Category: Baseball

Do the owners of Major League Baseball like baseball? Unclear. Sure, the league has been “listening” to its fans during this Collective Bargaining Agreement, but only because “the fans” agree with them about the “need” for a salary cap. When it comes to something like, say, the minor leagues, the league seems completely disinterested in what you and I have to say.

The latest SB Nation Reacts poll focuses on the prospect component of the just-completed All-Star festivities in Philadelphia. First, it’s important note that MLB moved the draft to coincide with the All-Star Game as a way to boost interest and elevate it into a higher strata that competed with the NBA and NFL drafts.

But a funny thing has happened with those intentions: they got thrown in the trash.

Now, maybe it had something to do with America 250 or the World Cup, but the draft in Philadelphia was completely downplayed, almost to the point of being an afterthought. First, it was very difficult to just sit down and watch it.

The first day of coverage was sliced up into one of the strangest viewing experiences this long-time couch potato has ever seen:

Day 1 (Rounds 1-4)
Saturday, July 11:

1 p.m. — picks 1-10 on NBC and Peacock
2:30 p.m. — picks 11-40 on MLB Network, Peacock, MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+
4:30 p.m. — picks 41-135 on MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+

Day 2 (Rounds 5-20)
Sunday, July 12:

11:30 a.m. on MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+

That’s six total platforms and on day 1 you’ll be forced to change your channel twice just to keep watching. An absurd bit of scheduling that demands an explanation. Did NBC have Rob by the Manfreds and he had no choice but to slice it up like this? Peacock is a streaming platform that could’ve ran the whole thing. MLB Network is the league’s own cable channel that could’ve covered whatever their broadcast partner couldn’t or wouldn’t.

So, it was tough to track just from a viewing experience. It was even difficult for, say, FanDuel users to follow along in order to bet on who would be drafted next. In the room, the draft itself wound up being in the way.

From Baseball America:

After the Dodgers made the 40th pick, the live show portion of the draft was over. Quite quickly, the draft rolled on into the second round, which, again, aired on MLB.com. But in the convention center, the draft was effectively over. The remaining fans trickled out. Picks were being analyzed a floor up on the broadcast desk, but they weren’t being announced to anyone remaining in the arena.

[…]

While the remaining picks were being streamed online for those fans still watching, arena crews began disassembling the stage and seating area that only a few hours earlier had housed one of the most important days on the baseball calendar. Workers on lifts could be seen pulling down the lighting trusses and doing other work to tear down the stands and lighting.

And because the Baseball Draft is actually different from the drafts it’s being forced to compete with for some reason, the league doesn’t fly out a crop of prospects to be there in the room. So, why are they making a show of this at all if the show they plan to put on stinks at the concept stage? I’ll admit that my interest in the Giants’ pick of Jackson Flora was generated only after the fact while reading about him. I can’t imagine what the people who actually care beforehand were being put through during this streaming telecast mess.

Anyway, while fans are being used to crush one of the most powerful unions in the world (which should be an example of what makes unions great rather than why they are bad), they’re probably going to be flatly ignored when it comes to everything else.

The fans and traditionalists have it right here. The draft should be held in June. The baseball calendar had been shaped around a June draft for years and years, primarily for practical reasons. But beyond that, making it A Thing hasn’t really worked, because that was only a marketing decision. The league wanted to do… something… even if it was bad.

Speaking of marketing, though, the other poll question had a predictable response:

I think this desire is good and pure and true, and it’s another example of the league wanting a win in a press release but not in reality. The game aired at 9am Pacific and in the course of a regular schedule of MLB games. I would’ve liked to have seen Dakota Jordan’s double when I was more awake!

So, it seems like the easy call here is to put it in Prime Time a la the Home Run Derby.

But here’s the thing: it’s not a given that the league is invested in the minor leagues. In fact, the latest CBA proposal regarding the draft is a continuation of the Jeff Luhnow plan to shrink the minor leagues:

The goal is to push off as much development as possible onto college baseball programs. There is also the growing control by private equity funds of minor league teams. It seems like a good collision of “ruthless efficiency” that will almost certainly be good for the players and fans, right?

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rangers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The Texas Rangers are currently in first place in the American League West, up a half game on the Seattle Mariners. Texas is a game back of the Boston Red Sox, who are in Wild Card 3, 2.5 games back of Wild Card 2 (which is either the White Sox or the Guardians, who are also tied for first place in the American League Central), and 5.5 games back of the New York Yankees, who have the Wild Card 1 spot.

