A Blue Jay from the Past: Mike McCoy

Do you remember Mike McCoy?

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 2011 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Mike McCoy. Last week, we looked at Robert Person.

McCoy was selected in the 34th round of the 2002 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. He spent six seasons in the organization, reaching as high as Triple-A before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles on March 22, 2008, for future considerations. McCoy spent about four months in the Orioles’ farm system before being traded to the Colorado Rockies for Juan Castro on July 19, 2008.

The 2009 season saw a 28-year-old McCoy make his big league debut, receiving just six plate appearances with the Rockies, where he failed to register a hit. At the end of the 2009 season, he was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays.

McCoy got more playing time in 2010, slashing .195/.267/.244 with no home runs in 90 plate appearances for a 40 wRC+. That said, he had his highest fWAR in a season that year, posting a 0.4 fWAR.

In 2011, McCoy became somewhat of a regular with the Blue Jays, slashing .198/.291/.269 with two home runs in 228 plate appearances for a 56 wRC+ and a 0.2 fWAR. He returned to being an AAAA player in 2012, getting just 56 plate appearances with the Blue Jays that season, where he hit a home run and finished with a 29 wRC+ and a -0.2 fWAR. 

After spending the entirety of the 2013 season with the Buffalo Bisons in Triple-A, McCoy elected free agency and signed with the Boston Red Sox organization for the 2014 season. For the 2015 season, McCoy signed with his hometown San Diego Padres, playing 96 games with their Triple-A team to end his playing career.

Although McCoy’s playing career ended, he worked in baseball after he retired. From 2018 until 2021, he served as a manager for two different Padres’ affiliates. In 2022, he was announced as the organization’s minor league hitting coordinator, before being promoted to Padres’ assistant hitting coach in 2024, a role he still serves in.