Ryan Goins is back in the big leagues.
Back in October, the 35-year-old announced his retirement from professional baseball after 15 seasons. Just over one month later, it was reported that Goins would be joining the Los Angeles Angels as their Major League infield coach.
The Blue Jays selected Goins in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, the last one the team had during J.P. Riccardi’s tenure as general manager. He spent four full seasons in the minors and made his debut with the Blue Jays in August of 2013 when Maicer Izturis suffered a season-ending injury.
Goins was known in Toronto’s system as a light-hitting infielder with an excellent glove but he started off his big-league career with an excellent run at the plate. He picked up hits in his first eight games and went 12-for-30 during that stretch all told. The bat cooled off in September but Goins started to make a name for himself as an elite defender.
The strong debut that Goins had helped propel him to a spot as the team’s Opening Day second baseman in 2014. Goins struggled at the plate and was sent down to Triple-A in late April. He came back up a few times during the season and ultimately finished with a .188 batting average and .479 OPS over 193 plate appearances.
The Blue Jays acquired Devon Travis to be their second baseman ahead of the 2015 season so Goins started the year in Triple-A. When Jose Reyes got injured in late April, Goins came up and took over as shortstop. His defence was so good that the Blue Jays kept Goins in a bench role when Reyes returned from the Injured List.
Goins took over at second base when Travis went on the Injured List in July. At around that same time, hitting coach Brook Jacoby suggested a change to Goins’ batting stance, which saw him rest his bat on his shoulder while waiting for a pitch. Between August and September, Goins slashed a .284/.376/.402 line over 198 trips to the plate, highlighted by a walk-off home run against Cleveland.
Goins stuck with the Blue Jays as a multi-position defensive specialist for the 2016 and 2017 seasons before being granted free agency. He played with the Kansas City Royals in 2018, the Chicago White Sox in 2019 and 2020, and spent two seasons with the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves in 2021 and 2022.
In Atlanta, Goins connected with Ron Washington, who was hired to be the Angels’ manager after seven seasons as the Braves’ third base coach earlier this week. Goins was hired by the L.A. without having previously held a coaching position but he was essentially a player-coach with the Braves organization over those two seasons.
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