A Blue Jay from the Past: Alfredo Griffin

Do you remember Alfredo Griffin?

This is “A Blue Jay from the Past”. Each week, I’ll spin every Blue Jays’ season in the Wheel of Names and pick a player who played a significant number of games for the Toronto Blue Jays, ideally a full season. This week, the Wheel of Names landed on the 1983 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Alfredo Griffin. Last week, we looked at Greg Myers.

Griffin signed with Cleveland in 1973 as an amateur free agent. The shortstop made his big league debut in 1976, seeing limited action from 1976 until 1978, until he was traded to the Blue Jays for Victor Cruz in December 1978.

In 1979, Griffin became a regular in the big leagues and slashed .287/333/.364 with two home runs in 689 plate appearances for an 87 wRC+ and a 2.2 fWAR, winning the American League Rookie of the Year. Griffin is just one of two players who’ve won the Rookie of the Year as a Jay, the other being Eric Hinske in 2002.

Over the next four seasons, Griffin slashed .241/.273/.329 with seven home runs in 2,258 plate appearances for a 60 wRC+. His final season in his first stint with the Blue Jays was in 1984, where he slashed .241/.248/.298 with four home runs in 441 plate appearances for 44 wRC+, giving him a -1.9 fWAR. That off-season, the Blue Jays traded him to the Oakland Athletics for Bill Caudill.

Griffin earned his only All-Star nomination (as a replacement) in 1985 with the Athletics, slashing .270/.290/.332 with two home runs in 646 plate appearances for a 74 wRC+. His best season in the big leagues came the following season, slashing .285/.323/.364 with four home runs in 649 plate appearances for a 91 wRC+ and a 2.4 fWAR. Griffin also won his only Gold Glove this season.

The shortstop spent another season in Oakland before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a massive three-team deal. In 1988, Griffin won the World Series with the Dodgers, slashing .199/.259/.253 with one homer in 354 plate appearances. In 45 postseason plate appearances, Griffin slashed .171/.209/.195 for a 19 wRC+.

Griffin spent three more seasons with the Dodgers, slashing .233/.277/.279 with a home run in 1,434 plate appearances for a 57 wRC+. After the 1991 season, he returned to the Blue Jays just in time for their two World Series victories.

At this point, he was a bench player and Griffin slashed .224/.259/.265 with no home runs in 266 plate appearances, along with limited appearances in the postseason. However, Griffin was on deck when Joe Carter hit his famous home run to walk off the Philadelphia Phillies.

Griffin retired after the 1993 season and served as a Blue Jays coach in 1996 and 1997. In 2000, he served as a Los Angeles Angels’  coach, winning the World Series with the team in 2002. Griffin was involved in three perfect games, all three times being on the team that failed to get on base.