Our question for today is…where do you think the Texas Rangers end up at the end of 2026, vis-a-vis the playoffs?

Cast your vote below…

The A’s just can’t catch a break in the health department. The club announced that right-hander J.T. Ginn is the latest member of the squad to land on the 10-day IL, landing there because of a blister on his right middle finger:

The loss hurts for the short-term but on the bright side this shouldn’t be a long-term absence for the righty. In fact it could be a blessing in disguise: Ginn has already surpassed his career-high in innings pitched and a breather, even after the All-Star Break, isn’t the worst thing in the world. It certainly makes the team’s decision for them regarding slowing down the righty in what is his first full big league season as a starting pitcher. Don’t want to blow out his arm during the final stretch of a lost season.

Ginn’s absence will presumably allow right-hander Mason Barnett a chance at starting for the next couple of weeks. The well-regarded righty hasn’t quite found his footing at the big league level yet but with where the A’s are in the standings maybe giving him an extended look against big league hitters as a starting pitcher isn’t the worst way to use the final couple months of the season.

There remains no known timetable for Giancarlo Stanton, but based on what Aaron Boone is seeing, the return of the designated hitter “shouldn’t be too far off.”

The Yankees manager wanted to correct the record on Stanton on Tuesday, telling the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast that Stanton is closer to rejoining the club than reports had indicated.

Asked Wednesday, Boone said that the lack of a public and known timeline does not mean Stanton is a great distance away from playing again.

“I feel like he’s moving in a good direction,” Boone said before a doubleheader in The Bronx against the Pirates. “I just don’t know if [his return is] a couple of weeks from now, a few weeks from now, whatever it is.

“But he is getting much closer to that point.”

Stanton has not played since suffering a right calf strain on April 24.

He appeared on the verge of a return in mid-June, when he had progressed to running the bases, but then felt something in his calf that Brian Cashman later clarified was “a whole new injury,” rather than a setback.

Since that point, Stanton has not run the bases, and the Yankees have not offered much detail about when the powerful but oft-injured slugger could return.

In what is probably the most optimistic update yet from Boone, the manager said Stanton “is running, and so I think based on that, it shouldn’t be too far off.”

Stanton has been in his running progression for several weeks. Boone said Stanton is at the stage of reaching “certain speed points” and then “obviously bouncing back and recovering.”

There is still little clarity about the exact details of Stanton’s daily workload, but the club says he is making progress and has been hitting.

Stanton generally prefers skipping rehab assignments, feeling he can be ready by swinging off the Trajekt machine, but a return-to-play plan, too, is unknown.

“I don’t have a timeline,” Boone reiterated. “I don’t know when he gets to the end of that and then what we do to get him back.”

During the Roarin' Twenties, when the Yankees dominated baseball and the Rangers had won their first (1928) Stanley Cup, Frank Boucher was the Blueshirts star and a good baseball player.

This was proven one day when Babe met Frank on the ball field.

As it happened, on one sunny Ottawa day in the summer when The Sultan of Swat and The Raffles Boucher actually faced each other in an intense baseball game that also featured Yankees' legend Lou Gehrig.

This was in the very late 1920's before the Rangers opened their training camp but after the baseball season had ended. In those days it was normal for The Babe and Lou to travel across America and Canada picking up extra cash playing exhibitions. 

"This particular game happened to be played in Hull," said Boucher, "across the river from my home town of Ottawa. Our Canadian team was composed of amateur ball players from Montreal and Ottawa. Not surprisingly Babe and Lou drew an overflow crowd.

"As it happened Ruth and Gehrig were on the same team and I played shortstop in Gehrig's infield. My brother Buck Boucher was on the home team in centerfield which was a mistake.

Buck was a terrific catcher but he never played center in his life."

Just to make the game even zanier for Buck, he had brought his catcher's mitt to the game and didn't have a fielder's glove. Frank had to loan his brother his fielder's glove every time the sides changed.

Hello! I’m Jon. When Alex and I were piecing together the script for “The History of the Seattle Mariners” way back in 2019, our short Lenny Randle segment went through a couple of revisions. Although he only spent a small fraction of his career in Seattle, Lenny established himself as a Mariners legend, and we had to rein ourselves in from writing an extensive tangent covering his entire story.

