But What Do I Know? . . . James Paxton, Adam Hall, Dave McKay, Woodie Fryman

February 4, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Some Canadian baseball news and notes from the past week:

-The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2024 induction class will be announced on Tuesday at 9 a.m. E.T. Stay tuned to this site for coverage.

–According to The Athletic, due to an “unspecified health concern,” left-hander James Paxton (Ladner, B.C.) will only be guaranteed $7 million in his one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, not the $11 million that was originally reported. With incentives, however, the veteran lefty can still earn up to $13 million. After missing nearly two full seasons due to Tommy John surgery and other injuries, Paxton posted a 5-1 record and a 2.73 ERA in his first 10 starts with the Boston Red Sox in 2023. He finished the season with a 7-5 record and a 4.50 ERA, while striking out 101 batters in 96 innings. The 6-foot-4 lefty, who had signed with the Red Sox prior to the 2022 season, was paid $4 million in 2023. He missed the season’s final month with right knee inflammation. A North Delta Blue Jays and Junior National Team alum, the 35-year-old southpaw has pitched in parts of 10 major league campaigns with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Red Sox and owns a 64-38 record and a 3.69 ERA in 156 starts.

-Former Baltimore Orioles prospect Adam Hall (London, Ont.) has signed with the independent American Association’s Winnipeg Goldeyes. The Goldeyes announced the signing on Friday. Selected in the second round of the 2017 MLB draft by the Orioles, Hall played parts of six seasons in the O’s organization. The speedy Great Lake Canadians and Junior National Team alum had a promising start to his professional career. In 2018 and 2019, he batted .293 and .298 in low-A and High-A respectively, but he missed the entire 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been hampered by injuries during the past two seasons. In 2023, he suited up for just 11 games between Rookie Ball and High A. Still only 24, Hall is hoping to rediscover his form with the Goldeyes. “We are excited to add another Canadian to the club,” said Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins in a release. “Adam is a former second-round pick who brings a lot of ability to our team. The fans can expect to see a fast, versatile player who is eager to play his best baseball coming off an injury. We look forward to seeing what this season brings for Adam.”

-For the second consecutive year, Trevor Brigden (North York, Ont.) and Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) have received invites to the Tampa Bay Rays big league spring training camp. An Ontario Terriers and Okanagan College alum, Brigden was selected in the 17th round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. The 6-foot-3 right-hander spent the 2023 season with the Rays’ triple-A Durham Bulls, posting a 3.46 ERA, while recording 95 strikeouts in 78 innings, in 44 relief appearances. Brigden, 28, also pitched out of the bullpen for Canada at the World Baseball Classic. Peters, an Okotoks Dawgs alum, spent 2023 in double-A with the Montgomery Biscuits. In 93 contests, he hit .276 and had a .361 on-base percentage. The 23-year-old outfielder had 100 hits, including seven home runs and five triples. Originally chosen by the Milwaukee Brewers in the seventh round of the 2021 MLB draft, Peters also played in double-A in the San Francisco Giants organization in 2022.

-The Arizona Diamondbacks announced on Thursday that Dave McKay (Vancouver, B.C.) will return as the club’s first base coach for an 11th season. This will represent McKay’s 54th campaign in professional baseball as a player or coach. McKay made Canadian baseball history last fall when the Diamondbacks defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series. With that D-Backs’ win, McKay became the first Canadian on-the-field coach to be part of three different teams that have advanced to the World Series. He was the first base coach for the Oakland A’s when they competed in the Fall Classic for three straight years from 1988 to 1990. He had the same role with the St. Louis Cardinals’ pennant-winning squads in 2004, 2006 and 2011. McKay owns three World Series rings (Oakland, 1989, St. Louis 2006, 2011). Prior to his coaching career, McKay played parts of eight big league seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and A’s. He was the starting third baseman for the Blue Jays in their first game, on April 7, 1977 at Exhibition Stadium. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

