Mike LeSage

Facing Hunter Feduccia to lead off the fourth inning and throwing a four-seam fastball on a 2-2 pitch, Kevin Gausman notched the 2000th strikeout of his career. Of those 2000, 510 have come in that count. It also marked the 468th time that Gausman had sat down the leadoff hitter of an inning on strikes. Since joining the Blue Jays in 2022, Gausman has recorded 839 of his strikeouts. That total has him sitting seventh all-time with the Jays. Another 105 this season and he’ll catch Jimmy Key for sixth place. Gausman is a free agent at the end of this season, so if he has plans on cracking the top five, he’ll likely need to sign an extension. In 2023, Gausman notched 237 strikeouts, leading the AL and marking the fourth-highest single-season total ever for a Blue Jays pitcher. It was most by a Jays pitcher who didn’t go on to win the Cy Young Award. His 205 Ks in 2022 and 189 Ks in 2025 sit as the eighth and 13th best seasons in franchise history. Gausman was the Opening Day starter for Toronto this season and came out of the gates flying, chalking up 11 strikeouts against a free-swinging Athletics team and setting his high-water mark for the season (so far). He had 10 Ks in his next start, making it the 21st time Gausman notched double-digit strikeouts in a game with Toronto. His career best mark is 13 strikeouts in a game, a feat he achieved twice in Toronto, both in 2023. In one of those games, against Seattle, Gausman struck out Cal Raleigh and Teoscar Hernández three times each (Jordan Romano would face them later in the game and secure golden sombreros for both hitters). After those two starts, Gausman has cooled off some and hasn’t had more than five strikeouts in a game since (he would leave the milestone game with five Ks). In fact, in his last three starts going into the milestone game, he’d had three or fewer Ks, his lowest for a three-game stretch in Toronto. Not since 2014 in Baltimore has Gausman had a three-start stretch with so few strikeouts (he went 3-2-3 then too). Having spent the bulk of his career in the AL East, it should be no surprise that each of the three active players Gausman has struck out the most also spent a chunk of time here. Xander Bogaerts has gone down on strikes against him 13 times, while Trevor Story represents 15 of Gausman’s career Ks. No one is close to Aaron Judge’s 20, though. Just over 1.4% of the time when Judge has struck out in his career, he’s looked at the mound and seen Gausman standing there. Ahead of this season, we had Gausman as the 25th best Blue Jay of all time and the only active pitcher to make the Top 50. If we made a list of the Top 50 Contracts in Blue Jays History, there’s a fair shot that Gausman would have placed even higher. His five-year, $110 million deal was notably $5 million less than the deal Robbie Ray would get on his way out of Toronto. Gausman stepped into that ace role and earned a spot as one of the franchise’s greats. Here’s to 2000 more! View full article

The 2025 Blue Jays had a season so magical we’re likely to talk about it for a generation. The home stretch and finish of the season is what will stick the most in our memories, while the start of the season might have been mostly forgotten if not for the team seeming to play the same song again this year. Through 36 games last year, the Jays were 16-20, a record identical to that of this year’s team. Last year, they started May with a pair of wins and then dropped four in a row – again, identical to this season. The game and the at-bat many credited with turning the team around last season happened towards the end of May. Going into their game on May 28, 2025, the Blue Jays held a 26-28 record and sat third in the AL East. Through eight innings, Toronto had left eight runners on base and was mired in a 0-0 draw with Texas (five Jays pitchers on a bullpen day combined to one-hit the Rangers and keep the game within reach). Ernie Clement led off the ninth inning with a single and was standing on second base with two outs in what looked like a carbon copy of so many failed innings before it. That was, of course, until Bo Bichette, called on as a pinch-hitter for the first time in his career, took an 0-1 pitch, sent it into the front row of the left field bleachers and single-handedly turned the Jays' season around. That might seem like hyperbole, but Jesse Burrill wrote, “You could argue this was the point where everything started for this team.” Manager John Schneider touted that game as the one that flipped the switch and put the Jays on the path they ended up on. They would win nine of their next 10, get above .500 and put themselves in position to take over the division by July. Now, with Bichette gone, where might we find that spark? Cory Sparks looked at how Ernie Clement is doing so far as a Bichette replacement, and while the power profiles are certainly different, Clement has had enough clutch hits that he could come up with the spark that ignites the season. If we’re looking for a power bat to light things up, we shouldn’t have to look further than the returning Addison Barger. Sam Charles talked about the roster ramifications of Barger’s return, and maybe it will be one of the guys that keeps a roster spot that comes up with the magic. It’s early May, and it’s a long season, but if Toronto is going to turn the ship around, that work needs to start this month. Of course, for the flip side, we don’t have to go any further back than the season before the magical ‘25. Through 36 games in 2024, the Jays sported a record of, you guessed it, 16-20. The turning point we’re looking for now never came for that team, and they never got above .500 and would sit fifth in the division from mid-June until game 162. Through some combination of parity, luck and schedule oddities, this year’s Jays team is only a game and a half out of a Wild Card spot. On May 7, 2025 they were 3.0 back, and it was 4.5 games on the same date in 2024. We seem to be at a crossroads, and the path that is taken from here will make all the difference. View full article

You see the "DNP - Coach's Decision" used regularly in basketball box scores, but rarely as an interview sound bite. I'm curious to see when Schneider deploys this again.