It took us long enough, but six-plus years later, Lenny finally gets his own Secret Base video. Time and again, he found himself standing center stage during baseball’s oddest, most chaotic scenes. Sometimes he just happened to be there and passively observed the ruckus. Other times, he conjured it himself. Since “The History of Charging the Mound” is, above all else, a story about baseball chaos, it was inevitable that he’d find himself here.

Hope you enjoy his story as much as I did. As always, if you want more from this series, or more special projects like this, and get them as soon as they’re ready – check out Secret Base on Patreon. If you’re a member over there, then you would’ve gotten to see an uncensored butt in this video. Best sales pitch we’ve got.

The Atlanta Braves do a lot of things that typically play up well in October. Home run ball? They’re 5th in the league in homers even after a dormant month of June. Dominant bullpen? The Braves have arguably the best group in the game, especially if Robert Suarez returns soon. Ace at the top of the rotation to lean on? Chris Sale’s been incredible.

But at the same time, despite owning one of the best records in the league, the Braves have a few glaring needs heading into the trade deadline, which is quickly approaching on August 3.

Let’s fix those needs. Here are three players (or maybe four) the Braves need to acquire before the trade deadline.

Kevin Gausman

As of this writing, it remains to be seen if the Toronto Blue Jays — who were inches away from the World Series last fall — will sell as they continue to fall behind in the American League East. But if they do, the Braves should reunite with old friend Kevin Gausman.

There will be other starting pitching options for Alex Anthopoulos. But given the presumed cost, familiarity, reliability, durability, and potential to form one of the top 1-2 punches in the game alongside Chris Sale, this would be my starting pitching addition.

Gausman’s tenure with Atlanta in 2018-2019 did not meet expectations, but he’s been as good as virtually anyone in the league since leaving town. Dating back to the 2022 season, Gausman ranks 4th in pitcher WAR with a strong 3.60 ERA and even better 3.21 FIP. He’s been a beacon of durability and reliability, making 145 starts in that time span. He also has a wealth of postseason experience, and while milage can vary on how much that actually means, he was superb with Toronto last postseason. The idea of pairing him with Sale atop the rotation is tantalizing.

Gausman will be a free agent at the end of 2026. I’ll believe Alex Anthopoulos unloads the top of the farm system when he actually does it — he’s been hyper cautious moving prospects during his nine year tenure in Atlanta — and the price for Gausman would likely not be astronomical as someone with a few months of control. The veteran righty is owed approximately $8M the rest of the season, a significant amount of coin the Braves can eat.

Gausman hasn’t been quite as good on the surface as he’s been in recent years — a 4.51 ERA won’t make anyone fall out of their chair — but he’s been better than that if you look under the hood (3.67 FIP, 3.79 xFIP, 3.87 xERA as of July 21). His velocity on his fastball and famous splitter are down a tick this season, although his fastball grades out extremely well at Baseball Savant. There’s a lot to like here, even if he hasn’t been quite as good as in previous years. Make it happen, Alex.

Spencer Steer and JJ Bleday

OK, so I’m cheating here. The headline says “three players the Braves should acquire” and I’m listing four. Take me to jail.

The Cincinnati Reds are almost certainly going to sell. They have reportedly already received calls on Spencer Steer, and I’m guessing they will be asked about JJ Bledway, too.

Here’s Steer, the 28-year-old righty who can bounce around the field.

The idea behind Steer is largely for what he can do against left-handed pitching. He is absolutely mashing southpaws this year, hitting .342 with an absurd 184 wRC+. His career numbers are obviously not quite that good — .270 average, 126 wRC+ — but he would represent a massive upgrade in the middle of the lineup against left-handed pitching and can hold his own against righties. The Braves are guaranteed to see good left-handed pitching down the stretch, and they rank 23rd in the league against them with a collective 93 wRC+.

At present, the Braves’ right-handed bench options are Eli White and Joey Bart. Sean Murphy could factor into that equation at some point, although I don’t think you can count on Murphy for anything besides superb defense. Steer would become an outstanding platoon partner with Mike Yastrzemski in left field, provide insurance in the event of another injury to Ronald Acuña Jr. (or another outfielder), becomes an impact bat off the bench when called upon late in games, and makes the Braves infinitely better against left-handed pitching.

As for JJ Bleday, he’s having an even better season in Cincinnati. You may recall he tormented the Braves earlier this year, and he’s kept up the good work outside of a downturn for a few weeks in June. Here are Bleday’s numbers:

The Dominic Smith story was a great one early in the year, but it’s time to move on. Smith has a sub-600 OPS since late April, a real cause for concern as the every day DH on the team against right-handed pitching.

