Josh Phelps turns 48 today.
Phelps was once considered one of the Blue Jays’ catchers of the future—except, as it turned out, he wasn’t a catcher for long. Before the 2002 season, Josh was ranked #36 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects.
He tore up the minors. In 2001, he hit .292/.406/.562 with 31 home runs over 136 games for Double-A Tennessee. In 2002, he put up a .292/.380/.658 line with 24 homers in just 70 games at Triple-A Syracuse. We thought he could be a middle-of-the-order slugger, joining
another former “catcher of the future,” Carlos Delgado.
After brief MLB cameos in 2000 (one at-bat) and 2001 (12 hitless at-bats), the Jays called him up in June 2002. He hit his first home run in his 14th game and finished that year with 15 homers and a .309/.352/.562 line in 83 games, mostly as a DH. On August 29th, he hit two home runs off Roger Clemens—a personal highlight, as it’s always nice to see the Jays beat Clemens. The next day, he drove in four runs against the Yankees, though Pete Walker’s rough outing cost us the win.
In 2003, Josh posted a .268/.358/.470 line with 20 home runs in 119 games, but injuries began to take their toll.
By 2004, he was hitting .237/.296/.417 with 12 homers in 79 games when, on August 4th, we traded him to Cleveland for Eric Crozier. It was a like-for-like swap—Crozier was also a power-hitting DH/first baseman—but it didn’t pan out for the Jays. Crozier played just 14 games for Toronto (his entire MLB career), hitting .152/.282/.39
Phelps, meanwhile, finished 2004 strong for Cleveland, batting .303/.338/.579 in 24 games. After the season, he signed with Tampa Bay. From there, he bounced around: Tigers, Orioles, Yankees, Pirates, Cardinals, Giants, Rockies, and back to Cleveland. When you’re a former top prospect, teams keep giving you chances, but he saw little major league action with most of those clubs.
His final MLB stint came in 2008, getting 36 at-bats with the Cardinals. For his career, he played 465 games, hitting .273/.343/.472 with 64 home runs.
Why didn’t he become the player we hoped for? In 2005, Baseball Prospectus wrote:
He had more power than your local utility but had no clue what to do with it, swinging indiscriminately at pitches, relay throws from the outfield, and low-hanging clouds. As his time in Toronto continued, Phelps crossed the line dividing productive aggression and diminishing returns, so this positionless player was sent south for nothing more than Eric Crozier. Working with Eddie Murray, he cut his strikeouts just slightly, but that sample is so tiny as to be nearly meaningless. Signed by Tampa, Phelps will meet Lou Piniella at the same age that the somewhat similar Jay Buhner did. Buhner blossomed at that point; Phelps will need to follow instructions a lot better than he did with the Jays to have a chance to do the same.
Baseball Prospectus was mean in those days.
Not having a true position hurt, and his career 25.6% strikeout rate—worsening over time—didn’t help either. If he’d been able to stick at catcher, things might have been different, but as a DH, you have to hit or lose your job. There’s no time for slow development at that spot.
Still, happy birthday, Josh. Hope it’s a good one.
Felipe Lopez turns 46 today.
The Blue Jays took Felipe in the first round of the 1998 draft, sixth overall. CC Sabathia, taken 20th, was the best of that round. Lopez didn’t set the minors on fire, but the Jays called him up in August 2001. In 49 games, he hit .260/.304/.418.
He started 2002 with the Jays but returned to the minors in mid-June, finishing his Toronto stint with a .227/.287/.387 line in 134 games.
After the season, he was dealt in a complicated four-team trade, ending up with the Reds. The Jays received Jason Arnold from the A’s—who never reached the majors.
Lopez, for his part, played 11 MLB seasons, hitting .264/.333/.391 with 90 home runs in 1,185 games.
Happy birthday, Felipe. Hope it’s a good one.
Jonathan Davis turns 34 today.
Davis played 122 games for the Jays over four seasons, hitting .180/.285/.263 with four home runs and 11 steals. He was about as good as a .180-hitting outfielder can be, which, admittedly, isn’t saying much.
The Yankees claimed him off waivers in August 2021; he played 12 games for them. In 2022, he appeared in 37 games with the Brewers; last year, he played 34 with the Marlins.
It looks like he retired after the 2024 season.
Happy birthday, Jonathan.
