And Carlos Garcia and Chad Mottola
Teoscar Hernandez turns 32 today.
We had no idea he would become such a slugger when he came from the Astros.
He hit .263/.320/.503 with 129 home runs in six seasons with the Jays. He’s 12th on the Jays’ all-time list for home runs and 22nd on our RBI list.
The trade to the Mariners surprised me. But Erik Swanson was excellent in the pen for us in 2023 but not so excellent in 2024. And Adam Macko made 16 starts for New Hampshire (and one for the Bisons) this year. He had 105 strikeouts in 93.1 innings (with 35 walks) and a 3.63 ERA.
Teoscar signed with the Dodgers before the start of the 2024 season. He had a .272/.339/.501 line with 33 home runs and a 4.3 bWAR. To this point, he has a .285/.400/.571 line with two home runs in six playoff games.
Happy Birthday, Teoscar. I hope it is a good one.
Carlos Garcia turns 57 today.
Carlos, you might remember, had one disastrous season with us. In November 1996, the Jays traded for Garcia, Orlando Merced and Dan Plasac from the Pirates. First, we sent them Brandon Cromer, Jose Pett and Jose Silva and then in December, we sent them Mike Halperin, Abraham Nunez and Craig Wilson to complete the deal. Have I mentioned that I was never a Jays’ GM Gord Ash fan?
In 1997, he hit .220/.253/.309 in 103 games, playing primarily second base. He had 3 homers, 29 runs, 23 RBI, and 11 steals. To make matters worse, he didn’t even play great defense for us, and we paid him a hefty $2.55 million for that season. By WAR, that was as bad a season as any non-pitcher had ever had for the Jays.
After the season, he signed with the Angels as a free agent and hit just .143 in 40 at-bats. Then, he went to San Diego, doing no better and was out of baseball.
He only had one decent season in the majors, hitting .269/.316/.399 as a rookie for the Pirates. However, he had 12 homers and 47 RBI in 1993, so it/ is hard to see what the Jays thought they were getting.
Of the guys we sent to the Pirates:
Craig Wilson went on to have a decent MLB career. He played for seven seasons, 6 with the Pirates, and hit .262/.353/.474 with 99 home runs. His best season was 2004 when he played 155 games and hit .264/.354/.499 with 29 home runs.
Abraham Nunez played 12 seasons, 8 with the Pirates. He hit .242/.313/.314 in 1030 games, mostly as a utility infielder.
Jose Silva pitched in 7 MLB seasons. He finished with a 25-28 record and a 5.41 ERA in 154 games, 53 starts.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Carlos.
Chad Mottola turns 53 today.
Chad was an outfielder. He played only a handful of MLB games, 59 spread over five seasons, 13 of which were with the Blue Jays.
But he was a long-time minor leaguer. His last season in the minors was 2007 when he played in Triple-A for the Jays (hitting .267/.324/.467), but at 35, he was transitioning to coaching.
In 2008, he became the Gulf Coast League Jays’ hitting coach. In 2009, he became the roving minor league hitting coach and the hitting coach for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s from 2010 to 2012. In 2011, he won the Bobby Mattick Award for ‘excellence in player development.’
In 2013, he was promoted to the Jays. Then, Chad was fired at the end of the season. So, one year, he was considered a miracle worker. The next, he’s fired—the life of a coach.
The Rays hired him as their roving instructor. In 2017, he became their major league hitting coach and is still there.
Happy Birthday, Chad.