Opinion | Why Kevin Kiermaier is back with the Blue Jays — and never wanted to leave
The Blue Jays’ first free-agent signing of the off-season wasn’t expected to be Kevin Kiermaier. Heck, the four-time Gold Glove centre-fielder wasn’t expected to be back at all.
In his end-of-season media conference, general manager Ross Atkins named the 33-year-old among a group of players the Jays would miss. In a November appearance on “Deep Left Field,” the Star’s baseball podcast, Kiermaier himself talked about Toronto in the past tense.
But after finding the MLB market lacked the offers he’d hoped for, Kiermaier got a phone call just before Christmas that brought him back to a team he never really wanted to leave.
“It was just one of those things like, OK, Blue Jays have interest, a couple of other teams, too,” Kiermaier said in an exclusive interview on this week’s “Deep Left Field.” “Then out of nowhere Friday night, about 10:30, I was in my backyard and my agents called and said, ‘Hey, Ross (Atkins) wants to get something done, let’s see what we can do.’
Kiermaier agreed to a one-year deal worth $10.5 million (U.S.), a nice bump over the $9 million he made this past season, in which he played 129 games (matching his highest total since 2015), posted a .741 on-base plus slugging percentage (his highest since 2017) and won that fourth Gold Glove.
Despite indications to the contrary early in the off-season, Toronto is where he wanted to be.
“I didn’t want to leave this group,” said Kiermaier. “I know I said I had a preference to get off (artificial) turf and all that … but at the end of the day, I said: I hope they have interest … because if I went back to Toronto, I know I would be more than happy.
“This is a group that I want to be a part of once again. I am so thrilled, thankful for another great opportunity to play on the most talented team possible. I (had been thinking): Man … if I do go somewhere else, there’s no way it’s going to be more talented than the Blue Jays.”
All that talent amounted to 89 wins this past season, one fewer than the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers. But it also resulted in the Jays sneaking into the sixth and final playoff spot in the American League and a quick-as-lightning first-round exit against the Minnesota Twins in which they scored just one run in two games.
“With the starting pitching, with the bullpen, we were so good,” Kiermaier said. “I feel like we underperformed offensively as a unit throughout the whole year.”
The 10-year veteran feels that lessons were learned: “I think last year was a big wake-up call for all of us for how we perform offensively, and with this group and with this talent, players are going to post numbers and do things like they always (have). This is going to be a big bounceback year for the boys.”
Kiermaier assumes his role will be the same as it was — playing centre field for the vast majority of games — hitting at or near the bottom of the batting order, but he’s been given no guarantees.
“Whatever they have me do, I’m going to do it, obviously,” said the Indiana native, whose next move will be calling up his Toronto real estate agent to see if the Forest Hill house he rented this year is on the market again. “But I’m going to work to play as much as I can, be an everyday player out there in centre field. That’s what I’m going to try to do, but wherever they want to plug me in or use me, I’m all for it …
“I don’t know what Ross has up his sleeve, but I know never to sleep on that man or what they’re trying to accomplish. They want to win. They’re for real, and that’s why I’m a Blue Jay again.”
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