I can't remember a year when we've talked so much about the fourth outfielder. For the life of me I don't see that there's a whole lot of difference between Raimel Tapia and Ezequiel Carrera, who didn't seem to inspire nearly as much excitement. So I thought I'd wander through the years and see what we've had here all along.
1977 - Bailor had been a shortstop in the minors, but he had some arm issues when he arrived in Toronto, and didn't do well when they put him there. Gary Woods began and ended the season as the regular centre fielder, but Bailor played there a lot in between.
1983 - Collins, Moseby, Barfield were the regulars - Bonnell filled in at all three spots and had by far the best year of his career.
1984 - George Bell seized an everyday corner spot and Collins had the best year of his career.
It can often be somewhat difficult to decide should be designated the "fourth outfielder." I don't think it's necessarily the man who plays the fourth most games in the outfield. Often it is, and often it's a simple enough matter. But sometimes a regular gets injured, and the fourth man gets into more games. Sometimes a regular is traded halfway through the season (or acquired halfway through) and doesn't get into as many games as the guy who backs up all three positions. As best as I can figure, here's who has had this particular job over the years. Many of these players had other roles on the team, besides this one, so I would always draw your attention to the second column, which is the number of games actually started in the outfield.
Year OF starts Name G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BAVG OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1977 61 Bob Bailor 122 523 496 62 154 21 5 5 32 15 6 17 26 .310 .335 .403 .738 101
1978 58 Otto Velez 91 300 248 29 66 14 2 9 38 1 3 45 41 .266 .380 .448 .828 132
1979 64 Otto Velez 99 325 274 45 79 21 0 15 48 0 1 46 45 .288 .396 .529 .925 148
1980 80 Bob Bailor 116 388 347 44 82 14 2 1 16 12 8 36 33 .236 .311 .297 .608 65
1981 37 George Bell 60 168 163 19 38 2 1 5 12 3 2 5 27 .233 .256 .350 .606 69
1982 55 Hosken Powell 112 280 265 43 73 13 4 3 26 4 4 12 23 .275 .304 .389 .692 82
1983 94 Barry Bonnell 121 417 377 49 120 21 3 10 54 10 7 33 52 .318 .369 .469 .838 124
1984 76 Jesse Barfield 110 360 320 51 91 14 1 14 49 8 2 35 81 .284 .357 .466 .822 123
1985 16 Lou Thornton 56 75 72 18 17 1 1 1 8 1 0 2 24 .236 .267 .319 .586 58
1986 24 Rick Leach 110 266 246 35 76 14 1 5 39 0 0 13 24 .309 .335 .435 .770 106
1987 29 Rick Leach 98 224 195 26 55 13 1 3 25 0 1 25 25 .282 .371 .405 .776 105
1988 41 Sil Campusano 73 158 142 14 31 10 2 2 12 0 0 9 33 .218 .282 .359 .641 79
1989 54 Mookie Wilson 54 247 238 32 71 9 1 2 17 12 1 3 37 .298 .311 .370 .681 96
1990 55 Glenallen Hill 84 278 260 47 60 11 3 12 32 8 3 18 62 .231 .281 .435 .715 93
1991 39 Mookie Wilson 86 258 241 26 58 12 4 2 28 11 3 8 35 .241 .277 .349 .626 70
1992 39 Derek Bell 61 184 161 23 39 6 3 2 15 7 2 15 34 .242 .324 .354 .678 88
1993 40 Turner Ward 72 198 167 20 32 4 2 4 28 3 3 23 26 .192 .287 .311 .599 61
1994 24 Darnell Coles 48 156 143 15 30 6 1 4 15 0 0 10 25 .210 .263 .350 .612 57
1995 40 Candy Maldonado 61 190 160 22 43 13 0 7 25 1 1 25 45 .269 .368 .481 .850 121
1996 69 Jacob Brumfield 90 340 308 52 79 19 2 12 52 12 3 24 58 .256 .316 .448 .764 92
