Blue Jays: Dioner Navarro takes time off after almost losing his wife

Former Toronto Blue Jays backstop and fan favorite Dioner Navarro proves why life is bigger than baseball as fans we sometimes forget what players have to deal with away with the ballpark when they are expected to perform on the field.

Dioner Navarro joined Barry Davis on his “Outta The Park” podcast last night and openly spoke about almost losing his wife this offseason due to a stroke and the struggles he had to overcome during the 2016 season.

The catcher’s wife was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm last year while he was playing with the Chicago White Sox. She was scheduled for offseason surgery but suffered a massive stroke this December and was in a coma for three months.

Navarro’s wife came out of the coma only three weeks ago and the Navarro family finally returned home ten days ago. The 33-year old reiterated that he is not retired but does figure teams have stayed away from him this offseason once finding out about his current family situation.

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The backstop played 85 games with the White Sox batting .210 with 6 home runs before being traded back to the Blue Jays at the end of August for Colton Turner. Once back with the Jays Navarro only hit .182 in 16 games in a backup role.

Obviously knowing what we know now and what Navarro and his family were struggling to overcome sheds some light on the unexplained drop in offense.

Throughout the interview, Navarro also talks about his time with the Blue Jays and his buddy Jose Bautista and why he sometimes gets a bad rap from opposing fans and players. You can listen to the entire podcast HERE, the Navarro interview begins around the 39-minute mark.

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If you weren’t a Navarro fan before listening to the podcast, you will definitely be after. Navarro has a great perspective on life and as great of a ballplayer that he is, he is an even better human being. Hopefully, the Blue Jays give him another chance north of the border.