Randal Grichuk Traded to Blue Jays; Cardinals Land Dominic Leone, Conner Greene

The Toronto Blue Jays‏ acquired outfielder Randal Grichuk in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday in exchange for relief pitcher Dominic Leone and pitching prospect Conner Greene. 

Toronto announced the deal on Twitter.

Grichuk is coming off a 2017 campaign where he posted a .238/.285/.473 triple-slash line with 22 home runs and six stolen bases across 122 games for the Cards.

St. Louis' blockbuster trade last month with the Miami Marlins for Marcell Ozuna, who will take over in left field, left Grichuk without a clear path to playing time next season, though.

Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch passed along comments from Grichuk earlier Friday about potentially being relegated to a bench role.

"Obviously any time you lose a starting spot it's disappointing," he said. "I felt like last year was kind of up and down, it wasn't consistent enough. We needed a big power bat, an impact bat in the middle of the lineup, and fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, it's an outfielder (Ozuna). It's good for the team, rough for me, but we're going to roll with it and see what happens."

The 26-year-old Texas native will likely become part of a platoon in Toronto with Curtis Granderson, Steve Pearce and Kevin Pillar also battling for consistent playing time.

Leone, 26, owns a career 3.48 ERA in 160 appearances out of the bullpen with the Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners since 2014.

Greene, 22, struggled across 26 games (25 starts) with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Toronto's Double-A affiliate, last season. He compiled a 5.29 ERA and 1.69 WHIP while striking out just 92 batters in 132.2 innings.