TRADED or not, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has to go for an epic season (Cubanos MLB 2022)

By Juan Paez

Meet Lourdes Gurriel Jr:

• Team: Toronto Blue Jays
• Position: Left gardener
• Age on Opening Day 2022: 28
• Bat / Throw: Right / Right
• Height Weight: 193cm / 97kg
• How was it acquired?: Signed by the Blue Jays as an international free agent on November 12, 2016.
• How much will you earn this year? $4.5 million
• Important / curious fact: Gurriel Jr. is the only Lourdes in history to have come through the Major Leagues or the Minor League system.

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Statistics in 2021:

141J

541 PA

500 VB

138H

28 2B

2 3B

9 PM

84 IC

62 AC

32BB

102K

.276/.319/.466

.785 OPS

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important stat

eleven Cubans have had at least one game of two or more home runs and seven or more RBIs in Major League history. There are 12 Blue Jays players with a game of these characteristics. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. integrates both lists, as he did so on September 12, 2021 in a 22 × 7 beating of Toronto over the Baltimore Orioles.

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How do you get to 2022?

For the second straight season, Gurriel Jr. remained healthy enough to participate in a full Major League season and was an inseparable part of the Blue Jays’ powerful lineup. The reason is that, although his stats didn’t hold up to last year’s level, he had a very productive crop that allowed him to post a positive 2.7 WAR.

The positive is that Yunito closed the campaign with everything. After showing discreet numbers in the first part of the season, the Cuban patrolman improved notably in the second half, in which he posted averages of .296/.360/.529, with 11 doubles, two triples, 11 home runs, 48 ​​RBIs and 29 runs scored in 62 games. He took 20 walks and only struck out 39 times in that span.

If there’s one area that could be worrisome, it’s the exit velocity of his hits. Such a stat has dwindled for him since his debut year in the big leagues. It was 91.6 mph in 2018, down from 91.0 in 2019, down to 90.8 in 2020 and finishing at 89.5 in 2021. In addition to notably dropping his line drive percentage and increasing his fly ball percentage, that could be one of the the reasons why his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) went from .351 to .305 between 2020 and 2021.

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What awaits you this year?

It remains unknown if, once major league activities and transactions resume, the Blue Jays will move on from Gurriel Jr. to get pitchers. That makes the islander’s outlook, at least at this point, a bit uncertain. For this reason, we will evaluate both cases.

If the outfielder stays in Toronto, he should be more like his 2020 self. That way he can show he’s not far behind and instead leads hitters like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez and Bo Bichette. If he continues to wear the Canadian uniform, he will be one of those responsible for overshadowing the void left by Marcus Semien, who signed with the Texas Rangers.

In a scenario that implies a change for Gurriel Jr., especially to a team that needs offense (Marlins, Pirates, Tigers…), the West Indian could become the face of a lineup and live a completely different case than the one he lives in Toronto , where he shines behind players like those named in the previous paragraph.

In any case, Gurriel Jr. only serves to hit, to continue showing that he can be healthy and that, at 28 years of age, his best moment in the Major Leagues is yet to come.

We will be evaluating player by player before the start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season. To see the other profiles, you can do click here.