A history of Toronto’s weird missteps with first basemen

When the Toronto Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. announced that they hadn't reached an extension ahead of Guerrero's self-imposed deadline, it marked another chapter in Toronto's strange history of making questionable decisions around first basemen.

In the Toronto Blue Jays' nearly 50 year history, they have had several first baseman that were fan favorites, All-Stars and potential Hall of Famers who were shipped out before they could get a chance to end their career in Toronto.

A weird history of Toronto’s missteps with their first basemen

It wasn't always like this.

After having Doug Ault as their inaugural first baseman, the Blue Jays had John Mayberry Sr. man first, where he became one of the team's first recognize stars. He hit 92 home runs in his five years as Toronto’s captain, and he was moved to make room for Willie Upshaw. Upshaw produced 11 bWAR from 1982-'85 before injuries caught up to him and he started to decline. His contract was sold to Cleveland, allowing Fred McGriff to take over.

Fred McGriff

Nicknamed the “Crime Dog,” McGriff burst onto the scene in 1987 and put together the best four year stretch of any first baseman in Toronto history up to that point. From 1987-'90, McGriff was good for 19.4 bWAR with 125 home runs with an OPS+ of 154 while slugging .531 and producing an on-base percentage of .390. He earned down-ballot MVP votes in three of those four years and won the Silver Slugger in 1989.

The deal: On Dec. 5, 1990, Toronto traded McGriff and Tony Fernandez to the San Diego Padres for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter.  

Did it work out: Two World Series rings later, yes, it worked out.

Alomar and Carter hit two of the biggest home runs in team history. Fernandez returned to Toronto to help the Blue Jays win the World Series in 1993, and John Olerud, who replaced McGriff at first, turned into one of the best contact hitters in the game. But one has to wonder what the following years would have looked like if Toronto had McGriff’s slugging presence in the lineup for his entire career.

He played 16 more seasons and smashed 368 more home runs while being worth 33.2 bWAR — numbers that were good enough to eventually get him to the Hall of Fame.

John Olerud

What Olerud lacked in power, he made up for in his contact, ability to get on base and his defense, as he produced 20.8 bWAR from 1991-'96. His .399 OBP and 457 walks in that six-year frame ranked fourth among first baseman, while his strikeout rate of 10.9% ranked seventh. In 1993, he flirted with a .400 batting average, finishing with a slash line of .363/.473/.599 while leading the league with 54 doubles and a 186 OPS+

The deal: On Dec. 20, 1996, the Blue Jays traded Olerud to the New York Mets for pitcher Robert Person.

Did it work out: It did not!

Olerud continued to be one of the best contact hitters in the league from 1997 until he retired in 2005. Not only did he average a slash line of .296/.400/.461 in that time frame, he had more walks than strikeouts every year expect for the final two of his career. Person was awful during his three years in Toronto. He had an unsightly 6.18 ERA and was worth -1.7 bWAR.

Part of the reason for that deal was to open up first base for Carlos Delgado. But, like the situation with McGriff, the Blue Jays could have had bothDelgado and Olerud in a first base / DH platoon. Instead, the Blue Jays cycled through a revolving door of full-time and part-time guys at DH, none of whom produced more than 1.6 bWAR in a single season.

Carlos Delgado

When Delgado took over Olerud, he ended up becoming the best homegrown slugger in Toronto history. After taking over first base full-time in 1997, he had a stretch of eight seasons with 30+ home runs, and 100+ RBI, He won three Sliver Sluggers, finished second in MVP voting in 2003 and produced 36.4 bWAR.

The deal: On Dec. 8, 2004, Delgado became a free agent, ending his 16-year tenure with the Blue Jays. He signed four-year, $52 million contract with the Florida Marlins in free agency.

Did it work out: No! The Blue Jays signed Delgado as an amateur free agent in 1988 and spent 16 years developing him into a legitimate superstar but didn't even get a compensation pick when he left. Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi cited payroll restrictions as the reason he couldn’t meet Delgado’s contract demands.

Delgado went on to pad his numbers on his Hall of Fame resume. From 2005 to his retirement in 2009 Delgado was good for 7.6 bWAR, hit 137 home runs and had a slash line of .275/.363/.525. Over that same time, the Blue Jays had Eric Hinske and Lyle Overbay make the majority of the starts at first base.

To give credit where credit is due though, Overbay had several productive seasons in Toronto from 2006 to 2009. Although he never hit for a ton of power, he got on base and was actually worth more bWAR (9.9) in that time period than Delgado. Despite Overbay’s production, the absence of Delgado left a hole in the hearts of a lot of Blue Jays fans and his leaving for the Marlins is still a sense of frustration for plenty of Blue Jays fans.

Edwin Encarnación

From 2011-'16 Encarnación solidified himself as one of the premier power threats in the game by hitting 210 home runs to go along with an OPS+ of 141. He was a four-time All-Star and hit 34+ home runs in five of those six seasons, topping out at 42 in 2012 and 2016. He helped lead the Blue Jays back to the postseason in 2015 and 2016 and he hit a walk-off against the Baltimore Orioles in the 2016 Wild Card Game.

The deal: Toronto GM Ross Atkins signed Kendrys Morales to a three-year contract after the 2016 season which effectively blocked Encarnación from returning to Toronto. Encarnación signed a three-year, $60 million deal with Cleveland.

Did it work out: Not entirely. While the Blue Jays got good production out of Justin Smoak, the Blue Jays would have been better off keeping Encarnación over Morales. Both guys ended up playing more games at DH over the next two seasons, with Encarnación having 70 home runs and a 123 OPS+ while Morales hit 49 home runs with an OPS+ of 103.

Encarnación produced 7.1 bWAR from 2017 until he retired after the 2020 season The Blue Jays could have kept him around for five more years and he would have been more productive than the players they had.

If Toronto had held onto Encarnación and he would have produced at the same clip he did elsewhere, he would have retired as the franchise leader in home runs, while being second in RBI, second in bWAR and fourth in hits.