5 Greatest Toronto Blue Jays Pitchers of All Time

In some ways, Key is the mirror opposite of Clemens. He was never once considered a strikeout pitcher but finished top four in Cy Young voting three times. Instead, the left-handed control artist avoided walks and kept the ball in the park. Not the flashiest stuff imaginable, but awfully effective.

Key made the big leagues in 1984 and spent time as the team’s closer, but struggled to the tune of a negative-0.9 WAR. In ‘85, when the Jays moved him to the rotation, he immediately became an All-Star, going 14-6 with a 3.00 ERA and a 1.119 WHIP. He stayed in the rotation through the 1992 season and finished second in Cy Young voting in 1987, leading the AL in ERA (2.76) and hits per nine innings (7.2) while also leading all of baseball in WHIP (1.057).

3. Tom Henke (RP)

Few franchises carry a relief pitcher among their top five ever. Henke doesn’t seem like the kind of pitcher who would make it, either, what with a grand total of one All-Star appearance during his eight seasons in Toronto. Plus, that: only eight seasons in Toronto. Good pitchers pitched for the Blue Jays for longer.

But Henke was responsible for finishing off Blue Jays’ wins during the greatest stretch in franchise history. From 1985 to 1992, Toronto made the American League Championship Series four times, including a win in ‘92 that lifted the team to its first-ever World Series. Henke recorded five saves in Toronto’s eight wins that year as the Jays knocked off the Atlanta Braves.

For his career, Henke owns the franchise records with a 1.025 WHIP, 2.48 ERA, 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings and 217 saves. 

2. Dave Steib

It’s no coincidence that about the time Steib established himself as the Blue Jays’ ace in the mid-1980s, Toronto turned into one of the better teams of the American League. As Henke holds most of the reliever-tended statistical leads in franchise history, Steib holds down most of the other ones, owning the franchise record in so many categories, in fact, it’d be silly to list them all. Just check here.

From 1982 to 1985, Steib was in the conversation as one of the top five starting pitchers in baseball. He recorded WARs of 7.6, 7.0, 7.9, and 6.8, leading the AL those first three seasons and then leading the AL in ERA during that last one. Even into his 30s, Steib remained a reliable, sometimes stellar, pitcher, making the All-Star Game in 1988 and 1990. In ‘90, he even finished fifth in Cy Young voting, the first time he’d picked up such votes since that great early 80s run when he finished fourth and then seventh twice.

Shoulder and back injuries began to limit Steib’s effectiveness starting 1991 and when the Blue Jays won the 1992 World Series, he wasn’t a part of the staff because of those maladies. He still earned a ring, though. As far we’re concerned, he was owed it.

1. Roy Halladay

The man they called Doc may fall short of Steib’s stranglehold on the Toronto record books, but when it comes to electricity and results combined, no Blue Jays pitcher in history can top Halladay.

A swift rise through the minors saw Halladay ranked as the No. 12 prospect in the sport ahead of the 1999 season. He had proven that value the year before when, in his second career start, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning and earned two outs before Bobby Higginson hit a solo home run to snap the bid. Many remember that, but have forgotten that his 2000 season (10.64 ERA, 2.202 WHIP in 19 games, 13 starts) remains the worst ever for a pitcher who threw in at least 50 innings.

It woke him up. Halladay would go on to win the 2002 Cy Young Award and finish top five four more times in a Jays uniform, including a second-place finish and two thirds. He made six All-Star Games with Toronto and led the league in complete games five times. Toronto traded him ahead of the 2010 season to the Philadelphia Phillies.

That season, though it doesn’t count for the purposes of this list, was legendary. Halladay would win the Cy Young Award after winning 21 games, including throwing the 20th perfect game in Major-League history. That postseason, against the Cincinnati Reds in the NLDS, Halladay tossed a no-hitter in Game 1, becoming the second player ever to record the feat.

Halladay died in November 2017 in a single-person aircraft crash at the age 40, four years after he retired from baseball.