The Top 50 Blue Jays of All Time: 20 to 16

Jays Centre is counting down the top 50 Blue Jays in franchise history. Check out prior entries in the series here:

• Introduction
• 50 to 46
• 45 to 41
• 40 to 36
• 35 to 31
• 30 to 26
• 25 to 21

A ‘F****** A trade.’ It’s the type of trade that Billy Beane said in Moneyball “causes everyone else in the business to say,” well, you know. His acquisition of Ray Durham that year garnered such noise, but over a decade later, Oakland’s general manager would find himself on the wrong end of one. After losing in the previous years' Wild Card game, Beane said he “had to do something that wasn’t timid” and, in doing so, broke one of his own golden rules, handing Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos his own ‘F****** A trade.’

Beane broke Rule #2, as told to Michael Lewis: “The day you say you have to do something, you're screwed. Because you are going to make a bad deal.” Mmhmm. (photo credit: Canadian Press)

No. 20: Josh Donaldson

• 15th among Toronto position players in bWAR (19.8)
• 2015 American League Most Valuable Player
• Two-time American League All-Star (2015 and '16)

The drum break in Phil Collins’ "In The Air Tonight" has never sounded better than it did bringing Josh Donaldson to the plate in Toronto. His arrival in 2015 turned the Blue Jays’ high-powered offence into a juggernaut. Donaldson paced the prolific lineup in home runs (41), RBI (123), and OPS+ (151) while leading the majors with 122 runs scored. 23 of 30 MVP ballots came back with Donaldson atop, making him the second Toronto player to ever win the AL’s top individual player prize.

Donaldson continued his elite play in ‘16 and scored the winning run of the ALDS from second base on a ball that never left the infield. The image of Donaldson diving airborne headfirst into home plate was an encapsulation of what the Bringer of Rain brought, but as the Blue Jays’ successes dwindled, the mercurial side of the player came into view. A dead-armed Donaldson fielded his position like Christian Hackenberg on Opening Day ‘18, the start of a bitter year that Donaldson spent mostly on the injured list before he was traded to Cleveland on August 31. 

Any hard feelings from the final of those four whirlwind seasons quickly passed by. An ovation greeted him at Rogers Centre a year later when he returned with the Braves, by which time Donaldson regretted how things had ended with Toronto. To everyone's delight, they haven’t. Donaldson played a key role in ending Toronto’s playoff drought and re-energizing crowds inside the dome, a crowd he once again basked in when he was tapped to throw the first pitch before Game 2 of last year's ALCS against Seattle. 

No. 19: Jim Clancy

• Fifth among Toronto pitchers in bWAR (24.8)
• Second most innings pitched in team history (2,204.2), behind Dave Stieb
• Third in wins (132) and strikeouts (1,237), behind Stieb and Roy Halladay

It was the worst day in the team’s short history. Sitting at 34-62 in their first season, Toronto called up Jim Clancy to make his first big league start against the Texas Rangers, the organization Clancy was selected from in the previous winter's expansion draft. Looking shaky from the start, Clancy lasted only 13 batters, eight of which reached during a 14-0 onslaught. Manager Roy Hartsfield knew his young starter had more to offer, and as he put it after the game, “We’re not going to shoot him between the eyes.”

Thank goodness for that. Clancy became Toronto’s only respectable starter in the team's second season, and along with newcomer Dave Stieb, the duo provided the Blue Jays with some punch at the top of the rotation, as the team became competitive in the ‘80s. Clancy was Toronto’s Opening Day starter in ‘81 and ‘84 and was an All-Star in ‘82, a year he led the majors with 40 starts. Teammates and fans alike knew the Jays had a chance when Clancy took to the mound. Everyone wants their starting pitcher to be a horse, and few in team history fit that bill better. 

No. 18: Lloyd Moseby

• Sixth among Toronto position players in bWAR (26.0)
• Blue Jays stolen base leader (255)
• Fourth-most games played in team history (1,392)

Lloyd Moseby had hoop dreams. Growing up in the Bay Area, “Shaker” blew by opponents on the court and wanted to be like Warriors star Rick Berry. There was time for other sports, and like many childhoods in Oakland, Moseby found himself on the baseball diamond, just “for the hell of it.” He befriended a few guys a couple years older than him, battling in ping pong matches with Rickey Henderson and getting his first pair of cleats from Dave Stewart. Moseby had natural talent for the game, and when the Blue Jays gave him $60,000 as the second pick of the ‘78 draft, he turned down Division I basketball scholarships and began to accelerate towards the major leagues.

