Well, even if fields fine, Grissom will probably still be the better option. Grissom's minor league hitting performance is comparable to Casas. We're talking about a guy who was 135 wrc+ at AAA last year, 147 at AA, and 146 and better at A+. Casas, for comparison, was about 130 at AAA and 142 at AA. He could be a monster hitter. Valdez I'd project to be a league average guy. 10 war for his career would be a upper quartile outcome for him, I would think. Grissom has a chance to be a guy who's worth 3-4 WAR year-in, year-out, and better if his defense ends up being above average at 2b (which I'm not really in the business of predicting). I know we don't like batting average anymore, but it's hard to ignore that he never hit below .311 in a full minor league season, and he posted on-base percentages of .400 at every stop except rookie ball, ironically. For god's sake, the guy dominated the minor leagues.
Grissom:
Valdez:
I think Valdez is a guy who will probably be between 95-115 wrc+ for his career, but his defense might range from average to below average. If the patience he demonstrated in the upper minors never materializes, he'll also be on the lower range of that wrc+ spectrum and might wash out.
) but yeah, I think as it stands the short-term absence of Grissom early on will have very little effect on the results or quality of play.
