Written By: Colin Mari
Edited By: Jack Hinde
Blue Jays fans rejoiced this offseason as it seemed the Jays finally decided they wanted to make a splash in free agency. After what felt like forever, Toronto ended up going after and receiving one of the top free agents in George Springer.
This was big news for the Jays as they had entered a three year rebuild after their American League Championship Series appearances in 2015-16. Finally, it seems that Toronto is back to a win-now mentality as Springer and the Jays agreed to a six-year $150 million deal, this is a huge contract that broke a franchise record previously held by Vernon Wells.
The Blue Jays franchise is just as excited with this signing as fans are as president Mark Shapiro has said that, “Springer brings a long list of attributes to the club, including experience, reliability, dependability, character and impact-player skills”. He also added, “we think that’s the perfect fit for our team…where we are now and where we’re headed”.
Springer will be a key piece for the Jays as he knows what it means to win. He debuted with the Houston Astros in 2014, and quickly became familiar with the Postseason and October baseball as he and the Astros became regulars. Springer has also been seen to help lead his team through big games and be a clutch performer in the postseason, when he hit 0.379 with five home runs in the now tainted 2017 World Series win. Although, this is not the same Houston team that Springer won with, he seems to have high hopes. In an introductory interview, Springer had said that he sees a lot of similarities between the strong Astros teams that he has been a part of and the young Blue Jays core as he said, “It is a young lineup but it’s a very talented, advanced younger lineup…I think everything that I’ve heard and everything that I’ve seen is that they’re very, very ambitious, that they want to win and they work hard”.
George Springer has had quite the career, some of his most notable accomplishments in his seven-year MLB journey are; 2017 World Series MVP, two American League Silver Slugger awards in 2017 and in 2019, while also being named an All-Star three times from the years 2017-2019.
Springers batting stats from his MLB career are shown below, per www.baseball-reference.com:
Coming off the shortened 2020 season, Springer finished with a 0.265 batting average and a 0.359 on base percentage. Those numbers are just short of his career averages of a 0.270 batting average and 0.361 on base percentage, meaning that Springer by no means is showing any signs of slowing down his ability to be a strong presence at the plate and get on base. This will be a key attribute to the Blue Jays success as he fits right in with Toronto’s best hitters last year. When looking at players on the Jays roster who played 50 or more games for and himself, Springer would have the fourth best batting average and the best on-base percentage. If Springer can replicate these numbers next year there will be no doubt that he will help give Toronto that extra push they need to bring them deeper into the playoffs.
Springers Fielding Stats can be seen below, per www.baseball-reference.com:
Springer also brings help on the defensive side of the ball, through adding a star in the outfield. Last year Toronto’s trio of Gurriel Jr, Grichuk and Hernandez played at a high level, but if one of them were to get hurt or even need a day off the Jays lacked a strong replacement. Adding Springer to the mix allows the Jays the depth that good teams need when wanting to compete all throughout the season and he has been seen to be a top fielder and is able to make plays and record outs. In the 2020 season he reported a 1.000 fielding percentage on 86 defensive chances, with a career fielding percentage of 0.9895 on 1519 defensive chances. These numbers are very good as in his career Springer has accumulated 24 defensive runs saved above the average for outfielders in the MLB. In 7 seasons Springer has only committed 16 errors in 742 games. In the recent years Springer has been one of the MLB’s top players and the Blue Jays organization and fans hope he continues to perform like one.
Springer appears to be one of the right pieces that the Jays are going to need in order to push the young core to further develop into some of the game’s best players. Hopefully, Springer will help to be a key player for Toronto and bring the club the playoff success that loyal Canadian baseball fans and Blue Jays fans all around the world have been longing for as perhaps a World Series Championship could be seen in the coming years.
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