7:40 pm: Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins says the surgery is related to Gurriel’s hamate bone, per McGrath.
5:46 pm: Per Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic, Blue Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. underwent surgery on his left wrist today. He’s expected to be ready for Spring Training.
Gurriel spent 2022 as Toronto’s primary left fielder, slashing .291/.343/.400 (114 wRC+) in 121 games this season. With just 5 home runs in 2022, Gurriel saw his power evaporate this season. Gurriel had hit at least 11 home runs in every season of his career prior to this year, with 21 homers in 2021 being the most he had hit in a season, and his second time eclipsing 20 home runs in a season. The news that he had been dealing with a wrist issue this season may provide an explanation for this power outage.
While his power dipped in 2022, Gurriel’s season wasn’t a total loss. He still posted the 51st lowest strikeout rate in the majors among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances along with the best wRC+ in a full season of his career, though he fared better during the shortened 2020 season (134 wRC+) as well as during his 84 games played in 2019 (125 wRC+).
Headed into the offseason, Gurriel’s hold on the everyday left field job in Toronto already seemed tenuous, with the outfield being a clear place where the Blue Jays could improve their offense going into 2023. With Gurriel expected to be ready for spring training, there’s little reason to think the surgery changes the front office’s calculus, but it’s still likely that Toronto looks for upgrades at the outfield corners this offseason, with the likes of David Peralta, Joc Pederson, and Mitch Haniger among potential options.
Regardless of any potential additions to Toronto’s outfield, Gurriel will earn $5.4MM for his age 29 season in 2023, the final year of his seven year, $22MM contract with the Blue Jays, after which he will be eligible for free agency.
He’s been out over a month. Why wait? Mind boggling.
The Jays were hoping to bring him back before the end of the year. They finished play Oct. 8th. It’s the 20th now making it 12 days since they could have started making a surgery appointment. There was no rush since he’s expected to be ready for spring. What’s mind boggling about that?
Mystery surgery again, we’ll never need to know what it actually was.
Nice! Look forward to him having a record breaking MVP season in 2023.
Probably one of my more favorite players (my opinion) hope he can rehab well.
With any luck he’s replaced with a left hitter who can play LF. Gurriel doesn’t offer big time power and is too much of a goofball for my liking. Maybe they can land Ian Happ?
see, while that’s not a bad idea on paper, this front office values control/affordable etc. he would get more than a year back of Happ (he’s a free agent after this year right?) on trade I would think.
100% he would. My idea would be to move Gurriel (potienally plus more) for some pitching help (maybe to Houston?) and then working out a separate trade for Happ.
Gurriel has provided consistant contact rates (.276+ Avg) every year in the majors and when healthy has 20 HR power.. That’s not superstar numbers by any stretch but he’s been an above average performer for 5 straight seasons. Happ has been much less consistant and this year is the only year in which he can be said to be clearly better then Lourdes. If this is what Happ is going forward, then great, but there’s no guarantee he can repeat that again. The switch hitting is appealing but he could end up being a downgrade. Lourdes has been quietly much more effective and useful then some Jays fans give him credit for.
I would send Urquidy and McCormick to Jays for Gurriel.
I bet you would, a pitcher with 13 and 8 record era under 4 and a starting center fielder with 20 homers play off star traded for some outfielder that can’t stay on the field. In your dreams ha ha
As a lifelong Astros fan I can tell you Urquidy will not be resigned after his next two arbitration years. Brown will take his spot in the rotation next year. He is starter #7 behind Verlander (likely opt out but possibly resigned), Framber, McCullers, Javier, Garcia, Brown, with Abreau and Whitley in the wings. Left field is an absolute mess and centerfield is not far behind. Lourdes to left with Myers/Free agent makes much more sense going forward than hanging on to Urquidy and a 4th outfielder.
I’d like a LH hitter capable of regular duty in CF as well. But I don’t see why that would have to replace Gurriel. There’s still a DH spot that Springer will occupy a lot and if he’s in the field Gurriel can DH. Maybe he plays more against lefties. Plenty of plate appearances available for four outfielders. Think about how much Tapia was used this year.
That’s a fair point. Not sure what DH situation will be looking like next year with Springer aging and Kirk likely needing some DH time, but it could work out. In that case, signing Joc Pederson would be a good fit IMO.
This is all my fault. I got my Yuli and Lourdes voodoo dolls mixed up.
It’s interesting to say the corner outfield is an obvious place for upgrades when the weakest of them is a guy with a career wRC+ of 115 and coming off a season right in line with that (albeit a different shape). The other corner is a guy who posted 129 wRC+ in his “down” year after back-to-back silver sluggers and is a top 20 offensive player in the majors over the course of the last 3 seasons. Not to mention that they have a highly paid CF who profiles more at a corner and might need to move there to stay healthy. It’s not going to be easy to upgrade the corners. Not with the names suggested in the article anyway. They can achieve that by finding a CF and moving Springer to a corner. The lineup could use some tweaking and the outfield seems to be the best place to fit someone in but it’s not going to be easy to upgrade on that production.
To your final point, Nick Deeds:
The player link, and other sources, show him subject to an Arbitration year before reaching FA in ’25. Something like that has all kinds of value implications …to him, the Jays, other teams ….
That doesn’t actually exist. He signed a major league contract that voided the arbitration process. He’s a free agent after ‘23.