Last year, we looked at nine milestones across four levels of likelihood. Six of them were hit (all of the most likely ones), while the others are now closer to being realized. We also have a few new faces on the squad this year, so let's take a look at who might be putting up some round numbers this season. For the purposes of this article, we will be recognizing the aging curve for players but generally assuming a healthy season. Countdown stats as of Opening Day 2026. From the Mound Max Scherzer - 3500 strikeouts (11 away) Kevin Gausman - 2000 strikeouts (46 away) José Berríos - 1500 strikeouts (19 away) Shane Bieber - 1000 strikeouts (5 away) The four starters on the verge of strikeout milestones should all hit them fairly quickly. Bieber and Berríos have started the season on the IL, but Berríos is already throwing in Dunedin, and Bieber, whose timeline is less clear, has the potential for a May return. Assuming they are healthy enough to make a handful of starts, they’ll hit their marks. Gausman has already come out of the gate flying, knocking his number down to 35, and I don’t think there is anyone that could drag Scherzer away from the field before he gets the 11 Ks he needs. It’s kind of incredible to think that while Gausman sits sixth on the active strikeout list, he would need the entirety of Berríos’ career (16th active) to catch up with Scherzer (2nd active, 64 behind Verlander). Max Scherzer - 3000 innings (37 away) Kevin Gausman - 2000 innings (89 away) Tyler Rogers - 500 games pitched (80 away) Longevity milestones are less exciting, but still worth celebrating. Only 30 pitchers have made it to 3000 innings since 1977, and Scherzer will soon join them. Rogers has led the league in appearances four times in his career already. His career high is 81, and he’s already been called on twice in the Jays’ first two games, so this one is in play too. Ernie, Varsh and The Kirk Alejandro Kirk, Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement are all within striking distance of a handful of the same milestones. Some should fall early, while others will be a full-season chase. 500 hits (Kirk 11 away, Clement 158 away, Varsho 13 away) 100 doubles (Kirk 18 away, Clement 35 away) 200 runs (Kirk 16 away, Clement 27 away) 300 RBI (Kirk 37 away, Varsho 5 away) 100 home runs (Varsho 1 away) Clement had a career-high 151 hits last season, so he’ll need to improve on that if he wants to hit 500, but after the postseason he had, I wouldn’t bet against him. His 35 doubles last season were also a career high, but with two in the first two games and no threat to his playing time, I think he gets this one too. Kirk has had between 16 and 19 doubles in each of the last four seasons, so he has a good chance too, but we likely don’t need to check in on the doubles count until September. Kirk’s first RBI and run of the season came on Toronto’s first home run of the season. He should hit both milestones easily. The Spokesmen Ahead of the first game of the season, it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer that addressed the crowd before unveiling the newest banner to hang in the Rogers Centre. This season they should both surpass their share of round numbers. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - 200 home runs (17 away) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - 700 RBI (109 away) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - 1000 games (25 away) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - 600 runs (29 away) George Springer - 300 home runs (7 away) George Springer - 1000 runs (18 away) Vladdy is coming up on 1000 games, while Springer is closing down on 1000 runs, and there is a small chance that if things break just right, they hit the marks in the same game. Both players also have a home run milestone coming up. Springer is 15th on the active homers list and could see himself leapfrog a few players this season. Guerrero projects to have close to 100 runs and RBI each season, so he could very well be an annual inclusion for this column. If he hits the 700 RBI mark this season, we’ll truly be celebrating. Round Numbers with Less Celebration Andrés Giménez - 100 HBP (16 away) Nathan Lukes - 100 runs (27 away), 100 RBI (23 away) Giménez has double-digit hit by pitches in each of the last four seasons, including a league-leading 25 back in 2023. Shea Hillenbrand’s franchise record of 22 could be in trouble if Giménez regains that ‘23 form. For Lukes, this would be more of a celebration of him earning and keeping his spot on the team, but 100 of anything at the major league level is nothing to sneer at. View full article

