TORONTO — The Jason Grilli nameplate above his locker was replaced by a message on Tuesday.
It read “Stay in the fight.”
Little more needs to be said about the kind of teammate the Blue Jays lost Tuesday when the team designated Grilli, the 40-year-old reliever, for assignment. His farewell to a team he has become a big part of in a very short time was typical of the kind of man he was.
Since making himself an important cog in the Jays bullpen a year ago — after a trade with Atlanta slotted him in as Roberto Osuna’s main set-up man — Grilli’s success and his usage rate has fallen off precipitously in 2017.