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Dustin McGowan to sign with the Dodgers according to report

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Long-time, and oft-injured, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dustin McGowan is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, reports Dodgers.com's Ken Gurnick in a Sunday afternoon tweet.

McGowan had spent 15 years in the Blue Jays organization, since being drafted in the supplementary round of the 2000 draft, four picks after Adam Wainwright. The Blue Jays go the supplementary pick as compensation for the loss of Graeme Lloyd, which connected McGowan all the way back to Rogers Clemens on the Blue Jays Roster Tree Route Map.

McGowan Line

He has been in the Blue Jays organization for so long that five of the minor league clubs he's played on (Medicine Hat, Auburn, Charleston, New Haven, Syracuse) are no longer Blue Jays affiliates.

McGowan was a 23-year-old when he was called up from double-A to make his major league debut in a start against the Rangers. He allowed a run and three walks, but he struck out six and gave up just two hits.

His battle with various injuries have been well documented but I just want to put his career transactions here just to show just how many times he found himself on the disabled list (table from Pro Sports Transactions):

Date Notes
2000-06-05 compensation round A pick (#33 overall)
2001-03-03 assigned to minor league camp
2003-11-20 added to 40-man roster
2008-07-01 surgery on right shoulder (date approximate)
2008-07-09 placed on 15-day DL with sore right shoulder
2008-10-02 activated from 15-day DL
2009-04-05 placed on 15-day DL recovering from surgery on right shoulder
2009-10-13 activated from 15-day DL
2010-04-04 placed on 15-day DL recovering from surgery on right shoulder
2010-04-15 transferred to 60-day DL recovering from surgery on right shoulder
2010-11-10 activated from 60-day DL
2011-03-12 placed on 60-day DL recovering from surgery on right shoulder
2011-07-02 assigned to minors for rehab
2011-08-05 assigned to A (for rehab)
2011-09-05 activated from 60-day DL
2012-04-03 placed on 15-day DL with plantar fasciitis in right foot
2012-05-25 transferred to 60-day DL with plantar fasciitis in right foot
2012-10-31 activated from 60-day DL
2013-03-31 placed on 15-day DL with right shoulder injury
2013-04-07 transferred to 60-day DL with sore right shoulder
2013-05-14 assigned to minors for rehab
2013-06-08 called up from minor league rehab
2013-06-08 activated from 60-day DL
2013-08-01 placed on 15-day DL with strained right oblique
2013-08-30 assigned to minors for rehab
2013-09-01 called up from minor league rehab
2013-09-01 activated from 15-day DL
2014-11-01 team declined to exercise contract option, making player a free agent

And despite it all he managed to make it all the way back to the major leagues twice, missing the entire 2009, 2010, and 2012 seasons. Before 2014 he told me in an interview that he has set a goal of playing all season, and hey, he achieved that goal. (One of my favourite parts of that interview was when he said that he never got depressed over all his injuries because he was awarded with the privilege of watching his daughter grow up.)

My best Dustin McGowan memory came in September 2011 when McGowan was making his first big league appearance since mid-2008. The Red Sox already laid a drubbing against the Blue Jays by the time he was called in from the bullpen but the remaining fans at the Rogers Centre gave him a huge standing ovation as he came in and when he was taken out of the game.

Best of luck in Los Angeles, Dustin, Toronto will miss you.