Post by dougiejays on Nov 16, 2022 19:31:03 GMT -5
An era came to an end on Friday when Toronto issued longtime stalwart Kevin Brown his outright release. Brown, 37, had logged a 1-5 record and 6.80 ERA in 8 starts in his return from a season-ending back injury last May, which was his second season-ending injury in as many seasons. The injuries likely cost the former ace a shot at 300 wins, and perhaps will prematurely end his career.
The Blue Jays have been going through a large-scale rebuild ever since shipping out superstar Gary Sheffield in the offseason, and the release of Brown is only the latest shoe to drop. The righty still had $10M left on his contract this year, but in the wake of his middling results, the team evidently figured that it was going to have trouble recouping anything of value for the declining superstar and elected to instead send him softly into the good night.
At the time of his release, Brown was less than a week shy of 12 full seasons with the team, and his resume in that time speaks for itself: more than 200 wins, 2 Cy Young Awards, 5 All-Star berths, a World Series ring, and a no-hitter. He also led the American League in WHIP for 6 straight seasons from 1991-1996, led the league in both wins and ERA in his 1999 Cy Young season, and logged 8 Pitcher of the Month Awards in his time with Toronto. If this release proves to be the end of his distinguished career, the righty will finish with a 243-111 record and a 2.58 career ERA that currently ranks 14th all-time. All that adds up to a surefire Hall of Famer, and probably a first-ballot one at that.
Toronto first acquired Brown from Cincinnati in June of 1990, sending out top prospects Pedro Munoz and Ben McDonald in the hope of adding a top-of-the-rotation arm for many years to come. While McDonald has proven to be a middling journeyman, Munoz has since flourished into a middle-of-the-order bat who has logged three All-Star appearances of his own and is still in the prime of his career. Still, Brown more than held up his end of the bargain for more than a decade, and in retrospect there’s little doubt that this trade turned out as a rare win for both teams.
QUICK HITS: Brown was technically the longest-tenured Blue Jay at the time of his release, if only by a technicality: reliever Randy Myers hasn’t played for another team since 1987, but his contract expired at the end of last season and he didn’t re-sign with the Jays until early May of this year.