Moseby went 2-for-4 against the Yankees in his debut on May 24, 1980, before going 3-for-5 with his first home run the following afternoon at Exhibition Stadium. It was just a momentary flash. Called up as a 20-year-old, Moseby struggled with big league pitching but showed improvements after Cito Gaston was brought on as the hitting coach in ‘82. The next season, Moseby was named Blue Jays MVP, posting career highs in every offensive category, netting a 59-point increase in OPS+ from the previous year. His bat remained productive as Toronto’s starting center fielder throughout the 1980s, but at the heart of it, he was always Shaker. He is sixth all-time among Blue Jays in total bases, second in triples, fielded next to George Bell, and still holds the franchise-high mark for steals.

No. 17: Ernie Whitt

• 17th among Toronto position players in bWAR (19.2)
• Third-highest defensive bWAR in team history (9.1)
• Sixth-most games played in team history (1,218)

Not many have the staying power of Ernie Whitt. The only catcher taken by Toronto in the expansion draft, Whitt shuttled from Triple A to Toronto over the team's first couple seasons before he broke into the big leagues for good in 1980. He didn’t receive over 300 at-bats until his age-31 season in ‘83, but from that point on, Whitt provided the Blue Jays a reliable and consistent performer behind the plate for the remainder of the decade. The Detroit-born backstop became an adopted athlete of Canada with his play, and he continues to represent the country, with the 2026 World Baseball Classic marking the 27th year he has managed the national team.

Whitt relished playing his hometown Tigers, whom he cheered for as a kid. He hit 23 of his 134 career home runs against Detroit, with 11 coming at Tiger Stadium, which was also the site of his biggest pain. After a collision with Milwaukee’s Paul Molitor on the basepaths broke two of his ribs, Whitt was forced to watch from the dugout as the Tigers took the AL East with a season-ending three-game sweep of Toronto in ‘87. Whitt stayed for two more seasons, and his Blue Jays career ended in a five-game defeat by Oakland in the ALCS, but his presence through the ‘80s helped put the franchise on the course for world titles. 

No. 16: Edwin Encarnación

• Eighth among Toronto position players in bWAR (24.9)
• Third-most home runs in team history (239)
• Three-time American League All-Star (2013, ‘14, and ‘16)

When Edwin Encarnación was acquired from Cincinnati as part of the return for Scott Rolen at the 2009 trade deadline, all general manager J.P. Ricciardi could do was talk about the other two players he acquired in his didn’t-know-it-yet final trade. Josh Roenicke was going to be a good fit for the bullpen. Zach Stewart had been on Toronto's radar since his draft year. Encarnación? Crickets. Included by Cincinnati to shed salary and now a Toronto payroll problem, Edwin displayed good power but little else in an audition during the final two months of the season.

The parrot almost never walked. Encarnación shot a firecracker off his face in the winter and started the 2010 season with an injured wrist. Marred by struggles at the plate and his ‘E5’ moniker, he was taken off the hot corner and designated for assignment. He returned when replacement Jarrett Hoffpauir was oodles worse, but the Blue Jays left him exposed to waivers in the offseason, where he was claimed briefly by Oakland before becoming a free agent. Encarnación unexpectedly re-signed with Toronto and played well enough in 2011 for Anthopoulos to pick up an option year on his contract. 

With Toronto up three runs on Seattle on April 28, 2012, Edwin stepped to the plate with bases loaded in the eighth inning. His excitement over the grand slam hit off Hisashi Iwakuma would cause him, in his words, to turn like an airplane as he rounded the bases. Whatever it was, a Boeing, an Edwing, a parrot, everyone liked it – especially the frequency with which the celebration was used during a breakout 42 home run season. From that point on in his 239 homer-long journey with Toronto, the parrot perched on the slugger’s arm after every long ball. One of his final home runs as a Blue Jay was his lasting moment, a proper funeral for Buck Showalter’s extra innings incompetence in the 2016 Wild Card game. The parrot never walked in a louder environment.