Six months of Blue Jays baseball begins this afternoon!
You know what that means!
Six months of me tumbling down assorted rabbit-holes on bb-ref.com, and I don't propose to waste any time getting started.
I noticed that the 2025 Blue Jays don't seem to have anything like a regular DH, and I found it necessary to refresh my memory as to who filled that role last year. (With advanced age, the memory, it goes PFFFT.) It was, of course, Justin Turner who got the most starts as the DH in 2024 and while I was looking I noticed that the man who filled the same defensive position most often in 2024 was, to my slight surprise... George Springer, who started 119 games in right field. That was one more game than Vladimir Guerrero Jr started at first base. Young Vlad was the player seen most often in a particular batting order spot, hitting out of the three hole 122 times.
Naturally - because I'm funny that way, and other ways as well, or so I'm told - I wondered if any Blue Jay had ever started every game at the same position.
And did anyone ever start every game in the same batting order spot?
I could have made this into a Trivia Question, I suppose, but the team is undefeated and I'm in a generous mood. And so right away I'm providing the answers to these questions. And the answers are: Yes, it's happened twice; and Yes, but just one time.
In 1982, Alfredo Griffin started all 162 games at shortstop. He batted out of the 9 hole in 155 of those games. In the other 7 games he was the leadoff hitter, because... well, no one really knows.
And in 2000, Carlos Delgado started all 162 games at first base. And on all 162 of those occasions, he was batting fourth.
Let's make a Data Table! (Indulge me, I'm shaking off the rust of the long off-season.)
Def Batting
Year Player Pos Games Player Order Games
1977 Ashby c 120 -- Fairly 4 70
1978 Gomez ss 149 -- Bailor 2 140
1979 Griffin ss 153 -- Griffin 1 153
1980 Griffin ss 152 -- Griffin 1 150
1981 Griffin ss 96 -- Griffin 1 75
1982 Griffin ss 162 -- Griffin 9 155
1983 Griffin ss 155 -- C.Johnson 4 94
1984 Moseby cf 154 -- Garcia 1 146
1985 Fernandez ss 158 -- Garcia 1 140
1986 Upshaw 1b 151 -- Bell 4 118
1987 Moseby cf 148 -- Bell 4 153
1988 Fernandez ss 154 -- Fernandez 1 144
1989 McGriff 1b 157 -- Bell 4 107
1990 Fernandez ss 161 -- Gruber 3 148
1991 White cf 156 -- White 1 156
1992 White cf 151 -- Carter 3 157
1993 Alomar 2b 151 -- Carter 4 148
1994 Carter rf 109 -- Molitor 3 115
1995 Sprague 3b 138 -- Carter 4 117
1996 Sprague 3b 148 -- Sprague 5 153
1997 Sprague 3b 129 -- Nixon 1 103
1998 Gonzalez ss 157 -- Delgado 4 138
1999 Green rf 152 -- Green 3 149
2000 Delgado 1b 162 -- Delgado 4 162
2001 Delgado 1b 161 -- Delgado 4 147
2002 Hinske 3b 141 -- Delgado 4 143
2003 Wells cf 161 -- Wells 3 161
" " Delgado 4 161
2004 Hinske 3b 148 -- Delgado 4 128
2005 Wells cf 153 -- Wells 3 123
2006 Wells cf 147 -- Wells 3 150
2007 Hill 2b 158 -- McDonald 9 97
2008 Overbay 1b 151 -- Rios 3 131
2009 Hill 2b 155 -- Hill 2 157
2010 Overbay 1b 150 -- Wells 4 155
2011 Escobar ss 131 -- Bautista 3 149
2012 Escobar ss 140 -- Bautista 3 92
2013 Arencibia c 115 -- Reyes 1 92
2014 Reyes ss 142 -- Reyes 1 142
2015 Donaldson 3b 150 -- Bautista 3 142
2016 Pillar cf 143 -- Donaldson 2 138
2017 Pillar cf 148 -- Morales 4 77
2018 Pillar cf 132 -- Smoak 3 96
2019 Galvis ss 102 -- Sogard 1 68
2020 Gurriel lf 49 -- Biggio 1 46
2021 Bichette ss 148 -- Guerrero 3 135
2022 Bichette ss 157 -- Springer 1 126
2023 Chapman 3b 137 -- Springer 1 123
2024 Springer rf 119 -- Guerrero 3 122
As you might expect, shortstop (16 times) and centre field (10 times) are the most - what, carved in stone? - positions. I definitely didn't expect to see the names Sogard and Galvis pop up - I seem to have done an excellent job of wiping the 2019 season completely from my memory, which does seem by far the best thing to do with it. I was certainly surprised to see that twice the catcher was the most commonly filled defensive position. And that the only time the left fielder led the way was in the 60 game season.
Anyway, on with the show.
Matchups!
Thu 27 Mar - Eflin (10-9, 3.59) vs Berrios (16-11, 3.60)
Fri 28 Mar - Morton (8-10, 4.19) vs Gausman (14-11, 3.83)
Sat 29 Mar - Some Guy () vs Scherzer (2-4, 3.95)
Sun 30 Mar - Some Other Guy () vs Bassitt (10-14, 4.16)