1997 81 Shawn Green 135 471 429 57 123 22 4 16 53 14 3 36 99 .287 .340 .469 .809 110
1998 73 Jose Canseco 151 658 583 98 138 26 0 46 107 29 17 65 159 .237 .318 .518 .836 114
1999 44 Jacob Brumfield 62 195 170 25 40 8 3 2 19 1 2 19 39 .235 .307 .353 .660 69
2000 38 Marty Cordova 62 221 200 23 49 7 0 4 18 3 2 18 35 .245 .317 .340 .657 65
2001 23 Vernon Wells 30 103 96 14 30 8 0 1 6 5 0 5 15 .313 .350 .427 .777 102
2002 28 Dewayne Wise 42 116 112 14 20 4 1 3 13 5 0 4 15 .179 .207 .313 .519 34
2003 94 Reed Johnson 114 457 412 79 121 21 2 10 52 5 3 20 67 .294 .353 .427 .780 102
2004 34 Frank Catalanotto 75 274 249 27 73 19 1 1 26 1 0 17 33 .293 .344 .390 .734 88
2005 90 Reed Johnson 142 439 398 55 107 21 6 8 58 5 6 22 82 .269 .332 .412 .744 96
2006 103 Reed Johnson 134 517 461 86 147 34 2 12 49 8 2 33 81 .319 .390 .479 .869 124
2007 62 Reed Johnson 79 307 275 31 65 13 2 2 14 4 2 16 56 .236 .305 .320 .625 66
2008 53 Brad Wilkerson 85 241 208 20 45 8 2 4 23 2 3 25 53 .216 .297 .332 .629 69
2009 70 Jose Bautista 113 404 336 54 79 13 3 13 40 4 0 56 85 .235 .349 .408 .757 99
2010 104 Fred Lewis 110 480 428 70 112 31 5 8 36 17 6 38 104 .262 .332 .414 .745 101
2011 74 Corey Patterson 89 341 317 44 80 16 3 6 33 13 8 15 65 .252 .287 .379 .665 78
2012 49 Anthony Gose 56 189 166 25 37 7 3 1 11 15 3 17 59 .223 .303 .319 .622 71
2013 75 Rajai Davis 108 360 331 49 86 16 2 6 24 45 6 21 67 .260 .312 .375 .687 88
2014 74 Anthony Gose 94 274 239 31 54 8 1 2 13 15 5 25 74 .226 .311 .293 .604 73
2015 44 Ezequiel Carrera 91 192 172 27 47 8 0 3 26 2 1 11 45 .273 .321 .372 .693 88
2016 68 Ezequiel Carrera 110 310 270 47 67 9 1 6 23 7 4 27 70 .248 .323 .356 .679 83
2017 71 Ezequiel Carrera 131 325 287 38 81 10 1 8 20 10 1 30 75 .282 .356 .408 .764 104
2018 60 Curtis Granderson 104 349 302 48 74 21 1 11 35 2 1 42 96 .245 .342 .430 .772 112
2019 62 Billy McKinney 84 276 251 37 54 14 1 12 28 0 2 19 73 .215 .274 .422 .696 83
2020 11 Derek Fisher 16 39 31 5 7 2 1 1 7 0 1 7 11 .226 .359 .452 .811 122
2021 121 Randal Grichuk 149 545 511 59 123 25 1 22 81 0 3 27 114 .241 .281 .423 .703 87
2022 87 Raimel Tapia 106 355 336 36 88 17 1 6 42 6 1 13 65 .262 .289 .372 .661 87
1977 - Bailor had been a shortstop in the minors, but he had some arm issues when he arrived in Toronto, and didn't do well when they put him there. Gary Woods began and ended the season as the regular centre fielder, but Bailor played there a lot in between.
1983 - Collins, Moseby, Barfield were the regulars - Bonnell filled in at all three spots and had by far the best year of his career.
1984 - George Bell seized an everyday corner spot and Collins had the best year of his career.
1985 - The next three years would basically see Bell, Barfield, and Moseby play until they dropped. Or broke down. Extra outfielders? Bah!
1989 - Mookie Wilson was something unique in Blue Jays annals - a fourtb outfielder who played every day, after he came over from the Mets. Bell, Moseby, Felix were clearly the regulars, but Moseby was breaking down by this time, and Bell didn't seem to mind DHing so much. Wilson split his time at the three outfield spots.
1992 - Derek Bell was supposed to be the regular but he got hurt right away and Candy Maldonado filled in. But Maldonado was bad and Bell went back into the lineup when he was healthy. But Bell was even worse than Maldonado. So the Candy man got another chance, and ran with it.
