SPORTS
Monday, March 9, 2015 13
The glory past of the Toronto Blue Jays
A Look into the Team’s Ascension to Greatness and Its Heydays
pa r t t wo: s tay ing compe t i t i v e while pa ssing t he torch
kenneth cheak kwan lam › staff writer
A
fter the 86-76 Toronto Blue Jays finished the
1990 season in second place (two games
behind the division winning Boston Red
Sox), GM Pat Gillick pulled off arguably
the most significant trade in the history of the franchise. It would soon pay huge dividends to the team.
On 5 December 1990, while at the Baseball Winter
Meetings in Chicago, Gillick traded Tony Fernández
and Fred McGriff, two of the club’s cornerstones, to
the San Diego Padres for second baseman Roberto
Alomar and right fielder Joe Carter.
While the trade came as a shock for many Toronto
fans, the deal was sensible. From a roster construction point of view, it appeared as through the
Blue Jays were good enough to be a regular playoff contender but not talented enough to win it all.
Therefore, in order to take the club to the next level,
Gillick had to make the difficult decision of cutting
ties to a number of the remaining big-time contributors that had been leading the team since the
mid-1980s so that he could change the culture of
the franchise. From an asset management perspective, there were rumours that Fernández had threatened to retire repeatedly, so it made sense to trade
him and net players in return. From a line-up perspective, as solid as both McGriff and John Olerud
were as players, especially after the latter came into
his own, there was nevertheless a redundancy in
retaining both of them since they both batted left
and played first base. Also, seeing that both McGriff
and Olerud were still young at the time, it made
little sense to shift one of them to the designated
hitter spot, which is a position that is more suitable
for strong hitters who are in the latter stages of their
careers, as they do not have to worry about defensive
responsibilities. By swapping McGriff for Carter, who
was a right-handed power bat, there was more balance to the line-up, not to mention that Carter could
bring home run power and a strong throwing arm
back to the right field position that had been missing
since the departure of Jesse Barfield. Another reason
why “the trade”
made
sense
was
because
t he prom i si n g
Olerud, who was
a terrific contact
hitter and strong
defender at first
base, could simply replace McGriff as our full-time
regular first baseman. Finally, second baseman
Manuel (Manny) Lee could shift over to play shortstop in place of Fernández given that Lee was a natural Shortstop.
The Fernández and McGriff for Alomar and Carter
trade set the nucleolus for the club’s championship
runs in the early 1990s. Of course, other moves were
made to make the road to the World Series a reality, including certain major trades and free agent
signings. Prior to the 1991 season, Gillick traded
for gold-glove center fielder Devon “Devo” White
on 4 December 1990 who came from the California
Angels to Toronto along with Willie Fraser and
Marcus Moore in exchange for Junior Felix, Luis
ê Pat Gillick, GM of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1978 to 1994. Photo credit: mlbreports.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/
Sojo, and a player to be named later. The acquisition
of White was significant because he provided the
kind of speed and defence that had been absent since
Mookie Wilson (who replaced Lloyd Moseby as the
regular center fielder from 1989-1991) left the Blue
Jays. The mid-season pickup of Candy Maldonado
from
the
M i l w a u k e e
Brewer s on 1 4
August 19 91 for
Bob Wish nevsk i
and a player to
be named later
(Wi l l iam Suero)
stabilized the left field position and in the process
created an everyday outfield of Maldonado, White,
and Carter that Toronto fans had not seen since the
days of Bell, Moseby, and Barfield.
After the 91-71 Blue Jays were eliminated by the
highly experienced and savvy Minnesota Twins in
the 1991 American League Championship, Gillick
was determined to do whatever was necessary to
bring a World Series Championship to Toronto. The
players in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse were equally
confident as they genuinely felt that the team was
only one or two missing pieces away from winning it all. Several of them actually commented that
for the 1992 season, the minimum acceptable level
for the team would be a World Series appearance.
“While the trade came as a shock
for many Toronto fans, the deal
was sensible.”
Even though long-time ace Dave Stieb’s effective
days came to an end in the 1991 season, the club
received a shot in the arm when Juan Guzman, Todd
Stottlemyre, and David Wells all entrenched themselves in the starting rotation, which more than
offset the loss of Stieb. Gillick was not about to take
any chances though as he felt that he needed to
acquire a top dog to lead the starting rotation and
increase the offensive output at the designated hitter
position since the once steady Rance Mulliniks was
near the end of his career. The Toronto GM therefore dipped into the unrestricted free agency pool
by signing money pitcher Jack Morris (the pitcher
with the most wins in the 1980s) on 18 December
1991 to serve as staff ace and slugger Dave Winfield
to be the Blue Jays’ full-time Designated Hitter on 19
December 1991.
Why were the signings of Morris and Winfield
such game changers? Also, what are reasons behind
Toronto’s transformation from being the least-preferred destination in the late-1970s/early-1980s to
the most-desired landing site during the early-1990s
for top unrestricted free agents? To find out, be sure
to tune in to Part 4 of my article. u