Today in Blue Jays history: Jays trade for David Cone

30 Years Ago Today

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

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

Kent played with the Mets until the end of July 1996. Then they sent him 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 for 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. Unfortunately, that season didn’t go as well.

22 Years Ago Today

Darrin Fletcher hit 3 home runs (all solo homers) against the Rangers, helping the Jays win a 6-4. Fletcher hit 20 home runs in 122 games that season.

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

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

We had some good players on that team:

Amazingly enough, even with Steve Trachsel pitching, this game was done in 3 hours.