1993 - Darrin Jackson was a regular, but they traded him away. Rickey Henderson was a regular, but he was only there for the last two months. They both played more games than Turner Ward, Darnell Coles, and Willie Canate who respectively were fifth, sixth, and seventh in outfield games played.
1994 - Carlos Delgado was a regular for about six weeks. Mike Huff got most of the games in LF after that.
1997 - They sort of began the year with Green, Nixon, and Merced in the outfield with Robert Perez and Jacob Brumfield playing some against LH. As usual, Green didn't start hitting until June. The team even brought in the artist formerly known as Ruben Sierra in the meantime. A thoroughly washed-up Joe Carter went back to the outfield for a while (he'd been playing first base and DHing). They traded for Jose Cruz, who took over in LF. They finally got rid of Otis Nixon and turned CF over to Shannon Stewart. Then Merced suffered a season-ending injury, and Green took over in RF.
1998 - Carlos Delgado had shoulder surgery that January and was expected to miss the first two months of the season. So the Jays signed Jose Canseco to DH in his absence, with Mike Stanley (already signed to be the DH) moving to first base. But Delgado being Delgado, he was back and ready to go before April was over. Which meant Caneco had to galumph around in the outfield for the next couple of months - oh, he was awful out there - until they unloaded Stanley at the deadline. The nearest thing to regulars were Stewart, Cruz, and Green, although Stewart had a brief stretch on the DL and Cruz was optioned to Syracuse twice.
2000 - Raul Mondesi suffered a season-ending injury in July. Cordova filled in for a couple of weeks until the team got Dave Martinez to take over full-time in RF.
2002 - Mondesi was the regular in RF with Stewart playing more often as a DH - until they unloaded the Brown Buffalo on the Yankees.
2003 - Johnson came up in late May when Stewart went on the DL for a month, and played well enough to stick around. Catalanotto was often in and out of the lineup, usually because of those pesky LH pitchers.
2004 - Catalanotto was one of the regulars to start the season, but he made two trips to the DL in the first half and Alex Rios came up and grabbed one of the corner outfield jobs in his absence. He spent most of the second half as a DH.
2006 - Johnson played an awful lot for a "fourth" outfielder. He was the RH half of a platoon arrangement with Catalanotto in LF, and the primary backup to Wells in CF and Rios in RF.
2008 - They kept trying guys in LF that year - Stewart, Matt Stairs, Adam Lind, Kevin Mench, Wilkerson. Gaston took over and gave the job to Lind, who finally ran with it.
2009 - Snider, Wells, Rios were the regulars to begin with but Snider was sent down in May after struggling a bit at the plate and Bautista and Lind (normally the DH) filled in. They would dump Rios in August, and Snider would return to take over in LF. Meanwhile, Bautista would seize the RF job with a vengeance that September.
2010 - Another hard one to figure. Snider began the year as the regular LF, and moved to RF when Bautista was shifted to 3b, with Fred Lewis taking over in LF. But Snider hurt his wrist and Bautista moved back into RF. Snider came back at the end of July, having missed six weeks, and got most of the LF time from that point forward. He didn't get into as many games as Lewis, but it seems to me that Lewis was much more a fourth guy filling in than Snider was.
2015 - As you doubtless remember, after Michael Saunders knee injury and Dalton Pompey's underwhelming performance, the 2015 team spent months screwing around with career infielders Colabello and Valencia trying to figure out how to play the outfield. They couldn't bring themselves to give the job to Carrera and for all intents and purposes they didn't have a regular LF until Revere came aboard at the beginning of August.
2018 - Teoscar Hernandez began the year in Buffalo, but he was with the big club two weeks in and has been an everyday player ever since. This made Granderson a fourth outfielder, and DL stints for Grichuk and Pillar helped ensure he got to play quite a bit.
2021 - Grichuk played more games in the outfield, mostly in CF, than regulars often do - nevertheless he was supposed to be the fourth outfielder! It's just that Springer missed half the season entirely and did a fair bit of DHing when he was finally available.
1992 - Derek Bell was supposed to be the regular but he got hurt right away and Candy Maldonado filled in. But Maldonado was bad and Bell went back into the lineup when he was healthy. But Bell was even worse than Maldonado. So the Candy man got another chance, and ran with it.
