Blue Jays: Top-five greatest shortstops in franchise history

The role of a prototypical shortstop has evolved throughout the decades. What was once the province of light-hitting, fleet-footed speedsters has changed into a power position. Shortstops traditionally were never a threat with the bat; that is no longer the cause.

The evolution of the position is reflected in Blue Jays history at that position. Players such as Alfredo Griffin, who rarely hit a ball out of Exhibition Stadium, were the club’s first stars. Now it’s Bo Bichette, who attacks each pitch with a violent fury.

That makes comparing shortstops across the Blue Jays’ 45-year history difficult: how do you rank players who played the game so differently?

A total of 83 players have started at least one game at shortstop for the Blue Jays. They’ve been former top prospects, Gold Glove winners, and franchise icons. They’ve been slick-fielding defensive wizards and offensive powerhouses. They come as young players barely out of their teens just hoping of playing in the big leagues, to established stars arriving in Toronto on mega-deals.

Here is a look at the five players who helped define the position for the Blue Jays.

No. 5 Alex Gonzalez

He was the Blue Jays’ golden boy, the Florida kid with the movie star good looks who was going to be the next superstar for a franchise coming off two consecutive World Series titles.

When Alex Gonzalez made his MLB debut at the age of 20 in 1994, he was the fourth-ranked prospect by Baseball America. Behind him were some familiar names: Carlos Delgado, Álex Rodriguez, and Manny Ramírez. He was the top shortstop on the list; in second was a Yankees prospect named Derek Jeter. The Blue Jays wouldn’t have a higher-rated prospect until Vladimir Guerrero Jr. nearly a quarter-century later.

Gonzalez had lofty expectations when he became the Blue Jays’ regular starting shortstop. And while he never quite lived up to that colossal hype, he still enjoyed a solid eight-year stint in Toronto, starting 870 games between 1994-2001, third-most in franchise history.

His offensive skills lagged well behind his talent in the field. Gonzalez batted only .245 with the Blue Jays. He never had an OPS above .720 in any full season. While his 83 home runs are the most of any shortstop in Blue Jays franchise history, he never hit more than 17 in a season. His 350 RBI rank second among franchise shortstops, but only once did he collect more than 70.

It was in the field, though, that Gonzalez made his mark for the franchise. Omar Vizquel had a stranglehold on Gold Gloves during this era, winning nine years in a row. But Gonzalez was often right there with him. Only Vizquel had a higher fielding percentage among American League shortstops between 1996-2001. Gonzalez had a Total Zone rating that was nine points higher than Vizquel during that span.

Gonzalez was traded to the Chicago Cubs in December 2001, where, oddly, his defense played a key role in one of the most infamous games in MLB history. In Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, the Cubs led the Marlins 3-0 and were five outs away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 1945. With one out in the inning, Luis Castillo lofted a fly ball into foul territory. Cubs’ left-fielder Moises Alou made a leap for it, but a fan sitting in the front row named Steve Bartman also tried to catch it and got in Alou’s way. Castillo eventually drew a walk and put two runners on.

The name Steve Bartman would be forgotten today if not for a play that happened two at-bats later. A young Miguel Cabrera hit a groundball toward short that should’ve been an easy inning-ending double play. The normally sure-handed Gonzalez bobbled the ball and everyone was safe. The Marlins eventually scored eight runs in the inning and crushed the Cubs’ dreams.

Bartman became so reviled in Chicago that Gonzalez’s miscue is little remembered, even if it was arguably more important. Gonzalez stuck around the league for another three seasons before retiring in 2006.

No. 4 Troy Tulowitzki

On July 28, 2015, the Blue Jays were already the league’s highest-scoring team but were just 50-50 and 6.5 games out of the AL East lead. Then they went out and traded for an All-Star.

The mega-deal that brought Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto along with LaTroy Hawkins for a package including José Reyes, Miguel Castro, and Jeff Hoffman shocked the baseball world simply because deals of this magnitude are rarely pulled off in the middle of the season. General Manager Alex Anthopoulos had originally tried to get Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies in the previous offseason but hadn’t managed to close the deal. A few months later, the timing proved to be just right.

“This is a long-term acquisition. We think we got better now, and we would have taken Troy Tulowitzki in the offseason, but we just couldn’t get the deal done. This wasn’t a July move, this happened to be the time we could get him,” Anthopoulos said at the time. “I just think we got better, for the short and for the long term.”

Anthopoulos transformed the team that trade deadline. A few days later, he got David Price from the Tigers. The Blue Jays went 43-18 the rest of the way and won the division by six games, snapping the club’s 22-year postseason drought.

Tulowitzki, away from the friendly confines and thin air of Coors Field, never quite matched the prodigious production he had with the Rockies once he switched teams. He was batting .300 with 12 homers in 2015 with the Rockies, but his average dipped to .239 with the Blue Jays; he hit just five home runs in 41 games with the Blue Jays, while his OPS declined by more than 120 points. He went 7-23 in the Blue Jays’ six-game ALCS loss to the Royals, including a three-run homer that burst open a decisive Game 3 win.

