Former Blue Jays with a worse reputation than they deserve

Blue Jays fans are quick to embrace the players they love, but there are others who have faced the wrath of a disappointed fan base whether it was actually deserved or not.

This kind of thing can happen for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it’s because of expectations that haven’t been met, and that can come in a few different forms. Sometimes it’s because of a big-money contract, or others it’s because of the cost to acquire a player in a trade.

As an example, I often think about the fact that the Blue Jays traded away a young Jeff Kent that had only played in 65 big leagues games to that point in his career, and then went on to become a 5x All-Star and the 2000 National League MVP. You don’t hear about this trade as a major goof up on the part of the Blue Jays, simply because Kent was part of a swap that brought David Cone to Toronto, and the right-hander helped bring home a World Series title in 1992. Had the results been different, chances are Cone would have had plenty of irrational feelings thrown in his direction from Blue Jays fans.

Of course, there have been plenty of big moves that have been costly over the years, for a variety of reasons, but that doesn’t mean that the players involved deserved all of the criticism they’ve faced. Since we’re still waiting for more positive movement with the latest CBA discussions, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of those players, and review whether the hard feelings are justified or not.