In short, an old battery mate and former Los Angeles Dodger wants Hyun-Jin Ryu back on his side. Indeed, that player is current Chicago White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal.
Interestingly, the subject came up on Tuesday at the MLB Winter Meetings with Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. With the White Sox in the mix for starting pitching like a solid two thirds of the league, Grandal was asked about his former teammate and current free agent Ryu.
Grandal on Ryu: “If he wants to come over we have a really good relationship. Obviously we’ve known each other for a while now. I love catching him, too. It’s just a matter of how the market plays out… I did my job to have as much a say in it as I could.” pic.twitter.com/zwe8dkjG80
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) December 10, 2019
Without a doubt, Grandal’s response to Sullivan is an interesting one. Here is the direct quote from the former Dodgers’ catcher who spent 2019 in Milwaukee as a Brewer.
“If he wants to come over we have a really good relationship. Obviously we’ve known each other for a while now. I love catching him, too. It’s just a matter of how the market plays out. I did my job to have as much a say in it as I could.”
Well now, did you know that Grandal could not only serve as a big league catcher but a recruiting arm for an MLB team? In an almost amazing turn of events, I never realized during his Dodger tenure from 2015 to 2018 that Grandal had this type of vibrant personality.
Remember, Hyun-Jin Ryu is a superstar across several continents and an icon all over the world. Certainly if Grandal has the ability and part of his job is to recruit new teammates, where was that ability a short time ago with the Dodgers?
Of course, this is in jest; but the quote reads a little funny from Grandal. He’s coming off the best offensive season of his career where he homered 28 times and had an OPS of .848 for the Brewers. Then, Grandal became one of the first players to sign after the 2019 season ended when he agreed to a four-year pact with the White Sox.
Now, he’s recruiting Ryu according to himself. What do you think Dodgers Nation? Does Grandal have any pull with his old battery mate?