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TORONTO — About 12 hours before being traded away from the only major-league home Kevin Pillar had ever known, it felt like he saw the writing on the wall.

Standing at his locker inside the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse Monday night after being left on the bench for the series opener against the Baltimore Orioles, the 30-year-old outfielder quietly touched on the possibility of being traded.

“The human side of you can’t completely eliminate those thoughts,” Pillar whispered in an empty clubhouse. “When I’m at home and I’m settled into my place and I’ve got a wife and kid to worry about, that stuff is never easy.”

Little did he know, there was a call coming the next morning.

Rumours had been swirling, and the Kendrys Morales trade on the eve of the season starting had opened Pillar’s eyes to the reality.

On Tuesday morning, those rumours quickly came to fruition, with Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins dialing Pillar’s cellphone at about 10:30 a.m. to tell the California native he had been traded to the San Francisco Giants.

“A lot of mixed emotions,” said Pillar, who asked to speak with the Toronto media as he quickly packed up his locker. “I think some relief in some way. I think you hear some rumours in the off-season, something new to me, at least. I feel like ever since I’ve been here it’s kind of been a topic of conversation: ‘How are you going to deal with it? What do you think about it? How do you play with it?’ I think in some weird way it’s a bit of a relief.”

That was the first time Pillar had heard directly from the Jays front office about any sort of potential deal, but the Morales trade last Thursday prepared him for the business side of the sport and it was no secret he wasn’t a big part of the team’s future plans.

“I wasn’t anticipating it being today ... you never really think it’s going to happen until it happens,” Pillar said. “You never really anticipate it happening this early in the year. What happened with K-Mo kind of really lets you know it can happen at any time, even on the eve of opening day. I’m not going to say I was surprised by it. I think if K-Mo was still here and he didn’t get traded and I got traded four or five days into the season, I would be a little bit more shocked but after K-Mo was sent on the day before opening day, I think everyone is a little bit more aware that it can happen at any time, any place.”

On the field, Pillar played with emotion and reckless abandon, somehow managing to stay relatively healthy through all the meetings with the centre-field wall.

The emotion poured out in a different way on this day, and you could see him working his way through the divorce from the organization that drafted him in the 32nd round of the 2011 draft.

Late picks like him aren’t supposed to make it at all.

Not only did Pillar make it, but he turned into a fan favourite with a nickname usually reserved for stars.

On winning ball clubs in 2015 and 2016, Superman was a vital piece, hitting down in a potent lineup and providing defence and grit in spades.

As that lineup disintegrated around him and Pillar was expected to do more, take another step as a hitter, he became exposed in a leading role.

That’s not his game, and it was only expected of him because of the failures of others around him, whether that be teammates not getting it done or the front office’s inability to build a capable roster.

Pillar’s tenure in Toronto ends with a .260/.297/.396 slash line, 55 homers and 69 stolen bases, but it’s the miles long reel of highlight catches he leaves behind that everyone will remember.

“How did he get up from that one?” was a question asked in the press box time and time again over the years.

“I got called up as a 24-year-old kid that had no intentions of getting to the big leagues,” a teary-eyed Pillar said. “I was able to have my debut here in Toronto as, like I said, a 24-year-old kid.

I’m leaving here as a 30-year-old man with a wife and a kid. Just a lifetime of memories. I’m not Superman .... this city and this country kind of allowed me to almost become kind of a mythical kind of superhuman baseball player and I can’t thank them enough for that.”

The package of three players coming to Toronto from the rebuilding Giants is unlikely to erase those memories anytime soon.

Utility infielder Alen Hanson, 26, and right-handed reliever Derek Law, 28, are depth — Hanson will join the Jays this week, and Law is slated for the Triple-A bullpen — while 21-year-old pitching prospect Juan De Paula is the lottery ticket.

Even though he has yet to pitch above A-ball, the wiry right-hander has already been traded three times, which speaks more to the fact he’s been in demand as a trade chip rather than a spare part that’s bouncing around.

“De Paula will most likely go to one of our A-ball clubs,” Atkins said. “We have not yet determined (which one yet), but he is a young, exciting arm with a mid-90s fastball and the weapons to strike guys out, and the attributes to be a starting pitcher.”

One night after drawing just 10,460 fans to the ballpark, the smallest crowd the Rogers Centre has seen since April 2010, the roster is without yet another familiar face.

Atkins continues to point to the long-term plan and, to his credit, he hasn’t wavered, despite more and more criticism and fewer and fewer fans in the seats.

“If we were doing things to be popular, we would be focused on big names on the back of jerseys and the constant acquisition of those names that are household,” Atkins said. “That, sometimes, can be very productive and it will be. There will be a time for us when it certainly will be. It will be coming.”​