Gap to gap: How Blue Jays’ Kiermaier stayed on his feet in 2023

DUNEDIN, Fla. — The solely factor harder than saying metatarsalgia, a situation marked by persistent ache and irritation within the ball of the foot, is making an attempt to play centre area usually on turf whereas experiencing it.

That’s what Kevin Kiermaier realized final season after he developed the situation in each toes in July and performed by means of intense ache for the remainder of the season. By the stretch run, Kiermaier couldn’t do pre-game defensive work — he nonetheless gained the fourth Gold Glove of his profession, thoughts you — and even stroll barefoot within the Blue Jays clubhouse after an evening spent operating down flyballs. He wanted a pair of padded restoration sandals to maneuver round and adopted an intensive day by day routine together with therapeutic massage and heavy taping of every foot simply to take the sector.

“It was awful — it was one of the worst things I’ve ever dealt with,” says a man who performed by means of a labrum tear for practically two seasons earlier than present process hip surgical procedure in 2022. “There were times when it was unbearable.”

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How did the problem develop? Tough to say. One idea is easy overuse operating round on Rogers Centre turf. But Kiermaier performed on worse turf at Tropicana Field for the last decade prior with the Tampa Bay Rays and by no means skilled something like this.

Another is that Kiermaier’s toes had been shifting round an excessive amount of in his cleats, an issue he’s performed a few issues to deal with. For starters, he was fitted in Dunedin this winter for customized orthotics that he’s inserted into each pair of footwear he owns. That’s offered each a greater platform for his toes and an enormous reduction this spring. Now, he doesn’t have to have a thick pad taped to the soles of his toes as he did prior to each sport he performed late final season.

Kiermaier additionally turned over his storage this winter to dig up an outdated pair of purple throwbacks he used with the Rays years in the past — by far probably the most comfy cleats he’s ever worn. They’re Nike Huaraches circa 2020 and if you happen to occur to have a set in dimension 11.5 or 12 Kiermaier would very a lot respect you getting in contact. They simply don’t make them like that anymore and Kiermaier’s all the way down to his last two pairs. Don’t be stunned to see his purple cleats clashing with Blue Jays uniforms all through the season. He’ll trip these issues so far as they’ll take him.

And please don’t remind Kiermaier about how he gave away round 20 pairs of these cleats to the University of Tampa’s baseball staff, which he works out with every winter. He’s scoured the web; he’s contacted each Nike rep he is aware of. He discovered an outdated pair on eBay however in fact it wasn’t in his dimension. The search shall proceed. After overhearing Kiermaier recounting this story at his locker on an early morning final week, Justin Turner pulled out his telephone and began texting buddies across the league who may know the right way to get a pair.

So, that’s what Kiermaier was enjoying by means of as he posted a wonderfully league-average 100 wRC+ over the second half of 2023, capping off a sometimes elite 13 Outs Above Average season. As if additional proof of Kiermaier’s resolve was required. He’s given us a decade’s value of highlights smashing onto turf whereas laying out for low liners, barrelling head over heels whereas placing each ounce of himself into outfield throws, and operating full velocity into partitions and fences, just like the one at Fenway Park that gave him an elbow laceration that required eight stitches to shut final August.

That deep laceration was the one factor that despatched Kiermaier to the IL final season — not the again points he intermittently battled, not the wrist contusion that value him just a few days in June, and never the metatarsalgia he performed by means of for the higher a part of three months. Kiermaier spent eight weeks rehabbing the problem this winter, scrunching towels together with his toes, pistol squatting on stability pads, and choosing up marbles between his toes. It wasn’t till American Thanksgiving that he was lastly strolling round pain-free in naked toes once more.

“I’ve never dealt with anything like that — it was really tough,” Kiermaier says. “But got through it — I’m proud of that. Adrenaline helped get me through the games, for sure. And now we have a plan. I know what I need to do now to strengthen my feet — I do it every day. I just did my marble stuff before I put on my shoes. If I stay on it and keep my feet happy, we should be good to go.”

