A guide to help identify your favourite Blue Jays during spring training
As we know from something that did not happen on Tuesday, the Blue Jays had their first full squad workout for the spring and are preparing to play the New York Yankees in their 2025 Grapefruit League debut today at 1:07 pm Eastern. Since the Blue Jays’ spring training jerseys don’t feature player names on the back, let’s take a look at some of the numbers new Blue Jays have been assigned and the old Jays who have changed their number. Let’s start with Toronto’s biggest acquisition of the offseason…
25
…Anthony Santander, who will be his familiar #25 that he wore while with the Baltimore Orioles. The last Jay to wear this number was…
5
…Daulton Varsho, who had kindly offered to shift to #5 for the new guy in town. For Varsho, #5 would be the third number he has worn in his major league career (he had worn #12 with the Arizona Diamondbacks). His dad Gary Varsho also wore #5 in his brief stint with the Philadelphia Phillies to end his career. No one has worn this number for Toronto after Santiago Espinal did so in spring training before he was traded to the Reds.
10
Santander and Varsho’s oufieldmate Joey Loperfido switches from the #9 he wore last year after he was traded from the Astros back to the #10 he had worn earlier with Houston. The number was worn by associate manager DeMarlo Hale in 2024, who switches to…
15
Hale will wear his fourth different number as a coach for the Blue Jays, having worn #20, #16 (after Josh Donaldson was acquired), and the aforementioned #10. Hale joins Tim Leiper as the only coaches in Jays history to have worn four different numbers (#21, #23, #34, and #51). Brian Serven wore #15 in 2024.
88
Fellow coach Sam Greene (assistant pitching coach) will only be the second Blue Jay to wear #88 in the regular season, after Rene Gonzales in 1991. Will Robertson wore #88 in spring training last year.
Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images
0
Andrés Giménez will continue to don #0 in Toronto after wearing it in Cleveland for four seasons. Like Greene, he will become the second Blue Jay to wear his number. Al Oliver, who wore nought in 1985, was first. Giménez was traded to Toronto along with…
52
…Nick Sandlin, who also keeps the number he wore back with the Guardians. Last season, the number was worn by fellow reliever…
33
…Nick Robertson, who switched to #33 after the acquisition of the newer Nick. (I had hoped that he would’ve switched to #89 to match the Maple Leafs’ left winger.) The double-threes were worn first by Trevor Richards then by Dillon Tate in 2024.
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
31
Veteran Presents Max Scherzer will continue to wear his familiar #31 in his first season with the Blue Jays. Brett de Geus wore #31 in the latter part of last season after Cam Eden had the number in spring training.
21
Lefty reliever Josh Walker will wear #21 for Toronto, after wearing #91 for the Mets for parts of the last two years. Another J.W., former bullpen coach Jeff Ware, had the number in 2024. Down with the relievers this year, new bullpen coach…
82
…Graham Johnson will wear #82, becoming the first ever Blue Jays player or coach to wear it during the regular season. Catcher Max McDowell wore #82 in spring training last year. One of two of Johnson’s coaching colleagues will also be pioneers with their numbers. First, hitting coach…
79
…David Popkins will be the first to wear #79 for Toronto. Brandon Eisert wore this number in spring training last season. His assistant…
80
…Lou Iannotti will wear the first ever Jays uniform with #80 on the back in the regular season. Rafael Lantigua had the number last spring.
46
Finishing up the coaching staff, Don Mattingly will wear #46, the number he wore as a rookie and sophomore with the New York Yankees. Wes Parsons wore #46 for a two-game stint with Toronto in 2024. Mattingly gave up his more familiar #23 for…
23
…Jeff Hoffman, who had worn the number with the Reds, the Phillies, and the Blue Jays, back in minor league spring training a decade ago.
22
Ernie Clement switches to #22 from the #28 he wore in his first two seasons with Toronto. Former Field Coordinator Gil Kim, who will be managing the Dunedin Blue Jays this year, wore the number last year. The last player to wear the number was catcher Tyler Heineman, who is now wearing #55.
66
Rounding up all the new numbers on the 40-man roster and the coaching staff, Rule 5 pick Angel Bastardo will become the first, unless he gets returned to the Red Sox, to wear #66 since Kevin Smith in 2021.
Non-Roster Invitees
- #3 Myles Straw wore this number in 2020-2021 with the Houston Astros.
- #16 Michael Stefanic takes on Yusei Kikuchi’s old number.
- #58 Eric Lauer gets the number Tim Mayza wore for seven seasons in Toronto.
- #60 Christian Bethancourt wore this number last year with the Chicago Cubs.
- #63 Kevin Gowdy
- #65 Braydon Fisher
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- #67 Jacob Barnes wore #23 in his first stint with the Blue Jays.
- #68 Richard Lovelady
- #69 Lazaro Estrada (nice)
- #70 Phil Clarke wore #71 in spring training 2024.
- #71 Eric Pardinho
- #73 Josh Kasevich
- #74 Eddinson Paulino
- #75 Ali Sánchez
- #76 Ryan Jennings wore #75 in spring training last season.
- #77 Hayden Juenger wore #76 in spring last year.
- #81 Rainer Nunez
- #83 Alan Roden
- #84 Charles McAdoo
- #85 Mason Fluharty wore #84 last spring.
- #86 Riley Tirotta
- #87 Jacob Sharp
- #89 RJ Schreck
- #90 Adam Kloffenstein wore #84 with the Blue Jays in spring training 2021.
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- #91 Andrew Bash wore #63 last year in spring training.
- #92 Robert Brooks
- #94 Matt Whatley