Blue Jays ink Grichuk to five-year extension

The Toronto Blue Jays are banking on Randal Grichuk’s potential.

The team announced prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles that they have signed the 27-year old outfielder to a five-year, $52 million contract extension with no team options or opt-outs for the player.

The deal will increase his salary from $5 million to $7 million plus a $5 million signing bonus in 2019. He will then make $12 million next season, and $9.33 million in each of the next three years in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Although he hasn’t quite figured it out offensively, the team believes in his talent and potential to become a quality MLB player heading into his prime years.

“The offence has always stood out, he’s always performed, he’s always hit the ball hard and he’s always hit it far and it usually goes over the fence at a pretty good rate. In our view he’s been an above-average defender and those are hard things to piece together,” said Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins about the reasoning behind extending Grichuk.

“It really is much easier … to recommend it to our ownership when you know the commitment from a teammate and a professionalism standpoint and you’re not worried about off the field distractions, you’re not worried about his commitment or desire to be great. That makes it a lot easier to push things forward.”

Grichuk, who was acquired in an offseason deal with the St.Louis Cardinals in January 2018, posted a .245 batting average, .801 OPS, a career-high 25 homers, and 61 RBI over a span of 124 games in his first season with the club last year.

So far in 2019, he has hit .118 with a homer and two RBI in 20 plate appearances.