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	<title>Toronto &#187; Jason Grilli</title>
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		<title>Jason Grilli is Passionate About Winning in Toronto</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/12/jason-grilli-is-extremely-passionate-about-winning/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2016 11:24:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Evan Peaslee]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[TORONTO – If you’ve ever seen Jason Grilli pitch then you know he thrives on emotion. The bigger the moment, the greater the pressure, the higher the intensity, the more he likes it. Having spent the majority of the past three seasons as a closer, compiling 69 saves in 78 chances, it should come as [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>TORONTO – If you’ve ever seen Jason Grilli pitch then you know he thrives on emotion. The bigger the moment, the greater the pressure, the higher the intensity, the more he likes it.</p>
<p>Having spent the majority of the past three seasons as a closer, compiling 69 saves in 78 chances, it should come as no surprise that those are the moments he thrives on.</p>
<p>“I live on that,” Grilli said Wednesday prior to the Blue Jays’ 7-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre. “I’m an adrenaline junkie. I like performing in big situations.”</p>
<p>So when he made the move to Toronto thanks to a May 31<sup>st</sup> trade with Atlanta, and after Blue Jays manager John Gibbons promptly promoted him to the club’s setup man behind closer Roberto Osuna, it seemed to be the perfect fit for the 39-year-old’s intensity fuelled pitching prowess. Especially considering the games he would be seen in jumped immensely in pressure and importance after moving from the bottom-feeding Braves to an AL East division contender.</p>
<p>“The (Braves situation) was hard for me,” Grilli said. “I came back to win. My will to win parallels why I wanted to come back. I play, not for my salary, but I play to win. The people that know me, they see that passion out there, that’s what I’m about, and I try to bring that to the table every time I get the ball.”</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I play, not for my salary, but I play to win. The people that know me, they see that passion out there, that’s what I’m about, and I try to bring that to the table every time I get the ball.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The passion is definitely there. The emotion reminiscent of his time as a closer finishing out big games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2013. But it’s his desire to win that has helped make the transition to Toronto a seamless one.</p>
<p>He quickly found a place in the Jays’ clubhouse in large part because the club’s desire of winning a World Series championship coincided with his own. As soon as he arrived he made it apparent he was fully on board with the Jays’ mission statement.</p>
<p>“You got to have that taste in your mouth,” Grilli said of the team’s aspirations of repeating last year’s success and wanting to improve on it. “Talking to some of the guys during batting practice that’s the feeling and the energy here. They want to see that again. We want to experience it again.</p>
<p>“I prided myself on just proving to these guys that I’m jumping on the bandwagon.”</p>
<p>What made it easier for the Royal Oak, Michigan native was putting aside his personal goals and focusing solely on the team’s success.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of superstars around here that have been pretty damn good players in their own right,” Grilli said. “We can all put a feather in our cap with personal accolades, but the one thing I look at is I want to raise one of those World Series championship banners. I want to have a World Series ring. I want to do the World Series parade. The only way I get to do that is if we all do that, and I’m just one of many.”</p>
<p>He may just be one man on the roster, but his value to the club has been immeasurable since arriving in Toronto.</p>
<p>After another scoreless outing Wednesday, Grilli has a 1.90 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, .154 opponent’s batting average against, and a 12.5 SO/9. That’s without even mentioning the stabilizing effect he’s had on the bullpen itself.</p>
<p>In comparison, Grilli had a 5.29 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, .242 BAA, and a 12.2 SO/9 in Atlanta. Admittedly the sample size is small in both cases (17 IP in Atlanta and 23.2 IP in Toronto), but those are drastically different results for the veteran.</p>
<p>Although the passion and heightened emotions in the middle of a pennant race would seem to be exactly what’s fuelled his turnaround, any blanket theory that has been thought of to explain the discrepancy, the veteran isn’t having any of it.</p>
<p>“I always laugh when people dissect my season. Only because … the ‘I’m good now and I was horrible when I was with Atlanta’ (theory is) untrue,” Grilli said. “The skill set never left.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I want to have a World Series ring. I want to do the World Series parade. The only way I get to do that is if we all do that, and I’m just one of many.”</p></blockquote>
<p>“Despite what anybody thinks &#8211; the will power, the desire, just because I’m with a different team I didn’t need a change of scenery, they weren’t using me in the ‘closer role’ I was in and did very well in. I think people need to do their research before we start cross-sectioning whether I was good or bad. That’s an easy blanket statement in comparison to make.”</p>
<p>Although Grilli is adamant that nothing has changed, his slider has been extremely effective since coming to the Blue Jays, and he’s using it more as a result.</p>
<p>With Toronto Grilli’s slider is moving more than an inch more than his time with Atlanta. He’s averaging 6.93 inches of horizontal movement North of the border compared to 5.91 inches in Georgia.</p>
<p>Grilli’s also getting batters to swing at his slider more, 38.7 % of the time compared to 30 %. But the biggest difference is that his slider is now missing hitter’s bats at a much higher frequency. Entering Wednesday’s game Grilli’s slider was creating a swing and miss at a 56.4% clip &#8211; over 20% more than in Atlanta.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the speed on his slider is only 0.7 MPH more now than with the Braves. The 2013 All-Star didn’t have any reason on why he’s used the slider more now than in Atlanta other than “it’s working.”</p>
