Blue Jays: Assembling the all-time team of biggest busts

Every professional team in sports has made personnel moves they regret, and that’s just part of the game. Who are the biggest “busts” in Blue Jays history by position? Let’s have a look.

When you think of the word “bust” in professional sports, it usually pertains to draft picks. That’s certainly a fair way to look at things, but in my mind the word bust can pertain more than just a minor leaguer who was supposed to be a star.

We’ve watched it happen in Toronto many times over the years with draft picks who were supposed to pan out, but also with free agents who were supposed to push the Blue Jays from a pretender into a contender. It’s happened a few times more recently, but there are also several cases throughout the 41 year history of the team that have been forgotten, especially by the modern Blue Jay fan.

We saw the fruits of a recent example this past week, as the Blue Jays designated Jaime Garcia for assignment before the end of his first season with the team. While Garcia wasn’t expected be an ace by any means, I don’t think many people expected him to be healthy and dropped from the Blue Jays’ roster before the end of the year.

For every Roy Halladay, Carlos Delgado, or Josh Donaldson, there have been plenty of Garcia’s who haven’t lived up to expectations. If we were to break it down by position, who have been the biggest “busts” in Blue Jays history?

The Infield

The Blue Jays have been lucky enough to draft, and to acquire plenty of fantastic infielders throughout the years. Whether it was bringing in stars through trades like with Roberto Alomar, or more recently with Josh Donaldson, there has been plenty of luck on the Blue Jays’ side.

That said, there have been many others who haven’t lived up to expectations, and have been more of a set back than a step forward for the organization. You could make a case for several players at each position, but here’s who I’ve selected as the biggest infield busts in Blue Jays history.

Catcher- J.P. Arencibia

This one hurts me to write down, as I was a big fan of the player, and I’m still a fan of Arencibia’s work today as a baseball analyst. He was supposed to be the franchise catcher of the future in Toronto, and instead his early promise turned into a career that fizzled out far too early.

After hitting 23 home runs and driving in 78 RBI in his first full season as a starter, the Blue Jays started to view him as the catcher of the future. Not only did that set them back after Arencibia failed to develop into ‘the man’ behind the plate, but they also traded both Yan Gomes and Travis d’Arnaud.

After hitting .193 in his third season as the starter in 2013, the Blue Jays decided to move on from their 2007 first round pick, and he played his last big league game in 2015.

First Base- Brett Wallace

There are probably better choices here, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people who point out that he was barely even a Blue Jay. However, if you were there when the Roy Halladay trade went down, you’ll remember the hype around the prospects the Blue Jays got in return (more on that later).

The Blue Jays acquired Wallace in exchange for Michael Taylor, who had been part of the package that came back for the Doc. For a time, Wallace was considered the top prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, and even ranked as high as #27 on Baseball America’s prospect list.

However, as was aptly pointed out by Keegan Matheson at Jays Journal back in 2014, Wallace “embodies the age old baseball saying: prospects will break your heart”. He just never panned out as a big leaguer. Not in Toronto, or anywhere else he stopped on the road to big league glory. It happens, and in this case it was a tremendous disappointment for Blue Jays fans.

Second Base- Carlos Garcia

I debated a few different names here, but I settled on a guy that only played one season for the Blue Jays back in 1997.

Carlos Garcia arrived in Toronto along with Orlando Merced, and it looked like he might be the best solution at second base since Roberto Alomar had left after the glory years. He had been an All-Star with the Pirates in 1994, and was a solid candidate to star for the Blue Jays as he entered his age 29 season.

Instead, the Blue Jays received the beginning of his steep MLB decline, as he slashed just .220/.253/.329 in 103 games in his lone campaign in Toronto. He made brief stops in Anaheim and San Diego playing just 25 more games as a pro before his career was over. Sometimes it happens that fast.

Shortstop- Russ Adams

There were several players I could have plugged into this spot, but I think Russ Adams stands out as the biggest shortstop bust in Blue Jays history.