Every participating writer had these players as their top two. Not everyone had them in this order, but it was always this pair. There are arguments that can be made for flipping the order and I made those same arguments myself, but I’m less interested in knocking one of these guys to build the other one up - I just want to celebrate them both. I even considered cheating the process and leaving the top two unranked, but that felt a little underhanded and I wouldn’t want to deny those that have been following along of the payoff. For full transparency, I submitted my ballot with these two in the order they appear today. If we did it again a year from now there is no guarantee I wouldn’t flip them again, it’s that close. These two pitched in different eras, but have a beautifully poetic moment of overlap. It also feels very quintessentially Torontonian that both players were the absolute peak of performance for multiple seasons, but the teams they were surrounded by couldn’t elevate them to allow for some of the playoff heroics we’ve documented with other players on this list. Not to say that these two don’t have a signature game to point to - in fact, I think one of them is pretty obvious - but with these two we can talk about a few special moments. #2 Dave Stieb (1979-1992, 1998) 7x All-Star Franchise All-Time #1: bWAR (56.9), wins (175), innings pitched (2873), strikeouts (1658), games started (408), complete games (103), shutouts (30), quality starts (244) Single Season #1: Innings pitched (288.1), complete games (19), shutouts (5) The Legend of Stieb is almost more outsized than his accomplishments, and considering how many franchise #1 spots he occupies that’s saying something. He played college ball as an outfielder and was pressed into service as a pitcher when his team was shorthanded. It turned out he was a pretty good pitcher. Drafted by the Jays in June of 1978, he would make his Major League debut in June the following year. He would go on to be the best starting pitcher of the 80s and would lead the league in bWAR for three consecutive seasons from ‘82-’84. That stretch of dominance hadn’t happened since Lefty Grove in the 1930s. He was selected as an All-Star seven times (more than any other Jay), so within the context of the Toronto team he was recognized for his performance. A look at the Cy Young voting in his peak years suggests that maybe he was underrated (or unfairly penalized for being on an up-and-coming team) on the larger scale. Similarly, the lack of Cy Youngs (there’s an easy argument for him deserving three (or more)) combined with his delayed eligibility for the Hall of Fame may have conspired to knock him off of the ballot in his first year, receiving only 1.4% of the vote. 12 players that shared space on the ballot with Stieb are now in the Hall - we’ll save the debate about how many of them Stieb was better than for another day - but none of them (including two former Jays) are on the Level of Excellence. The Moment(s): If you were going to pick a single game or moment for Stieb it would have to be the no-hitter. On September 2, 1990, Stieb achieved the feat that no other Blue Jay, before or since has been able to do. He got his elusive no-hitter. Jon Bois and the good people at Secret Base did an incredible job with their 4-part documentary chronicling Stieb’s chase for this milestone and the absurd number of times he was *that close* to it before finally getting his white whale. No one in the franchise’s history has as many complete games or as many shutouts as Stieb and everyone else is tied for second when it comes to no-hitters. The moment I’d like to shine a little light on comes after the no hitter. That 1990 season marked the final time Stieb would throw 200+ innings in a year. He had averaged 222 innings per season for 12 straight years, so it’s hard to say that injuries cut his career short, but Steib always felt like a guy who could pitch forever - until he couldn’t. In 1991 he had pitched just under 60 innings through April and May (adding another complete game along the way) until a collision while covering first base led to a back issue requiring surgery and ending his season. In 1992 he would make it almost to 100 innings (one more CG mixed in) before again ending his season prematurely in August. By this time the chronic back and shoulder issues he was battling were too much to overcome and after missing out on the ‘92 playoff and World Series run was released by Toronto in the offseason. The less said about his 22.1 innings in Chicago the better. He would return to the organization as a spring training coach in 1998. While throwing and coaching Stieb noticed that his old injuries weren’t bothering him like they used to and that he was able to pitch again - at age 40. This wasn’t just a ‘franchise great re-signs with former team to announce retirement’ kind of move. Like he did throughout his career, Stieb put in the work. He threw 81 innings in the minors working himself into a position where he fully deserved the call-up. He would pitch just over 50 innings in the majors, mainly in a relief role, but making three spot starts along the way. Most importantly, it allowed Stieb