TORONTO — He referred to himself as an old penny that keeps being circulated, and to extend that metaphor a little further it must be said that Jason Grilli is no longer money in the bank when it comes to closing out baseball games.
But here’s the payoff: the Toronto Blue Jays aren’t counting on him for, say, 24 saves the way the 2015 Atlanta Braves did. What they will do with the 39-year-old right-hander, at least initially, is in the words of manager John Gibbons “get a look at him a little later in games and see how he pitches.”
Translation: the Blue Jays’ latest trade acquisition is not expected to be a bullpen saviour. What he is expected to do is provide a little leadership and get the odd strikeout. Ground balls may be more democratic than strikeouts, in the words of Bull Durham’s Crash Davis, but the Blue Jays bullpen needs to be a little more dictatorial late in innings. They’ve taken democracy to the extreme through the first two months of the season.
Grilli made his Blue Jays debut in the seventh inning of Wednesday 7-0 win over the New York Yankees, coming on in relief of Aaron Sanchez to face Carlos Beltran with two out. Grilli was charged with an error on a pick-out attempt of Ronald Torreyes at second base, but induced Beltran to line out to Kevin Pillar and end the inning.
Grilli has had a wobbly 2016 with the Braves, pitching to an earned-run average of 5.29 despite holding right-handed hitters to a .190 average. One year removed from posting a WHIP of 1.129 and striking out 45 batters in 33 2/3 innings until he blew out his Achilles fielding a ground ball, his velocity has diminished but the Blue Jays believe they are catching him on the upswing, in which case they better hope that one of Grilli’s former manager’s observations hold true.
“I know this about Jason,” Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said after Grilli was traded to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2014. “Every time a new opportunity has come to him, he has been able to find another gear.”
Grilli was acquired for minor league pitcher Sean Ratcliffe in a largely cash-neutral deal. The Blue Jays are his ninth team in 14 years and he has now matched a feat shared by others, among them Ken Griffey, Jr.: Grilli has played for two of the teams his father, pitcher Steve Grilli, also played for in the Detroit Tigers and Blue Jays.
Grilli made the 2013 All-Star Game as closer for the Pirates, when current Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin was his catcher. Martin saw the best of times with Grilli; he also saw the worst, when the popular Grilli lost his closer’s job with the Pirates in June 2014, after an early-season oblique injury.
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins cited Martin’s endorsement of Grilli as being a factor in Tuesday’s trade.
“I thanked him and up down,” Grilli said of Martin. “I told him I knew he had something to do with me being over here.”
So Grilli is a good teammate and will fill the bullpen sheriff’s role left vacant when LaTroy Hawkins retired, which is all fine and well. But can he pitch? Does he still have the swing and miss capabilities that the Blue Jays need in the backend of their bullpen? Twenty-three strikeouts through 17 innings is not bad; the 13 walks – er, not so much.
Martin admitted Grilli’s now getting by more on craft and guile than power, but he likes his chances of contributing in some role.
“What I remember most about him in Pittsburgh was he had the ability to alter his leg kick, to do things that would mess up the hitter’s timing,” said Martin. “He does things, you know? He’s got a little slide-step, for example, and what that does is allow him to get a lot of swings and misses on high fastballs.”
One thing is clear: Grilli instantly upgrades the quality of interviews on his teams. Perched atop the back of the dugout bench on Wednesday, he waxed about leadership, the influence of former teammates such as Robb Nen and Todd Jones and, perhaps surprisingly, slugger Gary Sheffield, who is his agent.
“Sheff asked me one time why I was always hanging around the hitters,” Grilli said. “I told him, ‘I got to get you guys out.’”
It was to Sheffield that Grilli reached out during his recovery from one of his many injuries, after splitting with his agent at the time. Sheffield said he would represent him only after he visited Sheffield in Tampa “so I can take a look in your eyes.”
Grilli suggested that it was part of his destiny to be with the Blue Jays. His father’s tavern, ‘A Change of Pace,’ is located in Syracuse and was an old hangout for Blue Jays executives and coaches when the team’s triple-A franchise was located in that city. And Grilli said he heard rumours last season that the Blue Jays were interested in acquiring him, revealing he also seriously considered signing with the Blue Jays as a free agent in the winter of 2012 and again before last season. On both occasions, their due diligence returned glowing reports.
“We talked a couple of years ago about signing him as a free agent,” Gibbons said. “You know Alex (Anthopoulos, the former Blue Jays GM), the way he talks to everyone. Looks at every angle.”
And so welcome Jason Grilli, who says all the right things — who talks about how inherited runners scored is now a bigger deal to him than strikeouts (you can almost hear the Blue Jays starters weeping) and how he knows that “pitching in the American League, you better have your breaking stuff working.”
With all due respect to Clint Hurdle, the Blue Jays don’t need him to find another gear. Some strikeouts would be nice, is all. Just some good, old, fascist strikeouts.