Bleday would provide a significant upgrade over Smith at DH, and he could play a corner outfield spot, too. Adding an outfielder (or two) also nearly guarantees Mauricio Dubon can move to shortstop on a full-time basis. This lineup becomes so much better and deeper with the addition of a lefty and righty bat. Steer and Bleday feel like great fits, and again, neither should cost a fortune.

Robbie Ray

I won’t rehash all the issues with the rotation, but let’s hypothetically say Anthopoulos acquires Gausman. Here’s your rotation:

Chris Sale, Kevin Gausman … Reynaldo Lopez? Grant Holmes? Bryce Elder? Martin Perez? AJ Smith-Shawver? JR Ritchie? Owen Murphy? We just saw Hurston Waldrep go down with another elbow injury, and the reports on Spencer Schwellenbach and Spencer Strider aren’t exactly rosy at this point.

That’s not good enough.

Enter Robbie Ray, a pending free agent on a San Francisco Giants team guaranteed to sell. He’s owed approximately $8 million the rest of the way whenever he’s moved.

Ray owns a strong 3.33 ERA but hasn’t been nearly that good with a 4.59 FIP and 4.84 xFIP. He’s been better overall since a disastrous start in Arizona on May 18; since then, Ray owns a 2.41 ERA, 3.87 FIP and 5.05 xFIP. I would imagine teams interested in Ray won’t value him at the low-threes ERA and instead see him as a reliable innings eater to round out a rotation for two months.

Not only would a second starter help stabilize the rotation, but it would also make it easy to move Grant Holmes to the bullpen, where he should thrive only facing hitters one time. It just makes too much sense, and if my assessment of his trade value is close, it shouldn’t take a ton to acquire the veteran lefty. Noticing a theme here?

So there you have it. An impact starter, an innings eater, and at least one bat for the outfield and DH spots, ideally two.

Get it done, Alex.

While it’s far from the only problem with the team, the “B” side of the Mariners bullpen has been an issue this season, as the team has cycled through various names trying to find some surehanded help to prop up an injury-ravaged ‘pen. With the latest injury update forecasting that Carlos Vargas, Matt Brash, and Cooper Criswell won’t be back until mid-to-late August (Vargas and Brash) to late August or September (Criswell), picking up bullpen help at the deadline is obviously on the Mariners’ shopping list, but with the market shaping up to be an extreme seller’s market, the Mariners would find themselves paying top-shelf prices to acquire bullpen pieces while the offense continues to flounder.

Instead of looking for outside help, the Mariners might be better served by keeping their prospects and looking internally. Obviously, the first two names to jump to mind – especially after their sterling outings at the Futures Game last weekend – are Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan, the two-headed pitching monster currently destroying the Texas League. However, Jerry Dipoto said in conversation on Friday that the team is going to be very mindful of Anderson’s innings, in particular: there’s a number of innings they want him to get to, and the math has to work out considering what his role would be at the big-league level. The situation is similar with Sloan, who is even younger than Anderson although with more pro ball experience; the Mariners are laser-focused on ensuring that they won’t be robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, and artificially accelerating the timeline or development of either of the two pitchers in order to paper over cracks at the big-league level.

But there are are pair of relievers, recently promoted to Tacoma, who have been pitching well enough to deserve a shot, both mentioned in conversation by Dipoto. The first is a familiar name for those of you who were heavily plugged in during Spring Training: righty Charlie Beilenson, a fifth-round senior sign in 2024 out of Duke – one of the senior signs the Mariners used to save money for Ryan Sloan, funnily enough, but Beilenson is a legitimate prospect. The club had designs on fast-tracking him in 2025, but an injury suffered in spring training kept him out for most of the year. Beilenson got back on track this spring, pitching both with the big-league club in spring training and for Team Israel in the WBC, experience that Dipoto said was invaluable for the young reliever, given an opportunity to share the field with some of the game’s best and feel like he belonged. At Arkansas this season, Beilenson is striking out over a third of batters faced and holding hitters to a .187 average, despite not having the loudest stuff – his fastball hangs out in the lower 90s, mid-90s when it’s going well, and he couples that with a slider-changeup combo that accounts for most of his whiffs. The big selling point with Beilenson is his plus command, although he walks a few more guys than you’d expect out of that profile. He has eight saves for Arkansas, leading all pitchers in the system – familiar territory for Beilenson, who was a Stopper of the Year finalist at Duke and tied the school record for saves in a single season.

Here’s one of my favorite Charlie outings, from July 7 against the Amarillo Sod Poodles: technically this is low-leverage because it was an extra-inning game tied at 2 before the Travs scored eight runs in the top of the 10th, but Beilenson still struck out the side to put an exclamation point on a thrilling Travs win. Vimeo wasn’t cooperating with me so please excuse the Bluesky embed (and click through to see all three strikeouts, two swinging and one called to end the game).

The other arm Dipoto mentioned was Reid VanScoter, also recently promoted to Triple-A. A longtime resident in Seattle’s system, VanScoter could be an option for the Mariners should they want to add another lefty to the pen. In his second tour of the Texas League, VanScoter is striking out a career-high 31% of hitters thanks to what Dipoto described as a mechanical change; however, that spike in strikeouts has come at the cost of some of his command, as he’s also walking a career-high number of hitters. He’ll need to calm that down in order to earn a look at the big leagues and unseat Josh Simpson as the other lefty option in the ‘pen.

One name that didn’t come up but is definitely on most prospect-heads’ radar is Teddy McGraw, a promising pitcher whose journey to the bigs has been delayed by multiple arm injuries but who possesses one of the best curveballs in the system. The Mariners have been ramping up McGraw’s usage at Double-A late in June, going from having him pitch every four days to every other day. McGraw’s arc is a little longer than the other two, as he continues to gain experience in the upper minors and just adjust physically to the rigors of professional baseball, even while healthy, but he’s a name to monitor.

Another longer-path name to know is Brock Moore, who was promoted to Double-A in early June after mowing down hitters at High-A. The 6’6” former Oregon Duck is still searching for his command in Arkansas, but he’s the “stuffiest” guy listed here, with a fastball that can kiss triple digits and a two-plane slider that combine for massive whiff rates but also massive walk rates.

TBD no more: between this weekend’s rumblings and JR Ritchie’s 3.2 innings of relief in last night’s loss to San Diego, today’s moves aren’t suprising.

Martín Pérez has been activated and is set to start tonight’s game. He has been sidelined since July 6 after suffering a 92 mph liner to the left forearm in his outing versus the Mets, and don’t ask about what happened after he exited. Pérez (6-6, 3.54 ERA) had struggled a few consecutive starts following a different comebacker in late June, but will be aiming to bounce back and do his part to stabilize the rotation.

In a corresponding move, JR Ritchie will board the Gwinnett shuttle and head back to Triple-A.

Today, the Houston Astros announced they have traded reliever Nate Pearson to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for righthanded pitching prospect Max Martin.

Martin, 22, has posted a 6-2 record with a 2.01 ERA in 26 relief appearances across two levels of Class A ball in the Royals system this season. Martin was a 10th round pick by Kansas City in the 2025 draft.

Pearson, 29, has made 16 appearances for the Astros this season. He is 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.40 WHIP. Pearson was one of the hardest throwers in the Astros pen, able to hit 98 MPH with his fastball. Command has been an issue for Pearson, who has walked 12 batters in 20 innings this season to go with 16 strikeouts.

The Astros clear a roster spot on both the 26-man and 40-man roster with the move.

SP Hayden Wesneski is scheduled to make one more rehab start before being activated, and now his pathway back to the roster is clearer.

After two games that couldn’t be more different than each other, the Dodgers look to take the second series of the second half in Philadelphia.

Monday’s game was a slugfest, and Tuesday’s game was a pitching duel that ended in a huge base running mistaken double play by the Phillies runners. Wednesday’s game could bring anything at the point.

The Dodgers will send Eric Lauer to the mound, who quietly has been giving the Dodgers consistently good outings since joining the team. He’s allowed three earned runs or fewer in seven straight games. But, he’s not a big strikeout guy, and he’s not a ground ball guy, so the Phillies offense could go back to doing what they did in game one of the series and let the long balls fly.

Trea Turner has a six-game hit streak going, and he’s 6-for-16 against Lauer with a 1.224 OPS. He has two homers against him, including a grand slam while he was a Dodger.

Aaron Nola will go for Philly, and the right hander has had a very up and down season so far. He’s 3-7 with a 5.68 ERA, but has had decent outings as of late, not allowing more than three earned runs in any of them, and striking out at least six in each of his last three.

Lauer threw 99 pitches in his last outing, which was two weeks ago. With Justin Wrobleski going deep yesterday, the bullpen should be fairly well rested, and the team has an off day tomorrow.

If the Dodgers offense could get things going against an arm like Nola, the Dodgers could easily continue their streak of not having lost a Lauer start.

Wednesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Phillies
• Ballpark: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
• Start time: 3:40 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Today marks Dave Stieb’s 69th birthday.

We saw Stieb on the weekend. He looks like he could still play.

Stieb holds the franchise records for wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, games started, complete games, and many other pitching categories. His 103 complete games in 408 starts for the Blue Jays is a mark unlikely to be matched unless baseball fundamentally changes. It’s hard to imagine another pitcher ever completing a quarter of their starts again.

He and Roy Halladay are 1 and 1A atop the list of greatest Blue Jays pitchers. My opinion occasionally shifts, but I generally give the edge to Stieb—those complete games and innings pitched mean a lot. But then they played in different eras. In my view, Stieb was the best American League pitcher of the 1980s.

Stieb was also, to put it nicely, an intense competitor. He loved to win and didn’t always react well when teammates made mistakes behind him (can you imagine him playing for the Jays this week?). I remember seeing him glare at fielders from the mound; I doubt that all of his teammates were big fans of his demeanor.

A few years ago, I asked Pat Hentgen a few questions about Stieb:

From the outside, it always seemed like Stieb wasn’t the greatest person?

For some reason, he took a liking to me when I played there, so we got pretty close during my first year with him, and we stayed in touch through the 90s until he made his comeback in 98. We shared the same agent. There’s always been a connection there. He’s always helped me. He’s always been a guy I could call while playing. Call him and talk about the mental focus, things he did, and tools to get back on track. It was nice to have a guy who was 10 years ahead of me in age, experience, and life in general. It’s been a great relationship.

He was a hero of mine as a kid, I guess, because he was the best player on the team at the time.

He was very good. I mean it was way before satellite TV and all that crap. My agent used to tell me he’d go months without a ball hit hard off him. You try to make it through one game without a hard-hit ball. I remember Bob, my agent, telling me that Dave, in his prime, went months without a ball hit hard. Give up singles and balls that bloop in, but no one would hit a ball hard. He was big-time dominant. He was so dominant.

He didn’t always seem to enjoy his teammates.

No kidding. I am sure he has said to me that he regrets some of the things he did early in his career as far as some of that stuff on the field. A very fierce competitor; you go to his place to play darts, it is ‘look out, game on,’ you know. Whatever you play, that is just the way he is. I don’t know if it is because he had an older brother. He was trying to keep up with him or what, but he is one hell of a competitor.

Happy Birthday, Dave. I hope it is a good one.

Cliff Johnson turns 79 today.

Cliff Johnson was a designated hitter who played for the Jays from 1983 to 1986, with a half-season stint for the Texas Rangers in between. I always thought Cliff was our first truly effective DH. He joined the team as a veteran at age 35 in 1983, already with 11 seasons in the majors. He was part of the Jays’ transformation from a struggling expansion team to a perennial playoff contender. In 1985—the franchise’s first playoff year—Bobby Cox platooned him with Al Oliver.

As a Blue Jay, Johnson hit .273/.372/.466 with 54 home runs and 202 RBI over four seasons. Across his 15-year career, he posted a .258/.355/.459 line with 196 home runs and 568 RBI. He was always a solid hitter but never known for his defense. Although he played catcher, first base, and outfield, DH was the ideal role for him.

I remember commentators calling him Heathcliff, but he’s listed as Clifford on his Baseball-Reference page. I thought Heathcliff was a cool name back then.

Happy Birthday, Cliff; have a good one.

Tim Johnson turns 77 today.

Tim played for the Jays in 1978 and 1979, wrapping up a seven-season MLB career. He appeared in 111 games for Toronto, batting .212/.284/.248 with one home run.

And you will likely remember that he was our manager in 1998. The team went 88-74 that season. So since we were 76-86 the season before, we were pretty happy with him.

Tim tried to motivate his players with stories of his time in Vietnam. Unfortunately, it was later revealed that these stories were fabricated—he had never served in Vietnam and was actually a Marine reservist while playing in the Dodgers’ minor league system. Exaggerating a resume is one thing, but lying about military service is unacceptable. He also falsely claimed to have received a basketball scholarship to UCLA.

Gord Ash ended up firing him. Ash didn’t have much luck with picking managers.

Happy Birthday, Tim.