Fred McGriff turns 62 today.
McGriff was born in Tampa, Florida. The Yankees drafted him in the 9th round of the 1981 amateur draft. Don Mattingly blocked his way to the majors for the Yankees. The Jays acquired McGriff, Dave Collins, Mike Morgan, and cash in exchange for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd. That trade worked out. Pat Gullick had the golden touch.
In 1986, Fred was up for three games in May. In 1987, he began the season with the team and gradually assumed the DH role from Rance Mulliniks. He
hit .247/.376/.505 with 20 homers and 60 walks in just 295 at-bats, a pretty good rookie season. After the season, Willie Upshaw was sold to Cleveland to make room for Fred at first base.
McGriff’s first season as a first baseman was great. He hit .282/.376/.552 with 34 home runs and 79 walks, 100 runs, and 82 RBI. He received MVP votes. He was second in the AL in slugging %, 4th in OPS, and 2nd in home runs.
Fred had an equally outstanding season in 1989, hitting .269/.399/.525 with a league-leading 36 homers and finishing second with 119 walks. He was also 4th in the league in on-base percentage, 2nd in slugging average, and 1st in OPS. Fred hit the first home run ever in Skydome on June 5. Fred won the Silver Slugger award for the best AL bat at first base and came in 6th in the MVP vote. Robin Yount won the prize, and Jays’ teammate George Bell came 4th in the voting. In 1989, the Jays came in first in the AL East, but we lost out to the A’s in 5 games. McGriff didn’t have a good series, hitting just .143 with no extra-base hits and no walks.
In 1990, Fred had his third consecutive terrific season, hitting .300/.400/.530 with 35 home runs. Three seasons with 34, 36, and 35 home runs can’t ask for anything more consistent than that. He came in 10th in MVP voting. He finished 2nd in the league in on-base percentage and 4th in slugging average and homers.
McGriff was a terrific first baseman for us, but one minor criticism was that he never drove in 100 runs for us, despite hitting 35 home runs in three consecutive years. People say one of those stupid things when they want to complain about someone but can’t find a reason.
On December 5, 1990, Pat Gillick traded Fred to the Padres with Tony Fernandez for Joe Carter, and Roberto Alomar. After the trade, McGriff drove in 100+ runs eight times. It worked out for us since we won two World Series three seasons after the transaction.
Fred went to Atlanta for 4.5 seasons after spending 4 seasons in San Diego, where he won a World Series ring. Then he played for the Tampa Bay Rays, the Chicago Cubs, the LA Dodgers, and Tampa Bay again, where he retired after a 19-year career and 493 home runs. His career hitting line is .284/.377/.509 in 2460 games.
Fred was one of those guys I just loved. I tried to swing the bat as he did. He played good defence and was a very likable guy. I was sad when we traded him. I remember telling a friend that we had traded a Hall of Famer. Little did I know that one of the guys we got back would be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He is finally in the Hall of Fame, elected unanimously by the Contemporary Era Committee.
Fred is married and has two children, Erick and Ericka. He works in the Braves’ front office.
Happy birthday, Fred. I hope it is a good one.
Other former Jays with a birthday today:
- David Dellucci turns 52. You might not remember, but he played eight games for us in 2009, hitting .040/.172/.080. That was the end of his 13-year MLB career. He played 1099 games and hit .256/.338/.435 with 101 home runs for the Diamondbacks, Cleveland, Rangers, Phillies, Yankees, Orioles, and Jays.
- Steve Trachsel turns 55 today. In a doomed effort to make the playoffs, we traded for him and Mark Guthrie at the 2000 trade deadline. Steve would make 11 starts and put up a 2-5 record with a 5.29 ERA in 11 starts. He had a fine career, playing for 16 seasons. Steve had a 143-159 record, a 4.39 ERA in 420 games, and 417 starts. He took so much time between pitches that you had time to read a book.
- Dave Freisleben turns 74 today. He was a right-handed pitcher who had a six-year MLB career, the last of which was with the Jays. He pitched in 42 games, with 2 starts, for us, with a 4.95 ERA. He played in 202 games and 121 starts in his career, with a 4.30 ERA, mostly with the Padres. I don’t remember him at all.
- Javy Guerra turns 40 today. Javy was another right-handed reliever. We signed him as a minor league free agent before the 2019 season. He pitched in 11 games with a 3.86 ERA and was then designated for assignment, so Ryan Feierabend could be added to the roster to make a start. Ryan pitched in one more game and was sent away (an 11.12 ERA will cause that). Javy pitched 3 innings the day before he was DFAed. He wasn’t great, but Feierabend wasn’t either. Guerra played 11 seasons in the MLB, with a 3.98 ERA in 272 games.