to retire on his own terms. #1 Roy Halladay (1998-2009) 6x All-Star, Cy Young, Hall of Famer Franchise All-Time #1: fWAR (48.6), WPA (29.8) Single Season #1: Wins (22), BB/9 (1.08) Roy Halladay would make his debut with the Blue Jays on September 20, 1998. He would start the game and pitch five innings, giving up two earned runs and striking out five. The first line in the box score for the bottom of the sixth inning reads: “Dave Stieb replaces Roy Halladay pitching” and while that was true for the game, the opposite was happening for the franchise. A week later Halladay would make his next start and give the most Stieb-like performance possible. A complete game, one-hitter. That one hit came with two outs in the ninth inning and blew up Halladay’s no-hit bid and shutout with one swing. The most poetic part of the whole thing was that the ball landed in the Blue Jays bullpen and was grabbed by Stieb. “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” doesn’t feel like it cuts it, but it does feel notable that we had both of these pitchers here together if only for a brief time. Halladay was once described as pitching with “grim determination” and that was a phrase that always stuck with me. It often felt like he didn’t necessarily *want* to be pitching, but that he *had* to be pitching. Again, much like Stieb before him, Halladay hated to give the ball up. Where Stieb has the franchise lead for wins, strikeouts and shutouts, Halladay is the next up. How close he came to never appearing on any of these lists is a hard thing to quantify, but in the 2000 season he struggled. “Struggled” is really putting it mildly, and a bit of a disservice to every pitcher that has ever struggled to find ‘it’ on the mound. Halladay was bad. Where Stieb’s story is one of almost immediate and lasting greatness, Halladay’s is that of the phoenix rising from the ashes. Gord Ash(es), the Toronto GM at the time, made the call to demote Halladay. Rather than send him to Triple A as would be the usual move, Halladay was sent all the way down the ladder to Single A. By July of 2001 he would work his way back into the big league rotation, having changed his delivery and regained his confidence, ending the ‘01 season with a complete game shutout. The next two seasons Halladay would lead the league in bWAR and in 2003 his greatness would be recognized with his first Cy Young award. From the time Halladay made his debut in 1998 until his departure after the 2009 season the Blue Jays teams he was a part of only finished better than 3rd in the division one time (a 2nd place, 10 games back, in ‘06). With the likelihood of playoffs on the horizon seemingly dim Toronto made the difficult decision to trade Halladay, sending him to the Philadelphia Phillies for Travis d'Arnaud, Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor. This trade felt different than any other I can recall. It was like setting the genie free at the end of Aladdin, or what I imagine parents feel like when their kids move out and start a life on their own. It was a trade made to help the Jays rebuild for the future, sure, but it also gave Halladay something he wasn’t going to get here - postseason baseball. When Halladay went out there and threw a no-hitter in the first postseason start of his career Toronto fans watched with a mix of pride and sadness. It was a similar mix of pride and sadness when he was posthumously elected into the Hall of Fame in 2019. His addition to the Level of Excellence came the year before, along with the retiring of his #32. His legacy lives on throughout the city with Roy Halladay Field in Scarborough, the first fully accessible field in the city. The Moment(s): That second start almost no-hitter is certainly one. His final two starts with Toronto were both complete game shutouts and a fitting way to end his tenure with the franchise. The game(s) I’d like to look at though, came at the end of his Cy Young winning season in 2003. That September Halladay made six starts. Five of them were complete games. Two of them were shutouts. You can take your pick of which was most impressive, but for me it’s the 10 inning game against the Tigers. He went ten innings, faced 35 batters, gave up only 3 hits and did it all on 99 pitches to win 1-0 (shoutout to Bobby Kielty for the walkoff). If you want to take the game before where Halladay struck out 10 Yankees in a complete game win, or the game after where he only needed 93 pitches in a complete game against Tampa, I wouldn’t quibble with you. You could take the last game of the month too - another complete game win to give Halladay the franchise record 22nd win. It was the most dominant month, by the most dominant pitcher this franchise might ever see. View full article

I'll add another one: this season Dave Stieb gets company as another Jays starter throws a no-hitter. Gausman, obviously, is my pick to do it - but I'll hedge slightly.