He debuted in 2004, but took the full-time job for the first time in 2005 when he slashed .256/.325/.383 as a rookie, adding eight home runs, 63 RBI, and 27 doubles. He wasn’t showing Gold Glove ability at short, but looked like he would be able to handle the part. Unfortunately that didn’t last long for the 2002 first round pick.

Adams is probably as well known for who the Blue Jays could have drafted as he is for what he accomplished on the field. In the same draft that the Blue Jays selected Adams, names like Cole Hamels, Nick Swisher, Scott Kazmir, and Matt Cain came afterward, making it that much more difficult to swallow.

Third Base- Eric Hinske

I almost gave this spot to Corey Koskie, the Canadian free agent that was signed and hyped to the extreme. However, I can’t think of a guy that I was more personally excited about as a rookie, to fall flat on his face for the majority of the rest of his career.

Eric Hinske was one of, if not the best player on the 2002 version of the Toronto Blue Jays. He stormed on to the American League by slashing .279/.365/.481 with 24 home runs, 83 RBI, and 38 doubles in 151 games. He was good enough to win the Rookie of the Year award, and looked like a real building block for the next generation of competitive teams in Toronto after the glory years of the 90’s.

Unfortunately Hinske never repeated those numbers and was out of Toronto by 2006. He severed as a versatile bench piece throughout his career and retired after the 2013 season. Considering how it all started for the power-hitting third baseman.

The Rotation

This was arguably the most difficult spot to choose from, as there have been plenty of failed pitching experiments over the years, and lots of draft picks who didn’t fulfill their promise.

Pitching is the most difficult spot to develop for big league teams, and the bullpen is often made up of failed starters, so the tales are endless here. For every success story there are usually 10, 20, or 50 failed arms that couldn’t quite cut it in a big league rotation. There’s a reason the best are so sought after and highly paid.

For the Blue Jays you could make a list of a couple dozen worthwhile candidates throughout franchise history, but I’ve done my best to narrow it down to five. Feel free to disagree with me, as there are plenty of good choices here.

1- Mike Sirotka

Traded to the Blue Jays from the White Sox, Sirotka was the centre piece that came back when Toronto shipped David Wells to Chicago. Sirotka had just come off a season with a 15-10 record and a 3.79 ERA across 193 innings pitched, and looked like a solid piece in return for Wells at the time.

Unfortunately the former White Sox hurler never threw a pitch in a Blue Jay uniform, as a torn labrum kept him from continuing his professional career in Toronto. That one didn’t work out so well for the Blue Jays.

2- Josh Johnson

Back in 2013, the Blue Jays pulled off a major blockbuster with the Marlins and looked like they could be real contenders for the American League pennant. Sending minor leaguers  and other pieces south, the Blue Jays acquired Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, and the centre-piece of the deal, Josh Johnson.

Then-GM Alex Anthopoulos had had interested in Johnson for years, and he was finally able to pry him away from the Marlins and bring him in to bolster a Blue Jays rotation that already featured Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow. It was supposed to be a move that turned the Blue Jays into contenders, but instead it backfired in many ways.

Johnson was never productive as a Blue Jay, making just 16 starts in Toronto. He signed a few minor league deals afterward, but he was never healthy enough to make it back to the big leagues after that trade.

3- Kyle Drabek

I mentioned that I would get back to the return for Roy Halladay later, and this is that time. Drabek was the centre-piece of the trade that sent Halladay to Philadelphia, and it was rumoured that the Phillies were very reluctant to give up on him back then.

The son of a former NL Cy Young winner (Doug Drabek), Kyle was unable to find his form at the highest level despite showing promise throughout the minor league system. He threw 172.1 innings as a Blue Jay over five years, and was last seen in the Diamondbacks’ bullpen in 2016.

4- Erik Hanson

Brought in as a free agent and a potential difference maker, Hanson was anything but in a Blue Jays uniform. After making the AL All-Star team the year before as a member of the Red Sox, the Blue Jays signed him away thinking they had picked up a significant arm to shore up their rotation. Unfortunately things never worked out that way.

