This article reminisces about Roger Clemens' two-season stint with the Toronto Blue Jays, highlighting his dominant performance and subsequent trade to the New York Yankees.
28 Years Ago The Blue Jays signed Roger Clemens . Roger played 13 seasons for the Red Sox. He had a 192-111 record and a 3.06 ERA in 382 starts, won three Cy Young awards, and finished 2nd, 3rd, and 6th in the voting other times. But he could have been better in his last two seasons with Boston, putting up a 3.83 ERA and a 20-18 record in 57 starts. Yeah, it’s still good but a step down in performance. When he hit free agency, the Red Sox didn’t want to give him the money he expected.
He talked to the Yankees but wasn’t happy with their offers. The Blue Jays came, offering three years and $24.75 million (which sounds like much less money now). With the Jays, he returned to the Clemens of old. He went 41-13 in two seasons with a 2.33 ERA in 67 starts and 498.2 innings. He won his fourth and fifth Cy Young awards, giving the Jays their best back-to-back seasons by a pitcher in team history. His bWAR for the two seasons was an incredible 20.1. Let’s try to ignore that PEDs helped him regain his old form. And he made a rather cute commercial (co-starring a young Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez): Roger was excellent. The rest of the team wasn’t. We’d finish last in 1997 and a fair, more respectable 3rd in 1998. After the 1998 season, Roger was tired of listening to two National Anthems before each start (or perhaps it was all the losing) and asked for a trade. The Jays sent him to the Yankees. In return, we got Homer Bush, Graeme Lloyd, and David Wells. It was not a terrible return. Clemens would win two more Cy Youngs, pick up a couple of World Series rings and, generally, go on to be a complete and utter jackass. He’s easily the best former MLB pitcher not to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but if the ‘character clause’ is ever used by the Baseball Writers, Clemens is the one. 26 Years Ago On December 13, 1998, the Jays traded Woody Williams (Carlos Almarzar and Peter Tucci) to the Padres for Joey Hamilton. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of our better trade
Roger Clemens Blue Jays Toronto Blue Jays MLB Baseball Cy Young Award Peds Joey Hamilton Woody Williams
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