George Springer is 37 today, and he’s still moving up the Blue Jays’ all-time lists while working through the back end of his six-year, $150 million deal.
His place in team history keeps getting a little stronger. Among position players, Springer sits 22nd in bWAR, 23rd in OPS, 25th in games played, 13th in runs scored, 11th in home runs, tied with Josh Donaldson, 15th in walks and 14th in steals. And, as the source puts it, he’s likely first in huge smiles.
Happy birthday, George!
Danny Valencia turns 42 today, and his time in Toronto came in two separate stretches over parts of two seasons during a nine-year MLB career. The Blue Jays picked him up near the 2014 deadline in a deal that sent Liam Hendriks and Erik Kratz to the Royals. Down the stretch, he hit .240/.273/.364 for Toronto, mostly at third base.
His 2015 start looked a lot better. In 58 games, he hit .296/.331/.506 with seven home runs.
But the Jays placed him on waivers, and the A’s claimed him after Toronto chose to let Ben Revere play every day. Revere responded with a .319/.354/.381 line down the stretch, helping the Jays reach the playoffs.
Valencia finished out the 2016 season with Oakland before moving on to the Mariners and Orioles. In nine seasons overall, he hit .268/.317/.426 with 96 home runs in 864 games.
Robinzon Diaz is 43 today, and he fits into the long list of catchers of the future who never quite became that guy. Still, his name sticks because he was part of one of the best trades in Blue Jays history: Toronto sent him to the Pirates for Jose Bautista.
Bautista went on to play ten seasons for the Jays and hit 288 home runs, plus six more in the playoffs, including the bat flip home run. Diaz, meanwhile, appeared in 43 games for Pittsburgh and hit .289/.315/.363 with one home run.
Randy Myers turns 64 today, and his Toronto tenure is remembered less for the contract than for how it ended. The Blue Jays signed the left-handed reliever to a three-year, $18 million deal after the 1997 season, a move described in the source as “a curious move (a polite way of calling it a mistake).”
Toronto had gone 76-86 in 1997 and finished fifth in the AL East, 22 games behind the Orioles, so the club was hardly one reliever away. Myers posted a 4.46 ERA in 41 games, with 28 saves and five blown saves.
Then came the waiver move. Gord Ash put Myers on waivers, the Padres claimed him, and the Blue Jays let the claim stand. The source says the Padres did not really want him so much as they did not want the Braves to get him, but Ash let them have him anyway and saved the club roughly $14 million over the next two seasons and two months.
Myers struggled the rest of the way in 1998, putting up a 6.28 ERA with no saves in 21 games. He never pitched in the majors again, and the Padres paid his salary for the next two years.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Already Have A Reason To Revisit The Jeff Hoffman Trade
The Blue Jays decision to move Jeff Hoffman at the 2026 MLB trade deadline already has a different feel because of the return they got back. Toronto sent the reliever to Minnesota and, in addition to international bonus pool money, picked up a prospect package that has started to matter in the lower levels of the organization. For a front office always balancing present-day needs with future depth, those kinds of deals are measured less by the name value going out and more by what starts to emerge afterward.
And there has been real movement on that front. Dasan Hill played a major role in helping Vancouver win a championship, Dameury Pena turned in an All-Star-caliber season in the Florida State League, and John Klein has flashed strikeout ability even while working through some inconsistency. None of that closes the book on the trade, but it does give the Blue Jays a reason to keep revisiting it with a little more interest than they might have had at the deadline. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Slump Has Fans Asking If Fatigue Is Only Part Of It
The Blue Jays offense has spent much of 2026 looking like a group that has simply run out of gas, and the workload on a few core players helps explain why the slowdown has been so noticeable. Ernie Clement, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer have all carried heavy responsibilities over a 399-day competitive window, a stretch that has asked a lot from the same familiar names while the lineup has tried to stay afloat.
Still, fatigue may only be part of the answer. Other clubs, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, have kept producing offense through similarly demanding schedules, which points to something more layered than tired legs alone. The midseason splits for several Blue Jays suggest rest and injury recovery have played a role, but the bigger mystery is why the whole attack has not found a steadier baseline even as the calendar has worn on. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Rotation Picture Just Got More Interesting With Their Newest Arm
The Blue Jays are set to get a little more pitching depth back at just the right time, with right-hander Trey Yesavage coming off the injured list for their game against the Orioles. For Toronto, any return to health matters at this stage of the season, when every matchup can ripple through the standings and every arm in the bullpen has to be accounted for.
Across the AL, the rotation picture is shifting in other places too. Boston punched its postseason ticket even in a loss to Tampa Bay, while Detroit is turning to right-hander River Ryan, a recent acquisition from Los Angeles, for its upcoming game. It is the kind of late-season movement that can change how a contender lines up the final stretch, and Toronto will be watching closely as the pieces keep moving around them. [Read more 🡒]