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 20 to 16 15 to 11 10 to 6 As you might expect for the top of this list, we’re talking about guys that had an extended Blue Jays career, each with over a decade in Toronto. With their time spent here (4000+ combined games) and the impact they each had on this franchise, it may be surprising to think that each of them also has a signature game, one the majority of fans think of first when hearing their name. No. 5: José Bautista 2008-2017 6x All-Star, 3x Silver Slugger Franchise All-Time #1: position player bWAR (38.4), position player fWAR (36.2) Single Season #1: position player bWAR (8.3), offensive bWAR (8.4), home runs (54), walks (132), AB per HR (10.5), win probability added (8.0), wRC+ (180), isolated power (.357) The Career: Bautista was famously acquired by the Blue Jays for the always popular “player to be named later,” and it would only be with the power of hindsight that we came to recognize this as perhaps the most valuable trade in Toronto history. In 2010, he set the franchise record for home runs in a single season and led the league with 54. He would lead the league again the following year with 43 home runs, and his 132 walks in 2011 (including 24 intentional ones) would also be league leaders, making the continued power all the more impressive. From 2010 to 2015, no one would hit more homers than Bautista’s 227, and he was rewarded with an All-Star appearance each of those seasons. Bautista was easily one of the most feared batters of his time. The Game: There might not be a more iconic moment in the top five than the bat flip game. In 2015, the Blue Jays were playing in the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in ‘93 – it was a long drought. The seventh inning of Game 5 of the ALDS had about 10 wild moments before Bautista even came to the plate, but once he did and sent the ball 431 feet to left center – and his bat 40 feet straight up – he cemented himself into Toronto sports history. No. 4: Tony Fernández 1983-1990, 1993, 1998-1999, 2001 4x All-Star, 4x Gold Glover Franchise All-Time #1: Games played (1450), defensive bWAR (12.3), hits (1583), singles (1160), triples (72) Single Season #1: Games played (163), at-bats (687), singles (161), triples (17) The Career: Tony Fernández, the player so nice they acquired him twice, three times, four times! Signed as an amateur free agent, reacquired by trade and then signed as a free agent twice. Fernández spent 12 of his 17 major league seasons in Toronto and has played more games for the Blue Jays (1450) than any other player to wear the Toronto uniform. His four Gold Gloves came in consecutive seasons from ‘86 to '89. He missed out on the award in 1990 and was subsequently (possibly unrelatedly) traded in the offseason, along with Fred McGriff, in the biggest trade the franchise has seen. During the ‘93 season, the defending champion Jays would reach an agreement with the Mets to reacquire Fernández. His postseason performance was a major reason for the second championship. He would leave and return twice more as a free agent, most impressively representing Toronto at the 1999 All-Star game at age 37. The Game: Perhaps he was fueled by missing out on the ‘92 series, or perhaps he was just born to hit the ball and so that’s what he did. In Game 4 of the ‘93 World Series, Fernández put together three hits and knocked in five runs to help lead Toronto to victory, earning almost 30% of the win probability generated in the game. A pair of singles into shallow right field, a hard hit grounder into left and a chopper with the bases loaded that Fernández came within a quarter-of-a-step from beating out combined for five RBI and propelled Fernández to his first (and only) World Series trophy. No. 3: Carlos Delgado 1993-2004 2x All-Star, 3x Silver Slugger Franchise All-Time #1: Offensive bWAR (39.4), slugging percentage (.556), OPS (.949), plate appearances (6018), runs (889), total bases (2786), doubles (343), home runs (336), RBI (1059), walks (827), extra base hits (690), HBP (122), intentional walks (128), AB per HR (14.9), win probability added (28.9) Single Season #1: Slugging % (.664), OPS (1.134), total bases (378), doubles (57), RBI (145), wOBA (.471), runs created (186), extra base hits (99), times on base (334) The Career: Delgado made his debut with three games remaining in the 1993 season. He came into the game in the bottom of the sixth inning as a replacement for catcher Randy Knorr and drew a walk in his only AB, marking his first time on base. He would go on to reach base 2361 more times, a mark that no other Jay can match. The fact that he came up as a catcher and made that one appearance also makes him a sneaky Immaculate Grid pull. Delgado’s timing in Toronto seems almost cruel. In the system, but not on the team when they won the back-to-backs and then gone a decade before the Jays would see the playoffs again. Delgado never got a playoff moment like Bautista or Joe Carter, but that didn’t stop him from putting in work every regular season. Only one player in franchise history has played more games than Delgado, and that's Fernández. Delgado finished second in MVP voting in 2003 while leading the league in RBI and OPS. Once he established a full-time role, he averaged 36 home runs per season for nine years. The best homegrown power source the Jays have ever had. The Game: Towards the end of that 2003 season, Delgado put on one of the most impressive hitting displays ever seen in Toronto. In the bottom of the first inning, he hit a three-run homer to right field. In the fourth inning, it was a leadoff solo shot. The sixth inning? Another leadoff solo shot marked the fifth time in Delgado’s Blue Jays career that he had a three-homer game. Then, in the eighth inning, Delgado made history. Absolutely crushing a ball for his fourth home run of the day, becoming the first (and still only) Blue Jay to have a four-home run game. View full article

