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The Toronto Blue Jays added their second former Houston Astros slugger in as many days, agreeing to a three-year contract with designated outfielder / hitter Michael Brantley on Wednesday, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The Jays reached an agreement on a six-year, $ 150 million contract with former Astros center fielder George Springer on Tuesday night, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
News of the Brantley deal was first reported by sports presenter Hazel Mae.
Brantley, 33, has struggled with injuries for much of his career – last season it was a quad that took him to spend time on the injured list. While those injuries took his power down, he remains a dangerous hitter with a high hit rate and low putout rate.
In 46 games with the Astros in 2020, alternating left field and DH, Brantley hit. 300, with five homers, 22 RBIs and an OPS of 0.840.
He’s reached at least 0.300 in five seasons since 2014, tied with four others for most of those baseball seasons during that span. He has also hit in just 10.1% of his home plate appearances since 2014, third best in baseball in that span, with a low of 2,000 home plate appearances.
During a 12-year career with the Cleveland Indians and Astros, Brantley is averaging .297, with 114 home runs, 640 RBIs and a .794 OPS. He has been an All-Star four times and in 2014 he finished third in the MVP vote.
Brantley was playing on a two-year, $ 32 million contract he signed ahead of the 2019 season.
ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.
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