Lourdes Gurriel Jr. keeps growing in importance for the Blue Jays

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This article was published 20/04/2022 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOSTON The afternoon, for Lourdes Gurriel Jr., started off lifting weights. Gotta keep that Popeye right arm in throwing-to-the-plate flex. His dozen outfield assists last year led all left-fielders.

Then an extended session in the indoor batting cage at Fenway Park, joined by many of his Blue Jays teammates. They needed the remedial swinging reps more than Gurriel, despite his 0-fer at the plate in the opener of a three-game set with the Red Sox the previous evening.

Collectively, the Jays, acclaimed up one side and down the other of their batting order before 2022 even launched, were hitting .254 entering Wednesday’s action. Which isn’t shabby, eighth overall, yet nowhere near lights out as advertised, and .151 with runners in scoring position, so not timely either. Over their seven previous games, Toronto scored one run or less in three of them, and they were shutout twice across a fortnight span.

Footnote i: George Springer was two for his last 19 at-bats before lashing a single in his third plate appearance Wednesday.

Gurriel, however, has gone 13-for-45 in 12 games, with three doubles, for a .289 average that is behind only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.302) for the plumpest offensive numbers among anyone not named Zack Collins or on the IL. He is behind Guerrero also, not insignificantly, in the batting order, hitting cleanup. And until those vaunted Jay bats awakened Wednesday — rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, those roused clubs — Gurriel was among the few Jays who hadn’t seemed to stub their April batting toes. He had two of the Jays’ nine hits in a 6-1 win Wednesday, stole a base, and scored a run.

After pre-game defensive drills, whilst Charlie (Choo Choo) Montoyo covers second base, Gurriel practises gathering up balls off the Green Monster, takes his hacks in the cage, comes to the dugout pantomiming shivering — it’s not really that cold, with a game-time temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit — then brings his fingers to his lips and whistles in ear-splitting volume to summon translator Hector Lebron. The dogs in Jamaica Plain must have been pricking up their ears.

Not that Gurriel actually needs an interpreter. “Just a few minutes,” he tells the waiting reporter. But, OK, we’ll play three-prong-Monty interview. (Although one of these days, all these Latino Jays who have no problem communicating with unilingual English teammates will overcome their media linguistic shyness.)

Last week, when the Athletics gave Guerrero an intentional walk, preferring to take their chances with Gurriel, the latter responded by cracking out an RBI double. On the subject of how he’s benefitted from bringing up the other Junior’s rear, however, he demurs. “I know I’m hitting behind Vladdy now but I always was hitting behind Teo (Hernández) before. So for me, it’s pretty much the same thing, same responsibility.”

Same outcome, generally speaking, meritorious hitting stats on pitches that don’t cheat so much, with Gurriel picking up a substantial chunk of the errant hitting. “Thank God things are going well for me right now … Not every team has started the way they want. Look at Boston, they’ve got guys hitting around .100. We are getting there. I know the guys will get there soon.” That was prescient, it would turn out as Toronto knocked around B.C. native Nick Pivetta for five runs on four hits, including Raimel Tapia’s first home run as a Blue Jay, in the second inning.

“And hopefully things will continue to go my way too.”

Gurriel’s adeptness with the bat is a carry-over from his final two months last season, which Montoyo credits for spearheading Toronto’s late summer push for the post-season, and if Gurriel hadn’t suffered a late-season injury — the now-departed Randal Grichuk accidentally stepped on his right hand — and then gone 0-for-16 in his too-hasty return, the Jays would likely have made that post-season inner circle.

A slight approach adjustment at the plate last year — he was displeased with his rushed toe-tap — might be a factor in the more offensively buoyant Gurriel. But there is something more fundamental, he explains. “Better swings I’m selecting right now. I’m looking for the pitch I want and trying to put on good contact. That’s the key for all my at-bats and what I’ve been doing since last year.’’

Patience, he grants, has been a considerable time coming, even as spawn of a baseball dynasty — the legendary Cuban Gurriel clan — where such concepts are seemingly bred in the bone. “You learn along the way. You don’t make it to the big leagues knowing everything. So I already have enough time under my belt to know what I know right now. Hopefully I can keep learning from this.’’

It is sometimes forgotten that Gurriel arrived in Toronto, following his harrowing escape from Cuba, as a shortstop. He has had to grasp the outfield position on the fly and at times that was quite an adventurous learning curve. Yet Gurriel has been nominated for a Gold Glove the last two years and his heaves from left field to the plate can take one’s breath away.

“A lot of people think it’s easy but it’s not, especially if you’ve spent most of your career in the infield, as he did,” says Mark Budzinski, the Jays’ first-base and outfield coach. “You can see the growth, just the confidence that continues to grow from him being out there more. Learning to go back on the ball, which is one of the hardest things for an outfielder to do. The ball is kind of hit directly over your head. You have to drop step and then go back and take your eye off the ball and then find it again and catch it.

“It’s a difficult skill to learn. But he’s really gaining comfortability running back, knowing where the ball is and getting to the spot.”

Then, on a good day, when required, there is that torque-reverbant throw. “He’s very athletic, number one,” Budzinski says. “He’s got a great attribute in his right arm. He throws very well, accurately. He’s going to get a lot of Gold Glove looks.”

With Gurriel, as the clock ticks down on a dugout interloper, the conversation curls back to Toronto’s unexpected hitting hissy ‘n hump. He shrugs it off.

“It’s too early to even say we’re not hitting well. I know our offence and I know we’re going to get out groove. We’re going to be fine.”

THREE THINGS

Three things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 6-1 win in Boston on Wednesday:

Bravo Berríos

While the Toronto bats finally got clacking, if not home run thumpa-thumpa-thumping, the most significant takeaway from Wednesday’s 6-1 road win over Boston was a solid quality start by José Berríos, following an opening day one-third-of-an-inning boldface disaster and a so-so five-inning no-decision last time on the bump. On this evening at Fenway Park, the designated Jays ace endured for six innings and 96 pitches, and most of the eight hits he surrendered were quickly erased as scoring threats. Rafael Devers got the Red Sox on the board in the first while only Jackie Bradley Jr. and Jonathan Arauz made it as far as third through the next five frames.

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Ding-a-lings (ouch)

A couple of winged and wincing batters, one from each side. First a scary moment indeed when Trevor Story got struck in the helmet on a 3-1 sinker that rose up and in. Story fell to all fours as the crowd of 33,354 gasped. He got up, was visibly blinking hard to gather his wits, then was escorted halfway down to first by his manager and trainer before veering off into the dugout only to emerge a minute later and take up his position on base. Tough dude. For Toronto, it was George Springer who took a Phillips Valdez changeup on the wrist, on a checked swing in the sixth inning, and dropped to his all fours. Springer left the game at the end of that inning with what was described as a right forearm contusion. He was to undergo further evaluation Thursday.

Jack of all trades

Raimel Tapia launched his first four-bagger as a Blue Jay, a two-run shot that stayed fair just inside the Pesky Pole, teeing up a five-run second inning when the Jays ate alive B.C.-born starter Nick Pivetta. The Jays haven’t gone yard at Fenway otherwise, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been homer-blunted through the last four games. The series in Boston concludes with an afternooner on Thursday before the Jays move on to Houston.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno