The Toronto Blue Jays joined Major League Baseball as part of the 1977 expansion, but Toronto baseball has a much longer history. The Toronto Maple Leafs are known as the NHL franchise, but there was also a baseball franchise with the same name. From the 1880s to 1967, the Maple Leafs played as a popular independent franchise. Ironically, 1967 is also the last year the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. Is that a coincidence? That’s for another article to find out.
Here, we are celebrating the legacy of the Toronto Blue Jays. This team won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993, and never won again. They haven’t even been back to the World Series since. After winning the ‘93 Series, they didn’t make the playoffs until 2015. That’s more than two decades without playoff baseball after getting used to being the best team in the league.
This doesn’t mean there haven’t been superstars who came through Canada’s only team as of today. Roger Clemens won two Cy Youngs with Toronto. George Bell won MVP. Robbie Ray won a Cy Young in 2021, and none of those players even made this list. Who did? Let’s start with the guy leading this team today.
First Base
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
2019-2025
The current Blue Jays are in great hands at first base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the son of the Hall of Fame Expos great, has steadily grown into a fantastic presence on the field and especially at bat. His career is just beginning. He’s 26 years old, but he’s already pushing out some very impressive names to be the first baseman of note (but one of those other first basemen is going to come up a little later).
Guerrero is already in his seventh MLB season. His best year came in 2021, when he led the American League in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases, home runs, and runs scored. Somehow, he lost out on the MVP to Shohei Ohtani, who had the gimmick of pitching and hitting going for him.
With so much time in his career left and a newly-minted 14-year contract under his belt, Guerrero is expected to lead the Blue Jays in almost every offensive category. He’s already sixth in offensive WAR, eighth in hits, 10th in runs scored, seventh in home runs and ninth in RBIs. He’s going to continue raking for the Blue Jays for a long time. With Toronto likely winning the AL East in 2025, it looks like he’s ready to bring a winning franchise north of the border.
Second Base
Roberto Alomar
1991-1995
Roberto Alomar came to the Blue Jays in one of the greatest trades in the history of the sport. Alomar came to Toronto from San Diego with another future World Series hero, helping this team win those two championships. Alomar was already becoming a star, making it to the All-Star Game in 1990. He joined Toronto and only grew his stardom.
Alomar was with the Blue Jays for five seasons. He made the All-Star Game and won a Gold Glove every season. He won the Silver Slugger in 1992 after recording a .402 on-base percentage and a .427 slugging percentage. He wasn’t going to slam the ball, only hitting more than 10 home runs twice in Toronto, but he always put the ball exactly where it needed to go.
In the playoffs, he was as clutch as they come. In his first postseason, he hit .474 for the Blue Jays, but they only lasted five games. Then, in 1992, everything came together for the Blue Jays. Alomar hit .320 that postseason, including two home runs and eight stolen bases. He won the ALCS MVP for his efforts. He once again helped the Blue Jays win the World Series in 1993, hitting .388 with 10 RBIs and eight stolen bases.
Shortstop
Tony Fernandez
1983-1990, 1993, 1998-1999, 2001
We’ve done quite a few of these lineups, but we’ve never seen a player with four separate stints with a team. The Toronto Blue Jays just continued to call for Tony Fernandez to play at shortstop. In all, Fernandez played 1,450 games for the Blue Jays over 18 years.
Fernandez started his career in Toronto in 1983. Two years later, he was the team’s starting shortstop. In 1986, he broke the major league record for hits by a shortstop with 216. He was also a four-time Gold Glove winner during his first stint, winning the award every year from 1986 to 1989. He also made the All-Star Game three times.
Then, he was surprisingly traded before the start of the 1991 season. It was a massive deal that sent Fernandez and young superstar Fred McGriff for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. Fernandez saw the rise of this franchise, but he wasn’t able to gain the fruits of its labor with a World Series title.
That was, until he was traded from the Mets to the Blue Jays in the middle of the 1993 season. Fernandez was reunited with his team, and he was pivotal in the playoffs. In the World Series, Fernandez had nine RBIs in the series. He was very clutch and impacted the Blue Jays for good measure.
Third Base
Josh Donaldson
2015-2018
Third base is incredibly hard to pin down for the Blue Jays. Even recently, they’ve had seven regular third basemen in the past eight years. There were a few big names that joined them, like Scott Rolen in 2008, Troy Glaus in 2006, and Edwin Encarnacion had some time at third base during his Blue Jays’ tenure, but the best stretch was Josh Donaldson from 2015 to 2017.
Donaldson was one of the best players in baseball during his three years in Toronto. It was also the best stretch of his impressive career. His 7.3 WAR in 2016 and 7.4 WAR in 2015 are his career highs. We think of Donaldson as a player who really played well in multiple stops, but in reality, he was only absolutely great in Toronto.
He was so great, he was the Most Valuable Player in the league one year. He beat out Mike Trout in 2015 for the award, leading the league in both runs and RBIs. In the playoffs that season, he helped Toronto get past the Texas Rangers in the ALDS before losing to the Royals in the ALCS in six games.
Catcher
Russell Martin
2015-2018
Catcher is another position where there wasn’t much longevity. Ernie Whitt played 10 years in the 1980s, but he was only average at the plate. Pat Borders was there for the championship years. Alejandro Kirk has been there for a few years and is a current fan favorite. But we’re going to choose late-career Russell Martin as the pick here.
Martin already had a career with the Dodgers, Yankees, and Pirates when he signed a five-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2014. Being Canadian-born, this was treated like a homecoming. He finished his first season in Toronto with a .240 batting average, 23 home runs, and 77 RBI in 129 games.
Martin’s biggest detriment for this list was his rough postseason performance. He had just seven hits in 59 total at-bats. However, his hits were often effective, as he had five runs and seven walks in the two postseasons. This is a position where there’s a serious opening for someone to supplant Martin, but his 2015 season is still one of the best from a catcher in this franchise’s history.
Right Field
Jose Bautista
2008-2017
We’re about to get to the meat of the order. The outfield for the Toronto Blue Jays is incredible. Not only are they all really good players, but they have incredible stories that connect them directly to Toronto. Let’s start with Jose Bautista, who owes his career to Toronto. He was looking like a utility outfielder with a journeyman’s career in his future. Instead, he became one of the most feared hitters in the AL East. The Blue Jays traded a player to be named later for Bautista from the Pittsburgh Pirates after Scott Rolen got injured. He was supposed to be an injury replacement, and that’s it.
When Dwayne Murray got his hands on Bautista, it was over. He taught him better timing with his power swing, and it turned him into the best hitter of his kind during this era. From 2010 to 2015, Bautista hit more home runs than any player in baseball. In his first season as a starter, Bautista broke the Blue Jays single-season home run record, clobbering 54 dingers. He led the majors in homers that season and the season after.
Bautista was must-see TV because he could crush the ball, unlike anyone we’ve seen since the end of the Steroid Era. With the Blue Jays, Bautista was a six-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger, a two-time Hank Aaron award winner (for the AL’s best hitter), and led baseball in walks twice in his Blue Jays career. He helped the Blue Jays end a 22-year playoff drought, and his bat flip in the 2015 ALDS was the moment they arrived.
Center Field
Vernon Wells
1999-2010
There was just something about the aura of Vernon Wells that made him a lovable figure in Toronto. Strolling center field with a big smile on his face and smashing home runs while at the plate, Wells was a larger-than-life presence, something the Blue Jays hadn’t had in a while. He had to fight his way onto the roster, playing in the New York-Penn League, South Atlantic League, and Australian Baseball League before becoming a regular with the Blue Jays in 2002.
He batted .275 with 23 home runs, 100 RBI, and 87 runs in his first full season, but he was just getting started. In 2003, Wells upped the ante by hitting 33 home runs with 117 RBI and a .317 batting average. That year, he made his first of three All-Star teams. He led the league in hits, doubles, and total bases, but somehow only finished eighth in MVP voting.
With the offensive numbers speaking for themselves, Wells wanted to dominate on the defensive side, as well. He did it at such a high level that he won three straight Gold Gloves from 2004 to 2006. At the time of this writing, Wells ranks second in franchise history in hits (1,529), doubles (330), RBIs (813), and total bases (2,597). He’s at or near the top of the list of every offensive category, and he became one of the great centerfielders in the game.
Left Field
Joe Carter
1991-1997
This was the hardest decision on the list. Do we want to go with the 1987 AL MVP George Bell or the World Series hero Joe Carter? This is going to be controversial, but we’re going with Joe Carter. Twice in the history of baseball has a World Series ended on a walkoff. It’s not like this happened with a mediocre player. Joe Carter was awesome, and he gave the Blue Jays their biggest moment ever. That needs to be memorialized, and we hope to have more moments like that with this lineup. We need the most clutch hitter this team has ever seen.
Carter wasn’t a one-hit wonder in the playoffs, either. Carter joined the Blue Jays in 1991 alongside Roberto Alomar, as San Diego targeted Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff. It was as franchise-altering a trade as there was in the history of the league. Carter directly led to two World Series titles.
And it’s not like Carter wasn’t good in the regular season. He won the Silver Slugger in both 1991 and 1992. He was in the top five in MVP voting both those years, as well. He finished third in 1992. He had more than 100 RBIs in six of his seven years in Toronto. Carter stole between 10 and 20 bases while hitting between 25 and 35 home runs every season. He was as reliable a hitter as any in this amazing lineup. Bell was great for a stretch, but he was in Chicago when Carter walked the Blue Jays off.
Designated Hitter
Carlos Delgado
1993-2004
Of course, the player missing from first base is Carlos Delgado. There was nobody on this list who was the presence in the batter’s box that Carlos Delgado was during his peak with the Blue Jays. He was intimidating without trying to be. He looked like a professional wrestler in a baseball uniform. And he used every ounce of that strength to smash hanging sliders out of the park.
Over 12 seasons, Delgado registered 336 home runs. He broke 30 home runs in a season eight times with the Blue Jays and 40+ home runs three times. He led all of baseball in RBIs with 145 in 2003, which broke his own franchise record from 2000. Delgado still owns the single season records for RBIs, slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits, doubles, and total bases. His 2000 and 2003 seasons were incredible and remain underrated for dominance in this era.
Even beyond those numbers, Delgado had a .470 on-base percentage in 2000. He got on base almost half of the time he was at the plate. That’s insanity. It’s also insane that Delgado didn’t get a bigger push to make the Hall of Fame. While he didn’t come close to 500 home runs, which seems to be a prerequisite for sluggers to make it to Cooperstown, the voters have to understand the context of dominance. Nobody was as feared as Delgado, short of Barry Bonds. He was smashing balls and taking mistakes and sending them to the moon. His consistency is hard to match, and we likely won’t see dominance like this in a Blue Jays uniform for a long time.
Starting Pitcher
Roy Halladay
1998-2009
The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t have a pitcher win a Cy Young award until 1996 when Pat Hentgen won the award. Since then, the Blue Jays have laid claim to the Cy Young winner five times. They actually had a winner three years in a row (1996-1998). Roger Clemens has the most Cy Youngs in Toronto, but his name isn’t exactly thought of positively here. However, Roy Halladay is beloved, and he dominated for so much longer.
He debuted in 1998, but something was off. He was a decent pitcher in 1999, but in 2000, he was dreadful. He finished the season with an ERA over 10. The Blue Jays sent him down to the minor leagues to rework his delivery, and he returned a superstar. ‘Doc’ Holliday led all American League pitchers in WAR in 2002, and in 2003, he won his first Cy Young. He had 22 wins, nine complete games, and 204 strikeouts in the intense AL East.
Halladay was dominant for a decade with the Blue Jays, giving his team the best at the top of the rotation every season. He was in the top five in Cy Young voting five times in Toronto, and he did an incredible job of keeping the ball in the ballpark, leading the league in home runs per 9 innings pitched in 2002. There are few pitchers with the endurance of Roy Halladay and his ability to keep hitters off balance, even the third time through the batting order.
Closing Pitcher
Tom Henke
1985-1992
His nickname was “the Terminator.” Can we put Tom Henke on this list strictly for the nickname? Honestly, he earned it. Lost in the lore of yesteryear, Henke was incredible on the mound in the 1980s and early 90s, finding his footing after he was selected as compensation by the Blue Jays. He found the strike zone in AAA and was quickly promoted to help the Blue Jays with a pennant race.
He immediately destroyed his competition, going 11 straight appearances without allowing a run and getting 13 saves in his first season. He played 28 games that season and got multiple MVP votes. In 1987, Henke led the league with 34 saves. His WHIP was under 1.000 and his ERA finished at 2.33 on the season. He added 128 strikeouts in just 94 innings pitched.
There was something about Henke. That’s not the best analysis, but if you were there, you know exactly what we’re talking about. It’s the blazing fastball speed, the incredible strikeouts, and the glasses just connected the aura. And that’s why we’re happy he remained with the Blue Jays through their World Series run. While he didn’t get to close the deciding Game 6 (since it ended on a walkoff home run), he did make five saves during the postseason and finished with a 1.13 ERA. He ended his playoff career with a 1.83 ERA in 15 appearances.