Over the span of three seasons, Hanson started 45 games for the Blue Jays, pitching to a 5.63 ERA, and a 1.679 WHIP. He did managed 214.2 innings in his first season, but that came along with a 5.41 ERA, a 13-17 record, and represented the highlight of his career in Toronto.

 5- Deck McGuire

I very nearly listed Ricky Romero as the fifth member of the All-Time Busts team, but there’s someone else that deserves the spot even more.

You might remember Deck McGuire from a short stint with the Blue Jays earlier in the 2018 season, but he was actually a first round pick of the team back in 2010 as well.

The draft is infamous because it featured the likes of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in the first three picks, and the Blue Jays selected McGuire with the 11th pick in the first round. While some pitching prospects miss, it was what came after McGuire that truly made this one sting.

Chosen in the first round after the 11th pick were: Chris Sale, Christian Yelich, Aaron Sanchez, Noah Syndergaard, and more. Ouch.

Bullpen

I could have rolled with a seven man bullpen here, but I decided to include a top-5, much in the same way the rotation is laid out. Call it wrong, call it lazy, that’s how I decided to do things here.

1- B.J. Ryan

The Blue Jays blew the walls off the bank safe when they signed Ryan to a five year, 47 million dollar deal. It was the biggest contract for a reliever at the time, and it was supposed to solidify the Blue Jays closer position for years to come.

Instead, the Blue Jays got an outstanding first year, followed by a pile of injury troubles. In all he would pitch in 155.1 innings in his four seasons in Toronto, not even surviving the life of his contract.

2- Robert Person

In a trade that sent John Olerud away from the Blue Jays (what were they thinking?!?), Robert Person was supposed to be a starter with solid potential, or at worst a high end late-inning reliever.

However, he had a 5.61 ERA in 22 starts in his first season as a Blue Jay, and eventually moved to the bullpen in an effort to soak some value out of the hard-throwing righty. He would go on to have a couple decent seasons in Philadelphia, but never panned out the way the Blue Jays and their fans hoped he would.

3- Kerry Ligtenberg

Coming off several productive seasons with the Braves and Orioles, Ligtenberg was supposed to be the missing piece for the Blue Jays bullpen. Unfortunately he was not the same pitcher once he arrived north of the border, finished with a 6.08 ERA in 57 appearances in his only season as a Blue Jay in 2004.

He tried to rectify things in 2005 with the Diamondbacks, but a recently productive career quickly went south. He was out of the big leagues by the age of 34, and that was the end.

4- Ken Dayley

Ken Dayley had been a lights out left-hander for the St. Louis Cardinals for several years, and the Blue Jays really thought they were shoring up their bullpen when he joined them prior to the 1991 season.

For all the excitement, Dayley only threw five innings over the course of his Blue Jays career, appearing in eight games in 1991, and another two in 1993. Oops.

5- Roberto Osuna

Last but not least, I had to include the former Blue Jays closer, even if he doesn’t really belong here based on his on-field contributions in Toronto.

The only reason I’ve included him here is because of what he “should have been” for the Blue Jays, or maybe more accurately, “could have been”. His legal proceedings are ongoing, and now that he’s a member of the Houston Astros he’s really not a problem for the Blue Jays anymore, except when he’s the opponent.

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That said, for a guy that had/has as much promise and value to the Blue Jays organization less than a year ago, it’s sure a shame to see how things ended between the two parties. I won’t comment on his situation beyond that, but regardless of whether he’s guilty or not, it’s hard to swallow what could have been with the talented Mexican closer. By many accounts, he was supposed to be a Blue Jays legend, and instead it ended with the front office selling him to the highest bidder, and getting him out of town as quickly as they could.

So. how did I do? By now I’m sure you’re thinking about several names that I missed, and like I said above, there are great arguments to include many other players throughout the history of the franchise.

Feel free to include those omissions in the comments section, tell me why I’m wrong, or whatever you need to do to feel better. Talking about the biggest busts in franchise history has a way of making us all feel a little frustrated.