Today in Blue Jays history: Jays trade for David Cone

28 Years Ago Today

August 27, 1992, the Blue Jays traded for David Cone from the Mets. This was the first time we traded for David Cone. Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson went to New York.

At the time of the trade the Jays were 72-55 up two game on the Orioles in the AL East. We would go 24 and 11 the rest of the way.

Kent played with the Mets until the end of July 1996, then was traded to Cleveland. From there he went to the Giants, where he became a star.

Not that he was a bad player with the Mets. He hit .279/.327/.453 with 67 home runs in 498 games. Pretty good numbers for a second baseman.

Thompson played with the Mets through the 1995 season, hitting .239/.300/.417 with 39 home runs in 283 games.

Cone went 4-3 with a 2.55 ERA in 8 games, 7 starts down thefor the Jays. He made 2 starts in the ALCS, going 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 2 starts in our World Series win, 0-0 with a 3.48 ERA.

We won the World Series, so we won the trade. Kent wasn’t likely to get enough playing time with the Blue Jays to become the player he was with the Giants.

The Jays also traded for Cone at the start of the 1995 season, but that season didn’t end as well.

20 Years Ago Today

Darrin Fletcher hit 3 home run against the Rangers, helping the Jays to a 6-4 win. Fletcher hit 20 home runs in 122 games that season. All 3 home runs were solo shots.

Fletcher was a favorite of mine. A left handed hitting catcher, with decent power, what’s not to like. He wasn’t thought of as a great defensive catcher, he had a below average arm. but pitchers seemed to like to throw to him.

The win made the Jays record 68-62, but that still left us third in the AL East, 5.5 games behind the Yankees. We didn’t make up the difference. We would finish 83-79, still in third.

We had some good players on that team:

Even with Steve Trachsel starting, the game was over in 3 hours.