Randal Grichuk, modern-day Cubs killer, is headed to the American League

News item: Cardinals outfielder Randal Grichuk has been traded.

The Blue Jays and the Cardinals swung a trade on Friday afternoon, with St. Louis sending outfielder Randal Grichuk to Toronto in exchange for right-hander Dominic Leone and righty pitching prospect Conner Greene.

Unless you follow Cubs/Cardinals games closely, you might not realize what a great deal this is... for the Cubs.

That’s because Grichuk has absolutely smashed Cubs pitching for his three-plus seasons in the big leagues, and that’s during a time when Cubs pitching has been mostly good.

In this FanPost you can read about Grichuk’s 11 career home runs against the Cubs. That’s right, 11 out of a career total of 66. That’s... a lot. Each of the 11 is described in excruciating detail.

Grichuk has hit the Cubs better than any N.L. team (except the Mets, where he has only 60 PA against them). In his career against the Cubs, covering 161 plate appearances, he has hit .296/.335/.638, which is All-Star level play, nearly MVP-quality if that were extrapolated over a full season.

But Grichuk hasn’t played nearly as well against the rest of baseball. Against teams not named “Cubs” he has hit .242/.296/.468 in 1,225 plate appearances. The slugging percentage there is pretty good, the other numbers not so much.

And now he’s going to be facing primarily American League teams, against whom he’s done poorly, in about the same number of PA (175) as he’s dominated the Cubs: .228/.276/.438

Randal will be playing almost half his games (76) against A.L. East teams. In what’s admittedly a small sample size, he has not done well against those clubs: 2-for-35 with 16 strikeouts.

This doesn’t seem like it will end well for Randal. Good luck in the American League, buddy. Cubs pitchers will be relieved to see you go. And the Cubs aren’t scheduled to play the Blue Jays again until 2020.