Tulowitzki was better in 2016, his 24 home runs at the time the second-most by a Blue Jays shortstop. He also hit .462 in the ALDS win over the Rangers as the Blue Jays advanced to the ALCS for the second consecutive year.

Then, almost as quickly and shockingly as his tenure in Toronto began, it came to an end. On July 28, 2017, two years to the day since the trade, Tulowitzki was running to first base when he collided with Angels’ first baseman C.J. Cron and collapsed to the ground with an ankle sprain. He never played another game with the Blue Jays. Tulowitzki was released in December 2018 with two years and $38 million left on his contract.

Despite playing just 238 games with the Blue Jays, Tulowitzki ranks fourth all-time among shortstops with 36 homers. Only Bo Bichette, Tony Fernández and Reyes had a higher OPS. The trade changed the trajectory of the Blue Jays franchise after years of looking up at the Yankees and Red Sox. That was Tulowitzki’s ultimate legacy for the Blue Jays.

No. 3 Alfredo Griffin

In the early years of the Blue Jays franchise, there were two things that could be counted on: the team would be lousy, and Alfredo Griffin would be in the lineup.

Griffin was a consistent presence for the burgeoning franchise. He played in more than 150 games in four of his six years with the Blue Jays. Between 1981-83, he missed a total of five games out of a possible 430. He and Carlos Delgado are the only players in franchise history to play all 162 games in consecutive seasons.

Griffin wasn’t much of a threat at the plate. He hit just 24 home runs over his 18-year career that encompassed nearly 2,000 games; he had only 13 in 982 games in a Blue Jays uniform. His best year was his first in 1979. Griffin hit .348 over the final month of the season, finishing with a career-best .287 average and sharing the AL Rookie of the Year Award with John Castino of the Twins.

He did have some speed, leading the AL in triples in 1980 with 15. He’s the only player in Blue Jays franchise history with at least 10 triples in consecutive years. Griffin made his lone All-Star Game appearance in 1984 almost as an accident; he attended the game as a guest of teammate Damaso Garcia, who had made the AL team, before being asked to join the roster as an injury replacement.

The cold, windy conditions of Exhibition Stadium were far from where Griffin grew up in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. But he had nothing but positive memories of his time in Toronto with a young, up-and-coming franchise.

“It was a great memory. The fans were growing with the team and there was excitement about the team in those young days,” he told the Toronto Star’s Richard Griffin in 2009. “I’m really very grateful. I thank those days I played and the opportunity I got. Everywhere I go fans still remember me. It’s a blessing and a privilege.”

Griffin was eventually supplanted as the Blue Jays shortstop by another San Pedro de Macoris native, Tony Fernández . After a few years with the Athletics and Dodgers, where he won a World Series title in 1988, he returned to Toronto in time for their back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993.

Griffin was primarily used as a late-game defensive replacement in those postseasons, but he did have the best view of the most iconic moment in franchise history. He was on deck when Joe Carter hit his walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series over the Phillies.

No. 1 Tony Fernández

To gauge how much of an impact Tony Fernández had on the Blue Jays franchise, just look at the tributes that poured in upon his death in 2020 at the age of 57.

“Tony Fernández was one of the finest people I’ve ever met in baseball,” said former teammate and later TV commentator Buck Martinez. “He was a terrific person, first and foremost, a great father, a great husband and a great teammate, a hell of a player. I’ll always remember how much joy he had when he played the game. He loved to play the game.”

Fernández was just 17 when he was signed by Blue Jays Latin American scout Epy Guerrero in 1979. His first full season as the Blue Jays shortstop in 1985 coincided with the start of a golden age for the franchise. The Blue Jays won their first AL East title as Fernandez was the first to embrace left-fielder George Bell after Bell caught the clinching fly ball. He was a four-time All-Star with the Blue Jays and won four consecutive Gold Glove Awards.

More than two decades after he last wore a Blue Jays uniform, Fernández is still the franchise’s all-time leader in hits (1,583, more than 700 ahead of any other shortstop) and games played (1,450). Among shortstops, he’s first in RBI (613) and batting average (.297, tied with Bo Bichette). An entire generation of young Blue Jays fans would put on their gloves, head out into their backyards, and try to emulate Fernández's signature move, a crossbody throw after snagging a groundball in the hole.

He was already a franchise icon when he was involved in a deal that changed the course of Blue Jays history. On Dec. 5, 1990, the Blue Jays sent Fernández and future Hall of Famer Fred McGriff to the San Diego Padres for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar.

Fernández missed the franchise’s first World Series title in 1992, but he returned in time for the 1993 postseason. He led the team with nine RBI during their six-game win over the Phillies as the Blue Jays became back-to-back World Series champions.

Fernández had a third stint in Toronto in 1998-99 when he hit .324 and averaged 73 RBI over those two seasons. He returned yet again for one final time in 2001 when, at the age of 39, he batted .305 over 48 games. The Blue Jays added his name to the Level of Excellence that season.

Perhaps the biggest tribute came when the Blue Jays wore a patch featuring his iconic No. 1 during the 2020 season. He was gone too soon, but for the Blue Jays, his name will live on forever.