And Danny Valencia, Robinzon Diaz and Randy Myers
George Springer turns 35 today.
Springer is in year four of a six-year $150 million contract.
His OPS by year:
2021: .907
2022: .814
2023: .732
2024: .687
Next year? The year after? I’m not all that hopeful. I was talking to someone about how the PED years ruined our understanding of how players age. Springer is aging like a player does when not using PEDs.
Anyway, Springer has a 10.2 bWAR with the Blue Jays. That puts him 32nd among Blue Jays batters all time. And his 87 home runs puts him 26th in team history in home runs.
Springer seems like a great guy, I think he is a good teammate, and likely has value in the ‘veteran presence’ category. I don’t think there is enough value in that for what he is being paid, but it is something.
Happy Birthday, George
Danny Valencia turns 40 today.
Valencia played parts of two season with the Jays, in the middle of a nine-year MLB career. The Jays traded Liam Hendriks and Erik Kratz to the Royals to get him near the deadline in 2014. He hit .240/273/.364 down the stretch for the Jays, playing mostly third base.
He started the 2015 season hitting .296/.331/.506 with 7 home runs in 58 games, but the team put him on waivers and he was picked up by the A’s. He was put on waivers because the team decided that Ben Revere should play everyday. Revere would hit .319/.354/.381 down the stretch and help the Jays make the playoffs.
Valencia would play through the 2016 season with the A’s, then go on to play with the Mariners and the Orioles. In nine seasons, he hit .268/.317/.426 with 96 home runs in 864 games.
Happy Birthday, Danny
Robinzon Diaz turns 41 today.
Diaz was one of the several catchers of the future, who didn’t turn out to be a catcher of the future.
But, the reason we remember him is because we traded him to the Pirates for Jose Bautista, one of the best trades in team history. Jose would play ten seasons for the Jays and hit 288 home runs (and six in the playoffs, including the ‘bat flip home run).
Diaz played 43 games with the Pirates, hitting .289/.315/.363 with 1 home run.
Happy Birthday, Robinson.
Randy Myers turns 62 today.
Myers with a big free agent signing in 1998. A few years ago I wrote:
Jays signed lefty reliever Randy Myers to a 3-year, $18 million contract. It was a curious signing (curious is a nice way of saying stupid). In 1997 the Jays were 76-86, finishing in 5th place in the AL East, 22 games back from the Orioles. It seemed that a high-priced closer wasn’t the thing that might push them over the top.
Randy wasn’t good. He had a 4.46 ERA in 41 games, with 28 saves and 5 blown saves.
This is where the story gets interesting. The Jays suddenly realized they were paying a ton of money for a reliever who wasn’t going to get them to the playoffs, who was 35 years old and who we would be paying for two more seasons. So Gord Ash put him on waivers. His going on waivers wasn’t surprising. Back in those days, most players ended up on waivers in August.
The Padres claimed him. They didn’t want him, but they didn’t want the Braves to get him. So they figured if they claimed him, The Blue Jays would pull him back, and they would have stopped him from getting to the Braves.
But Ash fooled them. He let the Padres have him and saved the team roughly $14 million over the next two seasons and two months.
Myers had a rough time over the last two months of the 1998 season, putting up a 6.28 ERA (with no saves) in 21 games. He wouldn’t pinch in the majors again, and the Padres would pay him for the next two years.
Randy played 14 years in the MLB, had 347 saves and a 3.19 ERA in 728 games.
Happy Birthday, Randy.