Bye Bye, Superman
One by one, the links to the Blue Jays' ALCS teams from 2015-2016 are getting shipped out. This time, it was center fielder Kevin Pillar, who was traded to the Giants for three players whose names I don't care to remember.
All that's left from those teams are Smoak (KP's best friend on the team), Stro, Sanchez, Tepera, etc. Smoak is another trade candidate because he's 32 and he's going to be a free agent after this season. Stroman and Sanchez could also be dealt by July.
We've seen the likes of Tulo, Martin and Morales leave since this past offseason. Pillar's trade hits a different note because he's our homegrown product, someone that we drafted and developed before bringing up to the bigs. I'll definitely miss him.
Pillar, the player many of us called "Superman," has been a human highlight reel in the outfield. When he got his first regular action in the majors in 2015, he did have a few games in lef field. And for all the great things he did as CF, my all-time favorite Kevin Pillar catch is the second one in the clip below from the 2015 season, the one he made as LF.
He was a Gold Glove finalist in 2015, 2016 and 2017 at CF. I think he was robbed in 2016, with Kevin Kiermaier winning his second straight despite playing in only 105 games that year and making, in my mind, less defensive impact than KP. Maybe reputation from the previous season came into play...? I dunno.
Advanced metrics showed Pillar's defense slipped a bit in 2018. Though he's been a durable player, appearing in at least 142 games every year from 2015-2018, KP has often played with little regard for his personal safety, crashing into walls and diving all over the place to make plays. He's 30 this year and probably an old 30. And because he's always been a below-average hitter in his career, despite some gap power (35+ doubles in each of the past three seasons), KP has virtually no value to offer to this particular Blue Jays team unless he keeps playing Gold Glove-worthy defense.
In some ways, this trade brings to the mind DeMar DeRozan deal. Not saying we're getting someone like Kawhi or Danny Green, of course. Just that while both trades are tough to swallow emotionally, you have to admit they were a great basketball trade and a great baseball trade.
DeMar loved being in Toronto, So did Kevin. He was also active in the community, and the fans really embraced him.
Just watch his emotional farewell to the city.
We got the best years out of Pillar. I don't think he'll ever be the defender that he was in 2015-2017, and he won't hit like he did in those years, either. Moving from hitter-friendlySkyDome Rogers Centre to the Giants' AT&T Park Oracle Park doesn't help, either. And both teams are rebuilding.
A couple of positives, though. Kevin is a Cali boy and he's moving closer to home. Plus he'll be playing for Bruce Bochy, by all accounts one of the game's finest managers. Too bad this is Bochy's final season.
Meanwhile, hours after this trade, the Jays signed Randal Grichuk to a five-year extension worth $52 million. A couple years younger than KP, a better power hitter and some say a better center fielder who was only playing right field because KP was already there.
Anthony Alford will get some looks at CF, with Grichuk also expected to spend some time there.
On a closing note: we host the Giants just three weeks from now, April 23-24. Before looking up the schedule, I didn't think we would get any games against the Giants this year even in interleague play, for they're in NL West et al.
Hopefully, Pillar will be in the starting lineup so he'll get the great welcome that he deserves from our fans.
The attendance, predictably, has been pretty bad since the Opening Day... Just about 10K against the O's yesterday and about 12,000 today. But when Pillar is in town, I hope at least 25,000 will show up for one of those two games. That's not really asking much.
All that's left from those teams are Smoak (KP's best friend on the team), Stro, Sanchez, Tepera, etc. Smoak is another trade candidate because he's 32 and he's going to be a free agent after this season. Stroman and Sanchez could also be dealt by July.
We've seen the likes of Tulo, Martin and Morales leave since this past offseason. Pillar's trade hits a different note because he's our homegrown product, someone that we drafted and developed before bringing up to the bigs. I'll definitely miss him.
Pillar, the player many of us called "Superman," has been a human highlight reel in the outfield. When he got his first regular action in the majors in 2015, he did have a few games in lef field. And for all the great things he did as CF, my all-time favorite Kevin Pillar catch is the second one in the clip below from the 2015 season, the one he made as LF.
He was a Gold Glove finalist in 2015, 2016 and 2017 at CF. I think he was robbed in 2016, with Kevin Kiermaier winning his second straight despite playing in only 105 games that year and making, in my mind, less defensive impact than KP. Maybe reputation from the previous season came into play...? I dunno.
Advanced metrics showed Pillar's defense slipped a bit in 2018. Though he's been a durable player, appearing in at least 142 games every year from 2015-2018, KP has often played with little regard for his personal safety, crashing into walls and diving all over the place to make plays. He's 30 this year and probably an old 30. And because he's always been a below-average hitter in his career, despite some gap power (35+ doubles in each of the past three seasons), KP has virtually no value to offer to this particular Blue Jays team unless he keeps playing Gold Glove-worthy defense.
In some ways, this trade brings to the mind DeMar DeRozan deal. Not saying we're getting someone like Kawhi or Danny Green, of course. Just that while both trades are tough to swallow emotionally, you have to admit they were a great basketball trade and a great baseball trade.
DeMar loved being in Toronto, So did Kevin. He was also active in the community, and the fans really embraced him.
Just watch his emotional farewell to the city.
We got the best years out of Pillar. I don't think he'll ever be the defender that he was in 2015-2017, and he won't hit like he did in those years, either. Moving from hitter-friendly
A couple of positives, though. Kevin is a Cali boy and he's moving closer to home. Plus he'll be playing for Bruce Bochy, by all accounts one of the game's finest managers. Too bad this is Bochy's final season.
Meanwhile, hours after this trade, the Jays signed Randal Grichuk to a five-year extension worth $52 million. A couple years younger than KP, a better power hitter and some say a better center fielder who was only playing right field because KP was already there.
Anthony Alford will get some looks at CF, with Grichuk also expected to spend some time there.
On a closing note: we host the Giants just three weeks from now, April 23-24. Before looking up the schedule, I didn't think we would get any games against the Giants this year even in interleague play, for they're in NL West et al.
Hopefully, Pillar will be in the starting lineup so he'll get the great welcome that he deserves from our fans.
The attendance, predictably, has been pretty bad since the Opening Day... Just about 10K against the O's yesterday and about 12,000 today. But when Pillar is in town, I hope at least 25,000 will show up for one of those two games. That's not really asking much.
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