Tim Raines To Coach Blue Jays?

Should be Hall of Famer Tim Raines may be joining the Blue Jays as a coach:

Potential HOF #TimRaines will be an outfield and base-running coach for the #Blue Jays in 2013, Raines says.#MLB

— Mel Antonen (@MelAntonen) December 31, 2012

Raines is, of course, one of my favorite players ever. He was an incredible base runner and a very good defensive outfielder (though he didn't have much of a throwing arm). With 808 career stolen bases there are few people that know more about stealing bases as Rock Raines does.

Course, if the BBWAA had any brains at all, he'd be joining the Hall of Fame as well as joining the Blue Jays. I think of him as the second best lead off hitter of all time, trailing just Ricky Henderson. Raines is 5th all time in stolen bases.

And with a career .386 on base percentage, I wouldn't mind him talking to some of our hitters as well. We could use a few guys that knew how to take a walk.

If true, it is a great move by the Jays. I'd imagine he would be a roving instructor, visiting the minor league sites as well as working with the big league players, but then that's just a guess.

Alex Anthopoulos' Expos connection is paying off for us again, though I'd imagine that Raines had left the Expos before Alex joined the team.

Tim managed in the Expos minor leagues system and worked as a coach in the Chicago White Sox system. He has managed the Newark Bears the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball for the last 3 seasons.

Nice news on the last day of 2012. The Jays just keep making news for us. I wonder what's next. We do have some minor league coaching roles left to fill.