1993 - Darrin Jackson was a regular, but they traded him away. Rickey Henderson was a regular, but he was only there for the last two months. They both played more games than Turner Ward, Darnell Coles, and Willie Canate who respectively were fifth, sixth, and seventh in outfield games played.
1994 - Carlos Delgado was a regular for about six weeks. Mike Huff got most of the games in LF after that.
1997 - They sort of began the year with Green, Nixon, and Merced in the outfield with Robert Perez and Jacob Brumfield playing some against LH. As usual, Green didn't start hitting until June. The team even brought in the artist formerly known as Ruben Sierra in the meantime. A thoroughly washed-up Joe Carter went back to the outfield for a while (he'd been playing first base and DHing). They traded for Jose Cruz, who took over in LF. They finally got rid of Otis Nixon and turned CF over to Shannon Stewart. Then Merced suffered a season-ending injury, and Green took over in RF.
1998 - Carlos Delgado had shoulder surgery that January and was expected to miss the first two months of the season. So the Jays signed Jose Canseco to DH in his absence, with Mike Stanley (already signed to be the DH) moving to first base. But Delgado being Delgado, he was back and ready to go before April was over. Which meant Caneco had to galumph around in the outfield for the next couple of months - oh, he was awful out there - until they unloaded Stanley at the deadline. The nearest thing to regulars were Stewart, Cruz, and Green, although Stewart had a brief stretch on the DL and Cruz was optioned to Syracuse twice.
2000 - Raul Mondesi suffered a season-ending injury in July. Cordova filled in for a couple of weeks until the team got Dave Martinez to take over full-time in RF.
2002 - Mondesi was the regular in RF with Stewart playing more often as a DH - until they unloaded the Brown Buffalo on the Yankees.
2003 - Johnson came up in late May when Stewart went on the DL for a month, and played well enough to stick around. Catalanotto was often in and out of the lineup, usually because of those pesky LH pitchers.
2004 - Catalanotto was one of the regulars to start the season, but he made two trips to the DL in the first half and Alex Rios came up and grabbed one of the corner outfield jobs in his absence. He spent most of the second half as a DH.
2006 - Johnson played an awful lot for a "fourth" outfielder. He was the RH half of a platoon arrangement with Catalanotto in LF, and the primary backup to Wells in CF and Rios in RF.
2008 - They kept trying guys in LF that year - Stewart, Matt Stairs, Adam Lind, Kevin Mench, Wilkerson. Gaston took over and gave the job to Lind, who finally ran with it.
2009 - Snider, Wells, Rios were the regulars to begin with but Snider was sent down in May after struggling a bit at the plate and Bautista and Lind (normally the DH) filled in. They would dump Rios in August, and Snider would return to take over in LF. Meanwhile, Bautista would seize the RF job with a vengeance that September.
2010 - Another hard one to figure. Snider began the year as the regular LF, and moved to RF when Bautista was shifted to 3b, with Fred Lewis taking over in LF. But Snider hurt his wrist and Bautista moved back into RF. Snider came back at the end of July, having missed six weeks, and got most of the LF time from that point forward. He didn't get into as many games as Lewis, but it seems to me that Lewis was much more a fourth guy filling in than Snider was.
2015 - As you doubtless remember, after Michael Saunders knee injury and Dalton Pompey's underwhelming performance, the 2015 team spent months screwing around with career infielders Colabello and Valencia trying to figure out how to play the outfield. They couldn't bring themselves to give the job to Carrera and for all intents and purposes they didn't have a regular LF until Revere came aboard at the beginning of August.
2018 - Teoscar Hernandez began the year in Buffalo, but he was with the big club two weeks in and has been an everyday player ever since. This made Granderson a fourth outfielder, and DL stints for Grichuk and Pillar helped ensure he got to play quite a bit.
2021 - Grichuk played more games in the outfield, mostly in CF, than regulars often do - nevertheless he was supposed to be the fourth outfielder! It's just that Springer missed half the season entirely and did a fair bit of DHing when he was finally available.
And the best of the bunch? Why, Otto Velez, of course. Who never should have been a fourth outfielder anyway, but Roy Hartsfield never did seem to lnow what he had.
