No former Toronto Blue Jays elected into Hall of Fame

Jeff Kent

Kent is the lone player on this list drafted by the Blue Jays, although he wasn’t a Blue Jay very long. He suited up in just 65 games for the 1992 Jays (bad year to leave the team) before turning into David Cone, a key player in the 1992 World Series Championship victory for the Blue Jays. Regardless of all Kent went on to achieve, it’s always worth trading away a prospect in exchange for a championship. You hear that, Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins?

Kent spent six years with the San Fransisco Giants, five years with the New York Mets, four years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, two years with the Houston Astros, and one year with the Cleveland Indians. In those 17 years, he won an MVP award in 2000, was a four-time Silver Slugger and five-time All Star. Of course, the Blue Jays also had Roberto Alomar as their superstar second-baseman, where Kent spent most of his fielding time as well.

Despite those achievements, in his ninth year on eligibility, Kent was named on 32.7 per cent of the ballots, so barring a big jump next year, he could fall off the first phase of the Hall of Fame induction process. This seems even more likely, considering he rose just 0.3 per cent over 2021.

Mark Buehrle

In just his second year on the ballot, southpaw Mark Buehrle just narrowly escaped falling off the ballot by just staying above the five percent minimum threshold. In fact, at 5.8 per cent, Buerhle and Torii Hunter (5.3 per cent) both just escaped the reckoning, unlike 10 other players eligible this year who did not hit that minimum. However, Buerhle lost nearly half of his votes from last year – 44 to 23 – so that’s not the right direction to trend.

Buerhle came to the Blue Jays in that massive 2012 deal with the then-Florida Marlins. The deal saw Buerhle, Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, Josh Johnson, and Jose Reyes join the Blue Jays and going the other way were Henderson Alvarez III, Anthony DeSclafani, Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Jake Marisnick, Jeff Mathis and Justin Nicolino.

Known as the guy who barely took time to breath between pitches and got us all to bed before 10:00pm, Buehrle put together three strong and respectable seasons for the Blue Jays before hanging up his spikes, including being named an All-Star in 2014. In 2015, the longtime Chicago White Sox starter fell just 1.1 innings pitched shy of throwing 200 or more innings in 15 consecutive seasons, a truly remarkable achievement.

However, the Hall writers don’t typically put a ton of stock in consistency and reliability, even if Buerhle did it at a fairly high level for a decade and a half. However, the BBWAA has eight more years to give Buerhle a chance. Whether he ends up in the Hall or not, Buerhle had an impressive career, walking away with a no-hitter, a perfect game, a World Series ring, five All-Star nominations, four Gold Glove wins and a host of non-tangibles as well. Most of all, it was just awesome watching him pitch.