-Long before Chatham, Ont., natives Fergie Jenkins, Bill Atkinson and Doug Melvin were making names for themselves in the big leagues, Doc Miller was putting the small Southwestern Ontario city on the map as one of baseball’s top hitters. Today would be Miller’s 141st birthday. In 1909, Miller hit a combined .359 in 147 games with Pueblo of the Western League and the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals, earning him his first big league opportunity with the Chicago Cubs the following year. However, after just one game with the Cubs, the Canuck outfielder was dealt to the Boston Doves, where he hit .286 and knocked in 55 runs. His breakout year came the following season when he recorded a league-best 192 hits and hit .333, falling one point shy of the batting crown captured by Honus Wagner. During the 1912 season, Miller was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he batted .288 in 67 games and .345 in 69 contests in 1913. In that season, he also set a major league record with 21 pinch-hits that stood for 19 years. His final year in the big leagues was with the Cincinnati Reds in 1914. Miller’s .295 career major league batting average ranks him fourth all-time among Canadians who have played at least 300 games. Following his playing career, Miller attended the University of Toronto and became a physician. He died in 1938 at the age of 55.

-Please take a moment to remember former Montreal Expos left-hander Woodie Fryman who passed away 13 years ago today at the age of 70. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Inducted into the Expos Hall of Fame in 1995, the Kentucky native enjoyed two stints with the Expos (1975-76, 1978 to 1983) and was the Expos Player of the Year as a starting pitcher in 1976. When he was brought back to the club in 1978, he returned to the rotation, but was then used exclusively as a reliever in his final five seasons. In three of those campaigns, his ERA was 2.79 or lower. In total, he pitched in 18 big league seasons and won 141 games.

-A documentary called “Indian Baseball Dreams” will premiere on the MLB Network this afternoon at 1 p.m. E.T. The film shares the story of Blue Jays’ 2023 first-round pick Arjun Nimmala. When Nimmala was chosen, he became the first, first-generation Indian-American to be selected in the first round in any of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues. The film follows the 18-year-old prospect and traces his roots to his parents’ hometown in India, where cricket is the preferred sport. You can watch an interview with Nimmala here.

-Happy 30th Birthday to Junior National Team alum and Savannah Bananas left-hander Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, Ont.)! A fifth-round pick of the Chicago Cubs in 2015, the 6-foot-6 left-hander pitched six seasons in the Cubs’ organization, rising as high as triple-A. In 2022, he went 8-5 with a 5.99 ERA in 20 appearances (16 starts) for the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes of the independent Atlantic League before joining the highly entertaining Savannah Bananas last season. The Bananas are a barnstorming team similar in showmanship to the Harlem Globetrotters. Naturally, the Canadian Kellogg’s highlight act for the club has a hockey theme. You can watch his act here.

-Veteran baseball writer Danny Gallagher released his 10th book on the Montreal Expos this week. It’s called Explosion: Genesis to relocation, 1994 saga, contraction, the dying days, Moises, Lenny, Schneids and the Expos. It is 264 pages and has 125 photos and is sure to be jam-packed with Expos anecdotes you’ve never heard before. I purchased my copy on Friday. You can purchase your copy here.

-Former Montreal Expos and national team pitcher Mike Gardiner (Sarnia, Ont.) needs our help. His son Eric has been diagnosed with cancer. “He has tumors on his colon and both lobes of his liver,” writes Gardiner on a Go Fund Me page he created for his son. “In the past month Eric has lost 30 pounds and is currently in the hospital trying to gain some strength, manage the pain, and figure out a plan,” writes Gardiner. That plan will involve another round of chemotherapy this week. Since Eric will not be able to work for the foreseeable future, his dad has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds “that will help Eric’s family with medical bills not covered by insurance and the basic necessities of living (food, rent, and utilities).” Please go to this Go Fund Me page and give what you can to help Eric.

-This week’s trivia question: Woodie Fryman has the second-most wins by a left-hander in Montreal Expos history. What has the most wins in Expos history by a left-hander? Please provide your answer in the “Comments” section below.

-The answer to last week’s trivia question (Outside of Gladwyn Scott, name another Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee that was born in Manitoba.) was one of Russ Ford (Brandon, Man.), Corey Koskie (Anola, Man.), Wayne Norton (Winnipeg, Man.) and Joe Wiwchar (Winnipeg, Man.).

*You may notice some links encouraging you to buy stuff throughout my column this week. If you click on these links and purchase one of these items, I will receive a small commission that will help me pay the expenses involved with this site.