The Toronto Blue Jays added their second former Houston Astros slugger in as many days, accepting a three-year contract with Michael Brantley on Wednesday, which has been confirmed for ESPN.
Jays reached an agreement on a six-year, $ 150 million contract with former Astros player George Springer on Tuesday night, ESPN sources told Jeff Passan.
The news of Brantley’s agreement was first reported by athlete Hazel Mae.
Brantley, 33, has been sidelined with injuries for most of her career – last season, a quad caused her to spend time on the injured list. While those injuries have reduced his power count, he remains a dangerous hitter with a high contact rate and low hit ratio.
In 46 games with Astros in 2020, alternating between left field and DH, Brantley hit. 300, with five homers, 22 RBI and an OPS of .840.
He hit at least .300 in five seasons in 2014, tied with four others for most such baseball seasons at the time. He also eliminated just 10.1% of his appearances on the field in 2014, the third best baseball player of that period, with at least 2,000 appearances on the field.
In a 12-year career with the Cleveland Indians and Astros, Brantley averaged .297, with 114 homers, 640 RBI and a .794 OPS. He was an All-Star four times, and in 2014 he finished third in the MVP voting.
Brantley is playing on a two-year, $ 32 million contract he signed before the 2019 season.
ESPN statistics and information contributed to this report.