arrogance, but just a very known confidence when you look around the room, the names on the lockers and you go: ‘This is a team.’ It’s easy to absorb that and buy into that.”
To the surprise of many, Grilli soon established himself as one of the Blue Jays’ most trusted relievers. He assumed a setup role in Toronto’s bullpen, posting a 3.64 ERA over 42 innings. He struck out 58 hitters after the trade, and when one of those punchouts ended an inning, an emphatic mound celebration would often follow.
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“I always try to have fun, man,” Grilli said. “I try to challenge guys to have more fun than me because if you can’t have fun doing what you’re doing—I’m passionate, I put everything into it that I possibly can—if you don’t have fun doing something that you love, it’s not worth doing.”
After clinching a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season, the Blue Jays won the Wild Card game then swept the Texas Rangers to advance to the ALCS. Along the way, Grilli built on his regular season success with five scoreless relief appearances.
“It’s a season to be celebrated,” he said. “We fell short of the goal that everybody has come spring training, but just from me personally where I started to being on a contending team it was certainly a monumental season.”
Once the season ended the Blue Jays exercised Grilli’s $3-million club option, a decision that general manager Ross Atkins called “as near to a no-brainer as you’ll find.”
Months later, the Blue Jays are preparing for another push for the playoffs. Many, like Grilli, have enough first-hand experience to know they’ll need a whole lot to go right to build on the successes of 2015 and 2016. Even those who don’t can surely see that their division projects as one of baseball’s deepest.
“The AL East is a big heavyweight fight every night,” Grilli said. “We’re going to go slug it out like we did last year. There’s no other way.”