Jays Centre is taking a close look at every position on the Toronto Blue Jays heading into the 2026 season. Check out prior entries in the series here: Catcher First Base Second Base Shortstop Third Base Left Field Right Field Toronto Blue Jays Designated Hitters at a Glance Starter: George Springer Backup: Anthony Santander Just Passing Through: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk, anyone rehabbing an injury First Man Up: Eloy Jiménez George Springer won the Silver Slugger Award last season behind a resurgent campaign at age 35. He was hot out of the gates and stayed that way until the season ended. In his ‘slumpiest’ month (June), he still put up a 108 wRC+ (indicating he was 8% better than the league average). In each of July, August, September and October, he was over 200. He led all Blue Jays in Wins Above Replacement (both the Baseball Reference and FanGraphs versions), hit more homers (32) than anyone on the team, and led the club in stolen bases (18) and OPS+ (161). I say if he repeats a season like that, we let him rename the position to whatever he wants. Springer was at his best when hitting in the DH spot, but he only played about half of the Jays’ games there. He also made appearances in all three outfield spots. While the bat stayed hot when Springer was in the field, his time on the defensive side of the ball was below average. He made 57 appearances across the outfield, and you can choose your favourite metric or the good ol’ eye test – it seems pretty clear Springer’s best spot in the lineup is at the DH. The second most DH appearances on the team went to the newly acquired Anthony Santander, who played 30 games at DH (plus an additional 23 in the field). Santander never looked right at the plate, and a (practically) season-ending trip to the IL in May suggests he was probably playing hurt from the beginning (with his outfield wall collision being the proverbial camel’s straw). Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk made 23 and seven appearances at DH, respectively, mainly as maintenance days from their usual position. No one else remaining on the team made more than one. The real question around the DH spot this season will be: Can Springer do it again? Before the news broke that Santander would be missing the majority of this season, both Springer and the Jays as an organization talked about rotating players through the field and DH spots. Springer has continually expressed a desire to play the field, and it will be up to manager John Schnieder to find the right balance of keeping one of his star players happy, fresh and productive. Based on last season, I’d say that can be accomplished. Outside of something happening to another player that necessitates an extended stay at DH, there isn’t anyone healthy on the roster that would threaten Springer’s hold on the position. If Springer went down, however, there also isn’t a clear successor. The Jays have plenty of capable players who could be comfortably rotated through the DH spot if Springer needs a few maintenance days. If he were to see an extended absence from the lineup, one interesting name to consider is Eloy Jiménez. Bryan Jaeger covered how Jiménez could fit on the roster, and Jiménez had more plate appearances at DH in spring training than any other Blue Jay (43 vs Springer’s 41; no other Jay had more than five). That still doesn’t necessarily put him first in line for the call-up, but if he starts the year hot in Buffalo and Springer struggles, there might be some temptation to shake things up. The DH, or OP if you prefer, is Springer’s to lose, and there’s nothing to suggest that this will be the year that it happens. View full article

