The Blue Jays get Darlin Guzman as the PTBNL from the Hector Perez trade back in January

We all hate postponed games due to rain. We all hate Kirk missing out on the ThunderBisons’ lineup due to rest, but what we all love trades.

On January 22nd, 2021, the Jays traded longtime prospect, Hector Perez, to the Reds for a Player To Be Named Later. Five months later we got the answer as to the player in question.
Darlin Guzman.
You may be asking who and quite frankly, I did the same myself. He’s a 20-year-old outfielder who is playing in rookie ball. While this season he’s only had five at bats, in 2019 he set the league ablaze hitting .357/.394/1.010. This showed improvements from the previous season after only hitting .251/.326/.777.
What intrigues me however is the power. Out of his 66 hits in 2019, 30 of them were for extra bases. This included six triples and six home runs. According to Doug Gray, a writer for numerous platforms, the power potential is there, but he’s a long way from the big leagues. (Read the article here:)
One thing that is worrisome is the fact that in his two seasons he’s had a K% of 26.9% in 2018 and 22.2% in 2019. Furthermore, his BB% of 10.4% in 2018 dropped to 5.1% in 2019. This will need …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Grapefruit Notes: Ryu makes Blue Jays debut, the “K” in Kay, Biggio to see time in centre field, and more!

After having a game cancelled due to rain on Wednesday, the Jays picked up a tie and a win on Thursday and Friday afternoon. Can you FEEL the excitement?

Things worth mentioning…
Right off the hop, I’ll mention this note from Arden Zwelling, which states that Cavan Biggio will start to see some time in centre field. Shortly after I saw that Tweet, the lineup for today’s game against the Phillies came out and Biggio was pencilled in as the starting centre fielder. Biggio was mostly a second baseman last season for the Jays, but we also saw him play a little bit of first, left, and right field. He hasn’t played centre field in the minors, so this will be interesting. The goal has always been for Biggio to become a swiss army knife defensively because it’s difficult to say if his bat will translate to second base. Having players with positional versatility is ideal in the changing world of baseball as teams are getting more and more creative to ensure the best platoon matchups in any given situation. As a random aside, Craig Biggio played second base, the outfield, …

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

Josh Donaldson is killing it so far this year

The rain is finally being brought to Atlanta. After a slow start to the season, Josh Donaldson has been dominant as of late. The former MVP went three-for-five with a couple of bombs in Atlanta’s 11-5 win over Cleveland last night and owns a slash line of .270/.400/.500 for the season.

Josh Donaldson with a LOUD home run to left pic.twitter.com/i4XPQDNmuy
— ESPN (@espn) April 22, 2019

Donaldson is now on pace to put up 5.4 WAR this year. He has played in all 21 of Atlanta’s games. Maybe — and stick with me here – the Blue Jays should have extended him a qualifying offer instead of liquidating him for pennies on the dollar.https://t.co/TLS0bk0pIz
— Jonah Birenbaum (@birenball) April 22, 2019

As Jonah Birenbaum points out, Donaldson’s not-really-unexpected turnaround this year makes the decision to deal him for virtually nothing prior to the trade deadline last year all the more curious. The Jays, of course, took a gamble with Donaldson, opting to not trade him in the off-season due to the slight chance he could help the team compete in the 2018 season. That didn’t work out, Donaldson got hurt, the team sucked, and he ended up getting …

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation