Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Braydon Fisher is back with the team after taking bereavement leave, but he returned to a painful reality on July 8 in San Francisco: his father, Normand, died of a stroke while visiting family on the club’s road trip.
Fisher spoke to reporters before the Blue Jays’ series against the Giants and described his father as the kind of person who seemed to brighten every room he entered.
“He was an amazing person,” Fisher said. “There was never a bad day for Norm. He was always happy, always cheerful, willing to help anybody.”
He also made clear just how devoted Normand was to the Blue Jays. Fisher said his father rarely, if ever, went without team gear over the last two years.
“I don’t think that for the last two years, you’d see him not wearing Blue Jays gear,” Fisher told reporters. “Not ever. No matter the occasion.”
According to multiple reports, Normand Fisher was with his son on the team’s road trip in San Francisco when he died. Hazel Mae of Sportsnet reported that he had been visiting his high school and friends in the Bay Area when he suffered the stroke in a car. Normand Fisher was from the Bay Area and spent the day visiting his old high school and friends.
Fisher, 24, is in his second full season in the majors. Toronto acquired him in the June 2024 trade that sent Cavan Biggio to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
His baseball path has already taken some strange turns. Fisher wound up pitching against the Dodgers three times in the 2025 World Series. He gave up two runs in a one-inning outing in Game 1, then settled in with two scoreless appearances in Games 2 and 3.
Since making his 2025 debut, Fisher has become a reliable piece in Toronto’s bullpen. He is 10-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 95 regular-season MLB games, including seven this season in which he worked as the Blue Jays’ “opener.”
His most recent appearance came on July 4, when he threw a scoreless inning against the Mariners in Seattle. He is back with the club now, though he won’t be active until Friday in San Diego.
For Fisher, though, the baseball part is secondary at the moment. “The last two days have been the hardest days of my life and my family’s life,” he said July 8 in San Francisco. “I just wanted to come back and be with the guys.”
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