A few weeks ago, the Toronto Blue Jays traded Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In return, the club secured the services of Daulton Varsho.
Obviously, losing Gurriel Jr. will have an impact in Toronto. He wasn’t the driving force behind the attack, but he was an interesting piece nonetheless. And above all, he was appreciated.
What is interesting for the player is that the change of air could allow him to start over on new bases. He could, now that he is healthy (his wrist played tricks on him at the end of the campaign), become a more dangerous hitter again.
And the DBacks will trust him.
Because he is eligible for full free agency in a year, Gurriel Jr. could also be traded at the deadline to try to win the World Series.
But for that, he will have to perform well.
In the middle, we seem reluctant to give a big contract to the left fielder in a year. After all, his production over the past few years hasn’t been great, he’s been injured, he’s not great defensively and besides sporadic first base appearances, he only plays left field.
But as I said, everything can change this year.
The change of air gives him the chance to redefine himself and use his batting to his advantage to demonstrate the extent of his usefulness in Major League Baseball.
Will he? That’s the 1000 dollar question.