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 No. 30: Álex Ríos 2004-2009 2x All-Star Álex Ríos was selected by Toronto in the first round (19th overall) of the 1999 amateur draft. He would make his debut at the end of May 2004 and stick with the team for five and a half seasons. Before we started working on our lists for this project, I had already penciled a handful of names in: most of the guys still to come on our countdown, and a lot of the ones already covered (plus a few personal favourites that fell outside of the aggregated top 50). I didn’t initially have Ríos on my list. Maybe it was unfair expectations set on Ríos to begin his career that have tainted my recollection, but I just didn’t remember him being as good as he was. He entered that ‘04 season as the No. 1 prospect in the organization and No. 6 in all of baseball (future Hall of Famer Joe Mauer was No. 1). Bobby Crosby would win the Rookie of the Year award that season, but Ríos received the second-most votes amongst position players. He is a two-time All-Star, but almost cruelly didn’t make it off of the bench in the 2006 game and only came in as a ninth-inning defensive substitution in 2007 (though he finished second in the ‘07 Home Run Derby, behind Vladimir Guerrero Sr.). The Jays teams he was a part of never made the playoffs, and at their peak, finished 10 games back of the division (‘06). It’s not Ríos’ fault that he was here for some of the lean years. On top of being a great defender, in ‘07, he led the team in runs (114) and stolen bases (17) and was behind only Frank Thomas for homers (24) and RBI (85). In ‘08, he led the team in runs (91), SB (32) and RBI (79). Those match his two best seasons by Baseball Reference’s WAR with a 5.6 and 5.9, respectively, which rank as the 24th and 28th best seasons for position players in Jays history. It wasn’t all sunshine and daisies, however. Ríos is also the only Blue Jay in history to strike out five times in a (nine-inning) game on more than one occasion. The second time he ‘accomplished’ that feat came in 2009 during a particularly cold streak that was highlighted by an off-field encounter with a fan after a charity event. That it came the year after he signed the second-most lucrative contract in franchise history, making it all the more unpalatable. Ríos would arguably get the last laugh; as a member of the Kansas City Royals in his final season, he would have a hand in eliminating the Jays from the 2015 playoffs, going on to become a World Series champion (though his negative WPA through those playoffs suggests he may not have been the catalyst). Whether you look back at Ríos’ time with the Jays fondly, or with a twinge of disappointment (or worse), you can’t argue that he didn’t command a spot on our list. No. 29: Fred McGriff 1986-1990 Hall of Famer, Silver Slugger, Crime Dog Fred McGriff was selected by the New York Yankees in the ninth round of the 1981 draft. He was traded in a package to the Jays the following year, when I was just a few months old, and would make his debut in May of 1986. I had McGriff at No. 16 on my list and was worried that I might’ve been ranking with nostalgia-tainted eyes. Not to say that some of my colleagues don’t suffer from the same bias, but I wasn’t even the highest on McGriff, so I feel justified in my opinion. Fred McGriff was the first Blue Jays player I ever loved. I was young, so a player with a nickname based on an animated crime-fighting dog was right in my wheelhouse. The fact that he could effortlessly crush upper-deck home runs from the left side of the plate was a bonus. His 36 home runs in 1989 were the most of any Toronto player in the '80s not named Barfield or Bell. It was also enough to lead the league that season and helped propel McGriff and the Jays to the only playoff appearance of his tenure and McGriff’s first Silver Slugger Award (he would win one in Toronto and two more elsewhere). McGriff wouldn’t get another shot at the playoffs with Toronto; after missing out in 1990, he was traded in the offseason, in what is still the biggest trade in franchise history. The four-player deal included two future Hall of Famers, two (and at one time three) members of the Level of Excellence, and four guys that were easy fan-favourites while they played here. As a young fan, I absolutely hated the trade, though by the end of the ‘93 playoffs, I had softened on it slightly. Those early '90s Jays teams were powerhouses, and I’d like to think they still win the back-to-backs with McGriff here, but as things worked out, he would only have to wait a couple of extra years before winning a World Series of his own with the Atlanta Braves. Somewhat poetically, McGriff's Hall of Fame bid would go the same way: he fell off the ballot initially, only to be enshrined later by the Contemporary Era Committee in 2023. McGriff is one of a small handful of Hall of Famers whose plaque does not have an identifying team. You could make an argument for him wearing a Jays cap, but either way, his journey started as one of Toronto’s best. He’s 13th all-time for home runs (125) and 12th for walks. That combination of power and eye has McGriff sitting third all-time for both on-base and slugging percentages, and he has the highest mark of any Toronto player for adjusted OPS+ at 153. No. 28: Kelly Gruber 1984-1992 2x All-Star, Gold Glover, Silver Slugger Kelly Gruber is an interesting case. He played nine seasons in Toronto, amassed over 3,000 at-bats (19 more than Bo Bichette and good for 21st all-time), and was the first player in franchise history to hit for the cycle – but when I hear his name, there are only two moments that come to mind. The first is being the guy left holding the ball at the end of the ‘triple play that wasn’t (but really was)’ in Game 3 of the 1992 World Series. The way Gruber ended that play really exemplified his style as a player. It wasn’t nearly as flashy as Devon Whyte’s start