With no clear role, Jason Grilli no longer needed on Blue Jays

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons explains the difficulty in the decision to designate pitcher Jason Grilli for assignment.

TORONTO — Give Jason Grilli credit: he packed more memorable moments into his year-plus in Toronto than just about anyone could have expected.

Soon after the Blue Jays acquired him for since-released minor-leaguer Sean Ratcliffe, Grilli embarked on a strikeout and fist pump-filled summer that saved a beleaguered bullpen and endeared him to Toronto fans. Grilli followed that up with five scoreless outings in the post-season, as the Blue Jays returned to the ALCS.

By the time the 2017 season began, Grilli’s spot as setup man seemed so secure that the Blue Jays sold his signature grilled cheese sandwich at Rogers Centre and scheduled a “Fire Up The Grilli” apron giveaway for June 18.

But on the mound, Grilli regressed quickly, allowing home runs to nine of the 95 hitters he faced. If any trust in the 40-year-old remained after he allowed four home runs to the Yankees on June 3, it disappeared Friday when he blew a save against the Royals.

The Blue Jays determined that they were better off with Chris Smith, and designated Grilli for assignment, removing him from the roster and effectively ending his tenure in Toronto. Tuesday afternoon at Rogers Centre, manager John Gibbons delivered the news.

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“He’s one of the good guys,” Gibbons said. “Those are always tough — extra tough.”

Really, Grilli’s usefulness disappeared the moment the Blue Jays stopped trusting him in high-leverage spots. He’s ill-equipped to pitch mop-up innings at this stage in his career because he doesn’t pitch multiple innings and he doesn’t pitch on back-to-back days.

Still, the Blue Jays gave him chances in the hopes that’d he’d become a viable late-inning option again. Gradually, those chances became harder to find, as Joe Smith, Ryan Tepera and Danny Barnes handled high-leverage innings effectively,

More to the point, Grilli’s stuff wasn’t nearly as effective. While his fastball still sits around 93 m.p.h, the slider that induced so many swinging strikes in 2016 lost its effectiveness. Hitters have swung and missed at the slider in 2017 just 9.2 per cent of the time compared to 15.2 per cent last year. Of the 141 sliders Grilli threw this year, six ended up leaving the yard.

To be fair, Grilli still strikes out more than a batter per inning, and most pitchers his age retired long ago. It’s been a while since we saw Kerry Wood, Ted Lilly or Kelvim Escobar take a big-league mound and those pitchers were all born within a year of Grilli. That’s a testament to his continued big-league success.

At this point his bags are packed, their next destination still to be determined. Considering his $3-million salary and 6.97 ERA, Grilli’s likely to clear waivers at which point he’ll be free to sign with another team for the MLB minimum.

“Maybe he’ll go somewhere and do for somebody what he did for us last year,” Gibbons said.

In the meantime, the Blue Jays will attempt to follow the advice of their former setup man. Before leaving the ballpark Tuesday, Grilli left a parting message for his teammates on the nameplate above his locker: “Stay in the fight.”

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