The Blue Jays signed Roger Clemens.
Roger had played 13 seasons for the Red Sox. He had a 192-111 record and a 3.06 ERA in 382 starts, won three Cy Young awards, and finished 2nd and, 3rd and 6th in the voting other times.
But he wasn’t as terrific in his last two seasons with Boston, putting up a 3.83 ERA and a 20-18 record in 57 starts. Yeah, it’s still good, but it’s a step down in performance. When he hit free agency, the Red Sox didn’t want to give him the money he expected. He talked to the Yankees, but he wasn’t happy with their offers.
The Blue Jays came, offering three years and $24.75 million (which sounds like much less money now).
With the Jays, he returned to the Clemens of old. He went 41-13 in two seasons with a 2.33 ERA in 67 starts and 498.2 innings. He won his 4th and 5th Cy Young awards, giving the Jays their best back-to-back seasons by a pitcher in team history. His bWAR for the two seasons was a pretty incredible 20.1.
Let’s ignore the fact that PEDs helped him restore his former form.
And he created a cute advertisement (with a young Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez):
Roger was fantastic. The rest of the team, however, was not. We’d finish last in 1997 and a respectable third in 1998.
Roger requested a transfer after the 1998 season because he was tired of hearing two National Anthems before each game (or perhaps it was all the losing). The Blue Jays dealt him to the Yankees. In exchange, we received Homer Bush, Graeme Lloyd, and David Wells. It’s not a bad return.
Clemens would go on to win two more Cy Young awards, two World Series rings, and basically be a complete and utter jerk.
He’s easily the best former MLB pitcher not to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but if the ‘character clause’ is ever used by the Baseball Writers, Clemens is the one.
25 Years Ago
Woody Williams (Carlos Almarzar and Peter Tucci) was traded to the Padres for Joey Hamilton on December 13, 1998. Unfortunately, it was not one of our more successful trades.
We gave up on the following guys:
Tucci never made it to the majors, despite having a decent minor league record. In 130 games in 1998, he hit.318/.376/.602 with 32 home runs and 112 RBI in A-ball at Dunedin and Double-A Knoxville. He played corner outfield.
Almanzar pitched right-handed. He pitched in 28 games for the Padres in 1999, earning a 7.47 ERA, but he was significantly better in 2000, posting a 4.39 ERA in 62 games, 69 innings, 25 walks, 56 strikeouts, but 12 home runs allowed. After that season, the Padres sold Carlos to the Yankees in exchange for David Lee, another reliever who pitched for the Padres for one season with a 3.70 ERA in 41 games. Almanzar would later play for the
Yankees, Reds and Rangers. He played in 8 seasons, pitched in 210 games and had a 4.82 ERA.
Woody Williams went on to have a pretty good career. He pitched for the Padres for the next 2.5 seasons, going 30-28 in 79 starts with a 4.35 ERA. In August 2001, the Padres traded Woody to the Cardinals for Ray Lankford. He would play 15 seasons in the majors, with a 132-116 record with a 4.19 ERA in 424 games and 330 starts.
In return, we got Hamilton. Joey did little for us. He was pretty awful. In 1999, he pitched in 22 games, 18 starts, going 7-8 with a 6.52 ERA. How can you get 7 wins with an ERA over 6 and a half? The Jays started him in Triple-A the following season, and he missed some time with injuries. He finally got six MLB starts at the end of the season, posting a 3.55 ERA. In 2001, Joey started the season in our rotation and made 22 starts, with a 5.89 ERA, before we finally released him in early August.
Why did it take so long before we released him? Gord Ash signed him to a three-year, $16.5 million contract, a fair bit of money for a 14-17 record, 5.83 ERA and 0 WAR.
Gord acquired him and signed him to a hefty contract on the advice of Dave Stewart, who we hired as an assistant general manager after his playing days were done. Stewart had played with Joey and thought he would be a celebrity because he saw something in his eyes or anything silly like that.
This is up there with the worst moves in Blue Jays history.
Ash should have recognised the warning flags. Joey led the NL in walks prior to the trade, and he seldom struck out much. A pitcher with a 1.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio did not appear to be a good fit for the AL East.
5 Years Ago
Elvis Luciano was selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Blue Jays from the Royals. It was an odd choice, to say the least. As Matt stated:
Elvis Luciano is only 18 years old (19 in February) and was signed two years ago. Normally, he wouldn’t have been Rule 5 eligible for a few of years – in fact, some North American players his age haven’t even been chosen into the professional ranks. However, Major League Rule 5 allows players to become eligible sooner in specific circumstances, and it appears that Luciano’s contract was renegotiated, which qualifies.
On the surface, it appears to be an odd choice. It seems nearly absurd to expect Luciano to stay with the Jays for an entire season, given that he had never even pitched in a game
a full-season league. Or even beyond rookie ball.
But Luciano had potential, a fastball that topped out at 96 MPH, a good curve, and a changeup that was a work in process
Elvis had to be on the Jays’ 25-man roster for the entire 2019 season. In 25 games, he had a 5.35 ERA. Then he was placed on the disabled list with a right elbow strain, which kept him out of the lineup until rosters expanded in September.
The Jays released him in August 2021, but he was re-signed approximately a week later. In 2022, he pitched in two games for the Fisher Cats. Before last season, he signed with the Yomiuri Giants but did not pitch for them.
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