5:47pm: The Blue Jays and Braves have both announced the trade.
4:02pm: The Blue Jays and Braves have agreed to a deal that will send right-hander Jason Grilli from Atlanta to Toronto in exchange for right-hander Sean Ratcliffe, reports Baseball Essential’s Robert Murray (links to Murray on Twitter). Additionally, he tweets that the Jays will pay Grilli the pro-rated portion of the league minimum for the remainder of the season, with the Braves paying the rest of his salary. Grilli has a base salary of $3.5MM, meaning Atlanta will still pay him $2.37MM, while the Jays are now on the hook for $344K plus a $250K buyout on his $3MM club option for the 2017 season.
Grilli, 39, is off to a rough start to his 2016 campaign but gives Toronto an experienced arm to add to the back of its bullpen. In 17 innings this year, he’s posted a 5.29 ERA with 23 strikeouts against 13 walks (one intentional). That control (or lack thereof) has been Grilli’s primary undoing, but he enjoyed plenty of success in the Atlanta bullpen as recently as last year, when he logged a 2.94 ERA and 24 saves in 33 2/3 innings before an Achilles injury prematurely ended his season. Grilli’s club option for the 2017 season is for $3MM, so if he’s able to right the ship with the Jays as he nears his 40th birthday, he’ll be an affordable piece for next season.
While he’s struggled for much of the 2016 season, Grilli worked to a strong 3.07 ERA with 11.9 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and 72 saves from 2011-15 with the Pirates, Angels and Braves, so there’s some reason to believe that he could rebound with a change of scenery. Then again, his velocity is down more than two miles per hour from last season, and his ground-ball rate is at an all-time-low 18.9 percent this year — a bad trend to exhibit for any player, let alone one that is moving to the homer-friendly Rogers Centre in Toronto. The prospect price, though, isn’t exactly steep in this deal, and the Jays are taking on a just a small portion of Grilli’s salary, so the risk they’re assuming is rather minimal.
The 21-year-old Ratcliffe has yet to climb higher than Low-A ball in his career. Toronto selected him in the 18th round of the 2013 draft, and he’s posted a 4.91 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9 in 62 1/3 professional innings. Baseball America’s Vince Lara-Cinisomo writes that Ratcliffe has a fastball that will touch 93 mph and a “decent” slider with plenty of room for projection as a converted catcher with a 6’4″, 200-pound frame.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlanta to Toronto*
“23 walks against 13 walks”
Also:
*23 walks against 13 walks
Also:
From Atlanta to Toronto in exchange for right-hander Sean Ratcliffe is*
Ok. Not too dissapointed. Jays need bullpen help the most but we can’t give up any more big prospects so i’m pretty happy. if it goes that way. Mostly a low risk trade.
Nobody is risking anything. The real value in this for the Blue Jays is maybe Grilli can rediscover some of his value. Despite his 5.29 era, he’s been not terrible his last 10 innings.
For the Braves, they open up a slot for a young pitcher who needs to develop at the major league level
For who tho?
Pentecost? Guerrero Jr.?
Lol no way
Yeah, why not follow up by flipping Aybar for Giolito and Trea Turner?
It was a joke. Lololololol
Yeah, I doubt that.
Probably some 26 year old playing double a. Definitely not a top prospect like you suggested
Probably this. As much as I’d like to hope the Braves gets something nice in return I’m sure this will be similar to the Chacin deal with LAA.
nice wonder who it is. Opens the door for Simmons when he is ready to return. Can’t believe it is much. I don’t know if they have a pick or international bonus slots available.
They mighty Maple Ginger Canadian that is Sean Ratcliffe. Control problems to go with K’s. Best news: no more hearing anything about grilled cheeses.
Nope, this is NOT what Toronto needed to do. Grilli’s done, and will likely lose a few more games in late innings before the Jays realize it.
Man, how much would they like to have Miguel Castro and Jeff Hoffman back …
Thank god. Grilli was terrible. It was a rare occurrence for him to have a clean inning.
Salary dump.
Except the Barves are paying his entire salary.
Jays are on the hook for roughly $500k, the Braves are paying over $2M. How is that a salary dump?
Yeah, not gonna lie, I posted that comment before the figures came out. I assumed it would be a salary dump. Do not understand this one but. Only thing I can assume is Simmons is just about back and they had to chose someone they surely did not want.
It’s not. It’s the Braves dumping a vet and opening a roster spot for youth from there system.
Hope he gives Blue Jays the 2015 form he gave us Braves fans.
Think this is the start of small pieces being dealt by Atlanta, KJ will probably be next.
Jays give up relatively unknown prospect, Sean Ratcliffe
Gotta be some type of bonus slot money or pick coming back
” The Blue Jays and Braves have agreed to a deal that will send right-hander Jason Grilli from Toronto to Atlanta…”
I assume you meant that Jason Grilli will be sent from Atlanta to Toronto, and not vice versa.
The math doesn’t add up – if the Jays are paying 345k this season and a 250 K buyout how is atlanta saving 2.4 million?
*** Does the money portion make sense or am I missing something? How does Atlanta save money on this deal?
I reckon the Braves were planning on DFA’ing Grilli when Shae Simmon returned and they were able to work a deal where they get something back and spend the same amount of $$$
Might be some international bonus slot $$$ coming in too maybe?
Good call.
Why pay his whole salary if you still didn’t get much of a prospect back? We that hard up for big league roster spots?
There has to be some decent inning left in that arm. He`s bounced back before when everyone thought he was done.
When he came to the Angels in 2014 we had the best record in baseball. What will he do for the jays. O wait be old and suck this toronto bullpen sucks Loup, Cecil,Storen,Girodo and only osuna. Well I guess this a smart move the braves bullpen is even better, dang.
# bad bullpen
Man, how much is Atlanta paying guys to not play for them?
Man, that is the truth. So sent Grilli packing to say just over half a million.
baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/2015-payroll-sala…
He won’t be any worse than anyone other than Roberto Osuna in the Jays bullpen this year, they have to try something, nobody is trading stud relievers at this point in the season, or even later in the season for some stud prospects. Low risk move by Jays, about all they can do right now, maybe the veteran will help right the bullpen in some way through either leadership or performance.
Does this mean they may be considering extending Sanchez innings limit? or trying to offload Storen? i dont see the need for 4 backenders in the bullpen (Osuna, Storen, Sanchez and Grilli).
GM Atkins said they wouldn’t limit Sanchez innings, they would watch for signs of fatigue late in the year. There has been Storen rumours obviously, and 7 NL scouts according to reports were watching him, but I don’t see them trading him unless they eat pretty much all his 8.3 million, Storen’s off speed stuff has looked great, problem is, his fastball has topped out at 92 without command, if he could figure that out he’d been fine.
Too bad for Ratcliffe, though.
His hometown is Ajax, Ont., a suburb of Toronto. This kills his dream of being a Blue Jay…
Not being better at baseball killed that…
Vizcaino is the closer…….at least until Simmons is back. But he had a minor setback in his rehab (triceps issue)…….so it could be a few weeks, then ease him into action. Simmons can sure bring it (similar to Kimbrel)