36 Years Ago Today
April 30, 1989 (the day after my son’s birthday, happy day after your birthday, Dwight), the Blue Jays traded right fielder Jesse Barfield to the Yankees for Al Leiter.
Now, Jesse was on the downhill side of an excellent career. He had 40 home runs in 1986, with 27 the year before and 28 the year after. He had been a Gold Glove winner, an All-Star, and popular with Blue Jay fans. But in 1988, Jesse hit just .244/.302/.425 and, to that point in 1989, had only been hitting .200/.256.438. He was older than 29. Years of playing on the carpet at Exhibition Stadium could do that to a player.
But then he was a favourite of mine. I hated to see him go. He was part of the best outfield in team history and one of the best outfields in baseball history.
Al Leiter was a 23-year-old left-handed starting pitcher with the Yankees. He had made 14 starts in 1988 and had a 4-4 record with a 3.92 ERA, and he had been a highly thought of prospect. Added to the equation was that the Jays had a young outfielder, Junior Felix, who wanted to make room for him to play every day.
Well, the Jays traded for damaged goods. In Leiter’s last start of the 1988 season, manager Dallas Green left him out there for 162 pitches. If a manager did that now, a pitcher’s agent would sue. Dallas wasn’t one of your more progressive managers; he figured men should be men—and broken.
Soon after joining the Jays, Leiter had shoulder surgery, a pinched nerve, tendinitis, more shoulder surgery, and blisters that prevented him from pitching. From 1989 to 1992, Leiter pitched 15.2 innings in his first four seasons with the Jays, but the Jays stuck with him.
In 1993, the Jays gently worked him back into the pitching staff. He got into 34 games, 12 as a starter, threw 105 innings and had a 4.11 ERA with a 9-6 record and 2 saves. He even had a complete game shutout in there. He pitched in 5 postseason games, all in relief, getting the win in game one of the World Series against the Phillies. Add that he hit a double in his one at-bat in that series. In 1994, he made 20 starts, missing some time with blisters, and wasn’t very useful when he did pitch, putting up a 5.08 ERA.
Then, in 1995, he finally put it all together. He had a 3.64 ERA in 28 starts and 183 innings. It seemed that we were finally about to get some value from Al. After all, we stuck with him through all the surgeries and troubles.
Nope. Leiter signed as a free agent with the Florida Marlins, helping them to a World Series in 1997. I’ll admit, it pissed me off. The team had helped him through all those injuries. And then, when he finally gets healthy, he bolts.
Meanwhile, Jesse Barfield had a couple of decent seasons with the Yankees, hitting .240/.360/.410 with 18 homers in 1989 and 246/.359/.456 with 25 homers in 1990, then fell off some and was out of baseball after the 1992 season.
Junior Felix? He never became the player the Jays thought he would. He played two seasons with us, 1989 and 1990, hitting .261/.322/.419, with 24 home runs and 31 stolen bases, 20 times caught. He wasn’t good. But he was part of the Jays’ big trade with the Angels, which got us Devon White. The Jays packaged Felix, Luis Soto, and Kevin Rivers for the Angels, getting White, Marcus Moore, and Willie Fraser in return. White, the only helpful player in there, would help us win 2 World Series, hit leadoff, and play great defense in center. He was the best defensive center fielder we’ve ever had (though Daulton Varsho is pretty good too).
The Leiter for Barfield trade didn’t work out for us, but it didn’t do much for the Yankees either (they finished 5th in the AL East in 1989 and 7th in 1990). The Jays finished first in the AL East in 1989 and 1991 (not that Leiter helped) and then went on to win the World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
It was not Pat Gullick’s best trade, but he was unlucky. They did not do a medical exam as thoroughly as when players were traded back then. We got damaged goods, and Felix was an overrated prospect. You can only win some of them.
31 Years Ago
Joe Carter drove in 31 RBI in April, setting an MLB record. I mention this mostly because the entire 2025 Jays lineup hasn’t driven in 31 runs this month (I exaggerate slightly). Juan Gonzalez broke the record with 35 in 1998.