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Best and Worst Seasons by Jay First Basemen by WAR

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By Tom Dakers
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Toronto Blue Jays Photo Day Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

We have been told there will be news by the end of the week, by Jeff Blair, but at the moment, there doesn’t seem like there is much for news or rumors of value. It’s looking more and more like Jose Bautista will be back.

For now, let’s do another one of these. I used Baseball Reference WAR for this, Fangraphs would give different results.

Top 10 Blue Jays First Baseman by WAR

Rank Year Player WAR
Rank Year Player WAR
1 1993 John Olerud 7.7
2 2000 Carlos Delgado 7.3
3 1989 Fred McGriff 6.6
4 1988 Fred McGriff 6.2
5 2003 Carlos Delgado 5.9
6 1998 Carlos Delgado 5.4
7 1990 Fred McGriff 5.2
8 2002 Carlos Delgado 4.9
9 1983 Willie Upshaw 4.7
10 2001 Carlos Delgado 4.5

Bottom 10 Jays First Basemen Seasons by WAR

Rank Year Player WAR
Rank Year Player WAR
43 1978 John Mayberry -0.5
42 2016 Justin Smoak -0.4
41 2011 Adam Lind 0.2
40 2012 Adam Lind 0.3
39 1977 Doug Ault 0.5
38 2015 Chris Colabello 0.7
34 1980 John Mayberry 1.1
35 1981 John Mayberry 1.1
36 2005 Eric Hinske 1.1
37 2007 Lyle Overbay 1.1

Some notes:

  • We have had some very good first basemen.
  • It’s not really fair to have Chris Colabello’s name on the bottom ten. He lost ‘points’ for his awful play in the outfield.
  • Course Justin Smoak made the list on merit.
  • John Mayberry’s defense cost him, he really was a DH, but our early Jays had too many DHes on the roster, some of them had to play defensive positions.
  • Adam Lind lost out for his defense too, though he didn’t hit great in those seasons.
  • John Olerud 1993 season was the outlier. His next best season, as a Jays, was a 3.1 WAR in 1994. In 1994 and 1995 he had WARs of 2.1 both years.
  • The rest of the top ten is 8 seasons of Carlos Delgado and Fred McGriff, with one season of Willie Upshaw to round out the 10.
  • Number 11 and 12 were Edwin Encarnacion’s 2013 and 2014 seasons. He’ll appear on the DH list.
  • Most of Lyle Overbay’s seasons fall right in the middle of the pack. He has spots 16, 18, 19 and 22, as well as 37 there, tenth from the bottom.

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