Thanks to exchanging Blue Jay trivia questions with friends, I'm way down a Blue Jays year by year statistical rabbit hole, and came up with an idea as I was scrolling through statistics and strolling down memory lane. There were a lot of well known players who played for the Jays for a short period of time, so I came up with the idea of coming up with this top 10 list. I decided to start in 1985 and ended last year. Without further adieu ....
TOP 10 "THEY PLAYED FOR THE BLUE JAYS?"
10. TONY PHILLIPS- Best known for playing with the Oakland A's and Detroit Tigers, Phillips played briefly for the Jays in 1998, the year the Jays actually made a run for the pennant under disgraced manager Tim Johnson who lied about his military record in his interview. Phillips was 39 years old, and did well hitting .354 in 48 AB for the Jays before finishing his career with Oakland.
9. JUAN SAMUEL- He actually played parts of 3 seasons with the Blue Jays at the end of his career, hitting 12 HR over the course of those three years. Samuel, who played his best baseball with Philadelphia played 16 years.
8. DAVE PARKER- The Cobra? A Blue Jay? Yep, it happened. He had 36 AB with 12 hits the last year of his MLB career. He had 2712 hits total and joined the Jays for their '91 playoff push. He won a World Series in 1979 with Pittsburgh.
7. DAVE HOLLINS- Hollins was the starting 3rd baseman for the Phillies when they lost to the Blue Jays in the 1993 World Series, and thus had a good view of Joe Carter's series ending HR soaring over his head. He decided that if he couldn't beat them he would join them in 1999 logging 99 AB's with a lamentable .222 average with 2 HR. He retired shortly thereafter, ending his career with the Jays.
6. JOHN CANDELARIA- The big LHP was affectionately nicknamed "The Candy Man" but was anything but sweet with the Blue Jays when he donned the uniform in 1990 for a short spell at age 36 . Candelaria had 177 career wins, none of them with the Blue Jays going 0-3 in 13 appearances. He'd finish up his career playing a couple more years with the Dodgers and returning to Pittsburgh, where he had his greatest success including a '79 World Series win with the "We Are Family Pirates"
5. RICKEY HENDERSON- Of course he's one of the well known short tenured Blue Jay , joining them in 1993 for the stretch run. He hit only .215 in 150 odd at bats but still stole 22 bases for the Jays and was on base when Joe Carter hit the infamous '93 World Series ending home run. Rickey, a Hall of Famer, amassed 3055 hits and 1409 stolen bases over his career.
4. OMAR VIZQUEL- He played the last of his 24 year career with the Blue Jays in a support IF role hitting a less than lofty .235 with 36 of this 2877 career hits.
3. ARMANDO BENITEZ- The veteran reliever was a lights out closer during his career with both the Mets and the Marlins. He had 289 saves, none of them with the Blue Jays, whom he joined at the age of 35. His stats were an underwhelming 5.68 ERA in 6.2 innings. He had 40 plus saves on three occasions, including 47 with Florida one year!
2. FRANK THOMAS- The mammoth 1b/DH did most of his damage with the Chicago White Sox and hit 521 career HR. He did actually have one decent year with the Jays socking 26 HR the 2nd last year of his career. The year after, at the age of 40, he started the year with the Jays and then was shipped to Oakland where he looked even odder in an Oakland uniform than a Jays uniform.
1. PHIL NIEKRO- Phil joined the Blue Jays in 1987 to boost their starting pitching when they were battling Detroit tooth and nail for the pennant. It was the infamous year in which the Jays blew a 3 1/2 game lead with 7 games to go, ending the year on a 7 game losing streak. The 48 year old Niekro, to put it mildly, was awful for the Jays with an 8.25 era and an 0-2 record giving up 4 HR in 12 innings before getting released and then pitching one more game in his career for Atlanta where he started his career.
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