Happy Birthday Pat Hentgen and Santiago Espinal

It is Pat Hentgen’s 55th birthday today.

Pat will always be one of my favourite Blue Jays.

He was the Cy Young winner (the first Jay to win the award) in 1996, going 20-10 with a 3.22 ERA and pitching an outstanding 265.2 innings. Wouldn’t having a starter throw 250 innings or more be nice? He also made 4 All-Star teams. And he has two World Series rings. He didn’t pitch in the 1992 playoffs, but he had a win in the 1993 World Series against the Phillies. He was in line to pitch game seven before Joe Carter ended the series in game 6.

As a Jay, he was 107-85 with a 4.28 ERA in 10 seasons, playing in 270 games and 238 starts.

He sits 4th in team history in WAR at 26.7. 5th in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, and games started.

After the 1999 season, the Jays traded him to the Cardinals, with Paul Spoljaric for Alberto Castillo, Matt DeWitt, and Lance Painter. It wasn’t one of our better trades. After one season in St. Louis, he signed as a free agent with the Orioles. After three seasons, he returned to the Jays for one last season and retired.

He was 131-112 with 1 4.32 ERA in 344 games, 306 starts, and a 33.0 bWAR.

And he talked to us. If you want to see the interview, it is spread over five parts. One, two, three, four, and five.

Pat has kept in the organization. He was bullpen coach in 2011, then left after the season for family reasons, and then did that job again in 2013.

He did a few innings in the TV broadcast booth a few years back. He did an excellent job. I’d love to see him do it more often.

Happy birthday, Pat. I hope it is a good one.

And Santiago Espinal turns 29 today.

Espinal had a very nice rookie season, hitting .311/.376/.405 in 92 games and then made the AL All-Star team in his second season. The last couple of seasons haven’t looked as good. This past season, he hit just .248/.310/.335 in 93 games.

Happy Birthday, Santiago. I hope it is a good one.