to the play (I’m sure we’ll cover him shortly), but it was gritty – a single pump fake and a sprint towards the runner followed by an all-out head-first dive to tag Deion Sanders (Gruber would later reveal that he tore his rotator cuff in the dive, making his bottom of the inning home run all the more heroic). The other play came in the very next game. With Gruber standing on second base and Whyte at the plate, a hit into left field gave Gruber the opportunity to score. The throw was cut off, so there was never a play at the plate, but Gruber, who would rank higher on an ‘all intensity’ list, again went all-out and head-first in a leaping dive towards home plate that would make Vladdy proud. The dive was less than textbook (partly because of that damaged rotator cuff) and resulted in a bloody chin (and probably a concussion) for Gruber, but it was also the winning run for the Jays. And we made it this far without mentioning the mullet! All-time great flow. As one of the longest-tenured Jays, Gruber's name is also littered across the career counting stats leaderboards. He’s 23rd all-time for hits (800), 22nd in runs scored (421), 20th for total bases (1335), 19th for home runs (114), 16th for RBI (434) and 14th for stolen bases (80). Somewhat like Ríos, Gruber’s time in Toronto also ended with some negative feelings after a lucrative extension. In 1991, Gruber signed a three-year, $11 million deal that made him the highest-paid third baseman in the league. In that run to the ‘92 World Series, there was a stretch of the regular season that Gruber spent on the IL with a knee injury. There were also reports that during his time away from the team, he was spotted water skiing and playing tennis near his Muskoka cottage (reports that Gruber denies). Whether there was any truth to those rumours, or if it was just a matter of the accumulated injuries, Toronto cut ties with Gruber after that first championship, sending him to the California Angels in the off-season. Gruber would only play 18 games with the Angels before calling it a career (Luis Sojo, who he was traded for, would only play 19 games with Toronto). We’ve lamented the fact before that there isn’t a standout lifelong Jay. Gruber could have been one. No. 27: Russell Martin 2015-2019 All-Star The 21st Canadian-born player to suit up for Toronto was the most impactful. Russell Martin was born in Toronto, but it wasn’t until he was almost a decade into his illustrious career that he was able to connect with the Jays and join the team in 2015 after signing as a free agent. He would represent the Blue Jays at the All-Star game in his first season with the club and be a large factor in one of the most memorable innings in team history. Everyone remembers Jose Bautista’s bat flip, but it was Martin behind the plate in the top of the inning who had his throw back to the pitcher freak-ricochet and allow an absolute dirtbag to score and tie the game. Martin has commented publicly that he was thankful to be leading off the bottom of the inning, allowing him to atone for the error. Facing starter Cole Hamels, who was approaching 100 pitches, Martin hit one back up the middle in what could have been a groundout, but in the first of soon to be several errors by the Texas infield, Martin beat out the (lack of a) throw. His hustle on the next grounder helped force another error and allowed him to be subbed out for a pinch-runner. That gave him a front row seat to watch the Bat Flip – a moment Martin has tipped as his favourite in a Jays uniform. Martin ranks third all-time amongst Jays catchers for fWAR (11.1) and is second all-time for win probability added, lending to the argument that he was the most clutch Canadian this franchise has seen. No. 26: Paul Molitor 1993-1995 Hall of Famer, World Series MVP, 2x All-Star, Silver Slugger Over a 12-game stretch in the fall of 1993, Paul Molitor racked up 21 hits (four doubles, three triples, three home runs), 17 runs, 13 RBI, a 244 wRC+ and a stolen base. With the exception of the stolen base, all those other stats were the best on the team and propelled the Jays to the second of their back-to-back World Series wins and earned Molitor the second WS MVP in franchise history. Molitor signed as a free agent for that ‘93 season, replacing Dave Winfield as the team’s designated hitter – and hit he did. Molitor led the entire league with 211 hits (he would lead the league three times in his career, once with each team he played for) and finished the season with the fourth best bWAR on the team. The righty batter was with Toronto for three seasons and “only” 1,615 at bats, so he lags behind slightly in some of the career counting stats, but his .315 BA over those three seasons is the best the Jays have ever seen. Those 211 hits in ‘93 are the third-best the team has ever seen in a single season. The 121 runs he scored that same year are tied for the fifth best mark. Molitor would move on ahead of the 1996 season, vacating the DH spot for a player we’ll be covering a little higher up the list, but his impact was felt in the time he was here. It’s hard to look at the playoff run in ‘93 and find a way for the Jays to prevail without him. View full article