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Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior author. Together, they bring about you probably the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast within the league, overlaying off all the most recent news with opinion and evaluation, in addition to interviews with different insiders and staff members.

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Merrifield commerce a giant win for Blue Jays

So, there was Max Castillo final Thursday, beginning for the Philadelphia Phillies in opposition to the Blue Jays on a hazy Thursday afternoon in Dunedin. The 24-year-old is on his third staff within the final two months after using the DFA carousel all through the winter and is now in Phillies camp competing to share a clubhouse with the participant the Blue Jays traded him for under 18 months in the past — Whit Merrifield.

All three principals from that August 2022 commerce — speedy utility participant Samad Taylor additionally went to the Kansas City Royals — are actually on completely different groups, a becoming reminder of how shortly the overcooked reactions to deadline offers will be rendered totally immaterial. Looking again on the commerce now that every one is claimed and performed, the outcomes are relatively lopsided:

Whit Merrifield for the Blue Jays

189 GP, 98 OPS+, 2.3 fWAR

Max Castillo for the Royals

39 IP, 65 ERA+, -0.2 fWAR

(AAA: 116 IP, 4.58 ERA)

Samad Taylor for the Royals

31 GP, 52 OPS+, -0.1 fWAR

(AAA: 89 G, .884 OPS)

Castillo and Taylor had been each pushed to the sting of Kansas City’s 40-man roster this winter because the Royals surprisingly went quantity looking for veterans in free company. Castillo was designated for project and claimed on waivers by the Red Sox, who later designated him for project themselves and misplaced the right-hander to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Taylor was flipped to the Seattle Mariners for a participant to be named later or money.

Now, a part of the attraction of the Merrifield commerce for the Royals was getting out from beneath the roughly $10 million he was nonetheless owed on the restructured deal the perimeters agreed to in April 2021. Merrifield was struggling on the time of the commerce, using a 78 wRC+ by means of his first 95 video games of the season. And as he entered his mid-30s, there have been no ensures he’d recapture prior kind.

But the Blue Jays had been smart to leverage a payroll over twice the scale of Kansas City’s, receiving 2.3 fWAR from Merrifield over a season-and-a-half. The market worth for that manufacturing whereas Merrifield performed in Toronto was $19.1 million, as calculated by FanGraphs.

That’s the figurative. In the literal world, Merrifield offered the Blue Jays cowl at second base and all three outfield spots — he even pitched an inning in opposition to the Angels shortly after the commerce — whereas hitting .274/.319/.394, grading as a plus baserunner, and incomes an all-star nod final season. He went on an absolute tear final July, OPS’ing .997 over 23 video games in a month that noticed the Blue Jays enhance their report from six-games above .500 to 11. By the tip of the month, Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider was usually batting Merrifield leadoff.

Ultimately, tasked with enjoying a flexible, supporting function on a contending staff, Merrifield did all the pieces he was requested and infrequently extra. The worth the Blue Jays paid to amass him finally proved comically gentle. And, for as little as followers ought to care about such issues, his wage was environment friendly, creating round $9 million of surplus worth which is roughly the identical quantity the Blue Jays used to signal Brandon Belt — 2.3 fWAR in 2023 — to his one-year deal.

It wasn’t onerous to search out unfavourable opinions of the Merrifield commerce on the day it was made. But it appears to be like relatively sound with the advantage of hindsight. Compared to splashy, nine-figure free agent offers or headline-grabbing trades for celebrity leases, this wasn’t the form of transaction that electrifies a fanbase or transforms a roster. But it’s the form of value-oriented maneuvering that intelligent groups pull off constantly and reap dividends from over time.

Arden Zwelling is an on-field reporter for Blue Jays broadcasts on Sportsnet. Gap-to-gap is his common house for expanded Blue Jays and MLB notes, ideas, and non-sequiturs that don’t fairly match on TV..

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