<p>Although having fully recovered from a torn Achilles injury that cost him the last half of the 2015 season may be part of the reason for its success in Toronto.</p>
<p>Regardless, the one thing that has never changed since moving to Toronto is his desire to win.</p>
<p>“For me the last quarter turn is the final thing I need to check off that box,” Grilli said. “I’ve been to a World Series and lost, but I want to go to one and win.”</p>
<p><i>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</i></p>
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		<title>How Jason Grilli Turned His Season Around and Stabilized the Blue Jays Bullpen</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/11/how-jason-grilli-turned-his-season-around-and-stabilized-the-blue-jays-bullpen/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Aug 2016 16:47:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=5343</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Relievers are volatile. Incredibly volatile. So when the Blue Jays acquired Jason Grilli from the Atlanta Braves on on May 31st, the team and their fans were optimistic that despite his rough start to 2016, the Grilli of years past would be the one to show up north of the border. At the time of the [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Relievers are volatile. Incredibly volatile. So when the Blue Jays acquired Jason Grilli from the Atlanta Braves on on May 31st, the team and their fans were optimistic that despite his rough start to 2016, the Grilli of years past would be the one to show up north of the border. At the time of the trade, Grilli had a 5.29 ERA in 17 innings for Atlanta. The cause of that was well documented, as for some reason, he was walking 16.1% of the batters he was facing. However, he was still striking batters out, and according to Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins, that&#8217;s why they were attracted to him.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GM Ross Atkins says <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> attracted to Jason Grilli&#39;s experience and swing and miss (12.2 K9).</p>
<p>&mdash; Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/737792405647335425">May 31, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Since the trade, Grilli has stopped walking batters at an astronomical rate. His career BB% is 9.7%. With the Blue Jays, it&#8217;s at 9.4%. This has lead to a dramatic increase in performance to the tune of a 1.99 ERA with the club. It&#8217;s easy to point to his walk rate and say, &#8216;okay, that&#8217;s why he&#8217;s turned it around&#8217;. Which is fine. It&#8217;s not wrong. However, I&#8217;d like to know why he was struggling early on in the year, and what adjustments he has made, knowingly or unknowingly, to be able to be pitching like he has throughout he rest of his career again.</p>
<p>To do that, let&#8217;s start by looking at his pitch usage. In 2016, a clear pattern has emerged since joining the Blue Jays. Examine the black and red lines.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/GrilliUsage2016.jpeg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-5361 aligncenter" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/GrilliUsage2016-1024x683.jpeg" alt="GrilliUsage2016" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">His four seam fastball usage has taken a downward turn, going from a high of 66.09% in May to 55.26% in August thus far, a drop of almost 11 percentage points. The opposite trend has occurred with his slider, going from a low of 31.03% in May to 44.74% in August. This is significant for a couple of reasons, none more important than when a pitcher of Grilli&#8217;s composition becomes too reliant on one pitch, it allows players to focus in on hitting just that specific pitch. This means that they can lay off anything they don&#8217;t like, say, Grilli&#8217;s other pitch, his slider. Sliders aren&#8217;t usually thrown for strikes, but rather as weapons to get hitters to chase out of the strike zone. If batters are not going after them as a result of focusing on the fastball, sliders become relatively useless, and this can lead to elevated walk totals.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">However, pointing to that and saying it is the direct reason for Grilli&#8217;s run of success would be quite foolish given that he has been an All-Star in past years while throwing his fastball at an even higher rate than 66.09%. But it becomes more believable after seeing two more sets of numbers. The first is the movement he has received on his slider in 2016. Look at the red line.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Grilli2016Movement.jpeg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-5389" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Grilli2016Movement-1024x683.jpeg" alt="Grilli2016Movement" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">In April and May, Grilli&#8217;s slider was moving horizontally at an average of 5.77 inches and 5.95 inches respectively. Since then, those numbers have been 6.51, 7.27, and 6.99. Interestingly enough, batters swung at just 26.8% of his pitches that were outside the zone this season with the Braves. League average O-Swing% is 30%. With the Blue Jays, batters are swinging at 34.7% of them. That&#8217;s a change of 7.9 percentage points. See where I&#8217;m going with this?</p>
<p style="text-align: left">While he was with Atlanta, he was throwing his fastball a lot more and his slider a lot less. That meant batters could focus on the fastball. When they were thrown sliders, they weren&#8217;t moving as much as Grilli&#8217;s normally do, so the batters didn&#8217;t have the same incentive to chase. This is reflected in the decrease in O-Swing%. Then, Grilli came to Toronto. His slider started sliding more, and he changed up his pitch selection to throw fewer fastballs and more sliders. This has resulted in batters swinging more often at his pitches outside of the zone, and with it, his walk numbers have come back down to earth where they have been throughout his career.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Grilli was acquired on May 31st for a minor leaguer name Sean Ratcliffe. A month later, Ratcliffe was out of professional baseball. For comparisons sake, trading for Andrew Miller, who has an extra year of control relative to Grilli, required the Cleveland baseball team to part with four prospects, highlighted by uber-prospects Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield. Now, Grilli isn&#8217;t Miller, but this just goes to show how smart and tactful of a move trading for Grilli was by Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. Instead of trading for a dominant relief pitcher commanding a top price, they trusted their scouting and analytics departments, and traded for a pitcher who they deemed an easy fix. As previously mentioned, Grilli has a 1.99 ERA with the Blue Jays. Miller is at 1.65 in 2016. That&#8217;s pretty good value for the Blue Jays.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Jason Grilli has been talented all season long. However, for a couple of reasons, he was terrible to start the season with Atlanta, and has been great ever since coming over to Toronto. Has luck been involved? Sure. Has standard regression to the mean been involved? Sure. But behind those two general statements are the real changes we were able to point to and connect to his struggles. The baseball season is a grind, and players fluctuate in performance all the time. Apparently, all it takes to get back on track is an inch here and there and adding a few more sliders. Who knew?</p>
<p style="text-align: left">We&#8217;ll end with this Jason Grilli fist pump GIF, because even if you didn&#8217;t enjoy this article, I want you to leave happy.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">That&#8217;s a man on a mission.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/GrilliPumpedUp.gif"><img class=" size-full wp-image-5397 aligncenter" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/GrilliPumpedUp.gif" alt="GrilliPumpedUp" width="475" height="270" /></a></p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports<br />
All stats as of Wednesday August 10th.</em></p>
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		<title>Blue Jays to Acquire Jason Grilli</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/05/31/blue-jays-to-acquire-jason-grilli/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2016 21:15:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joshua Howsam]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=3271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It looks like the Blue Jays are going to be getting some bullpen reinforcements after all, #BlueJays acquiring Jason Grilli from #Braves in exchange for Sean Ratcliffe, sources say. Story coming soon on @BB_Essential. &#8212; Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayBBE) May 31, 2016 According to reports, the Jays have agreed to a swap of minor league pitcher [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It looks like the Blue Jays are going to be getting some bullpen reinforcements after all,</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> acquiring Jason Grilli from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Braves?src=hash">#Braves</a> in exchange for Sean Ratcliffe, sources say. Story coming soon on <a href="https://twitter.com/BB_Essential">@BB_Essential</a>.</p>
<p>&mdash; Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayBBE) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertMurrayBBE/status/737746952289288192">May 31, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>According to reports, the Jays have agreed to a swap of minor league pitcher Sean Ratcliffe for veteran reliever, Jason Grilli.</p>
<p>As some of you may remember, the Blue Jays were actually very close to signing Grilli when he eventually re-upped with Pittsburgh after the 2012 season. He pitched a couple of good years there before being traded to the Angels for human homer machine, Ernesto Frieri, then signed with Atlanta following the 2014 season. His Atlanta tenure started out brilliantly, as he struck out 45 batters in 33 innings and posted a 2.94 ERA, and once again the Jays showed interest in acquiring his services, but his season was cut short by a torn achilles.</p>
<p>Fully healthy this year, Grilli was installed as the Braves closer The plan was surely to flip him at the deadline and install Arodys Vizcaino as the closer, but a disastrous few outings caused that switch to happen a lot sooner than expected. At the time of this trade, Grilli has a 5.29 ERA in 17 innings of work. The strikeouts are still there, with a very healthy K/9 of 12.2 (23 Ks), but his command has been horrible. In those 17 innings, he has walked 13 batters (6.9 BB/9). He has never been a command specialist, per se, but that&#8217;s far and away the worst rate of his career.</p>
<p>One argument would suggest that he is bound for some regression in that area, but Grilli is 39 years old, and happens to be dealing with some lost velocity.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/05/Brooksbaseball-Chart-1.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-3272" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/05/Brooksbaseball-Chart-1.png" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (1)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>Like the last closer the Blue Jays have brought in (Storen), Grilli is down over two miles per hour from his 2015 averages, and over one and a half from his 2014 numbers. The max velocity numbers are even more worrying.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/05/Brooksbaseball-Chart-151.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-3273" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/05/Brooksbaseball-Chart-151.jpeg" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (15)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>Grilli&#8217;s max fastball velocity is down over 2.5 mph from the last three seasons. He had an abridged spring training (still recovering), so he could be still rounding into form, but is also getting fewer missed swings on his slider. In short, there are lots of reasons to worry.</p>
<p>All of that being said, this is a relatively low cost pickup. Sean Ratcliffe is from the Toronto area (Ajax), but has yet to reach full-season minor league ball. He was a former 18th round pick (2013), and has pitched as a reliever his entire time in the minor leagues. At 21 years old already, he does not appear likely for a big league future. Even though the Braves are picking up all but the pro-rated minimum, it still amounts to not much more than a salary dump for Atlanta.</p>
<p>So Grilli is finally a Blue Jay and it cost them basically nothing. The expectations should be low, but if there is even a small chance that he can recover any of his former glory, it&#8217;s a good move. Even if he just pitches slightly better, it&#8217;s a great move.</p>
<p>After all, the bullpen can use all the help it can get.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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