But What Do I Know? . . . Josh Naylor, Cade Smith, Tyler O’Neill, Erik Sabrowski, Roy Hartsfield

September 22, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Some Canadian baseball news and notes:

-On Thursday afternoon, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) belted his 30th home run of the season in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. With that, Guerrero Jr. became the third Canadian-born major leaguer to record 30 home runs this season. One day earlier, Cleveland Guardians slugger Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) socked his 30th and 31st round-trippers of the campaign in the Guardians’ 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins at Progressive Field. Naylor and Guerrero Jr. joined Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, B.C.) who has 31 home runs this season for the Boston Red Sox. According to Scott Crawford at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the only other season in which three Canadian-born players have hit 30 or more home runs was 2021 when Guerrero Jr. walloped 48, while Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) hit 36 and O’Neill clubbed 34.

-Interestingly, O’Neill has 31 home runs and just 61 RBIs this season. This had me wondering what the lowest number of RBIs was in a major league season for a player who has hit 30 home runs? Fortunately, Statmuse has already done the research:

-Meanwhile, Cade Smith‘s remarkable rookie season continues. On Wednesday, he racked up two more strikeouts – including his 100th K of the season – in another scoreless relief outing (This one against the Twins). That makes him just the fourth Canadian reliever to have 100 strikeouts in a big-league season. Here’s a list of the other three from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame:

-Smith’s bullpen mate Erik Sabrowski (St. Albert, Alta.) pitched the final 2 1/3 innings in the Guardians’ 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday to record his first major league save. The Canadian lefty has now thrown 10 scoreless innings in six appearances to start his big-league career, and he is pitching himself into consideration for a spot on the Guardians’ postseason roster. The Guardians clinched a postseason berth on Thursday. Sabrowski has allowed just six hits, while striking out 13. He has fanned at least two batters in five of his six appearances. The 26-year-old Alberta-born lefty has persevered through two Tommy John surgeries to pitch in the majors. If Sabrowski is added to the Guardians’ post-season roster (along with Smith and Josh and Bo Naylor), that would make a total of four Canadians. According to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, no major league team has ever had four Canadians on their post-season roster.

-So, who’s the hottest Canadian major league hitter in September? Well, that would be Marlins infielder Otto Lopez who is batting .311 with three home runs, six doubles and 12 RBIs in 19 games. With this hot stretch, Lopez, who spent part of his youth in Montreal, has boosted his batting average to .260. He also has six home runs, 37 RBIs and 19 stolen bases in 110 games. On February 13, Lopez, who has played for the Canadian national team, had his contract sold to the San Francisco Giants by the Blue Jays. He spent spring training with the Giants before he was designated for assignment and claimed on waivers by the Marlins. Born in Santo Domingo, D.R., Lopez was signed as an international free agent by the Blue Jays on July 4, 2016.

-On Monday, Charles Leblanc (Laval, Que.) clubbed his second home run since rejoining the Los Angeles Angels on September 1. It was a solo shot in the fifth inning off Chicago White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon in the Angels’ 8-4 loss at Angel Stadium. Eight days earlier, he had belted a three-run home run for the Angels in their 7-4 loss to the Rangers. That home run represented Leblanc’s first major league home run in almost two years. In total, in 11 games with the Angels in 2024, he is 4-for-21 with six runs and seven walks. In triple-A this season, the ABC grad hit .254 with a .379 on-base percentage (OBP) with 12 home runs and 52 RBIs in 98 games.

-Former big league closer John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) is back at school. On Wednesday, he announced this on X.” “It’s been 18 years since I stepped foot in a classroom to learn. I’m very excited (and nervous) to get to be a part of the Fall semester ‘Crossover Into Business Program’ at Harvard University,” wrote Axford. “This semester there are more than 50 athletes from around the world that are getting teamed up with a group of 100 Harvard Business School MBA students to help develop our business skills. It was such a pleasure being on campus, attending an MBA class and doing our own classes with this amazing group of athletes.” Axford hung up his playing spikes in 2023 after pitching for Canada at the World Baseball Classic. In all, in parts of 11 major league seasons, he posted a 3.90 ERA and amassed 144 saves in 544 appearances. His career included stops with the Milwaukee Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, Oakland A’s, Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.

– Left-hander Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, Alta.) was transferred to the 60-day injured list by the Brewers on September 12. He had been on the 15-day IL since July 26 with left elbow tendinitis. The move makes it unlikely that he’ll return to the National League Central-winning Brewers this season. After being called up on Canada Day, the 32-year-old southpaw had made three starts and six relief appearances for the Brewers and posted a 1.17 ERA with five strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. Prior to his promotion, Zastryzny was 4-0 with a 3.18 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings in 28 appearances in triple-A.

-Happy 49th Birthday to former big league infielder Danny Klassen (Leamington, Ont.)! Selected in the second round of the 1993 MLB draft by the Brewers, the 6-foot infielder batted .226 with six home runs in 85 games in parts of five major league seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers between 1998 and 2003. In total, he suited up for parts of 15 professional seasons and hit .273 and recorded 1,230 hits. He also played for Canada at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

-Forty-eight years ago today, the Blue Jays named Roy Hartsfield as their first field manager. After a professional playing career that saw him compete for parts of three seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1950 to 1952 and another two with the triple-A Montreal Royals (1953-54), he began his coaching career and starting in 1958, he coached and managed in the Dodgers’ organization for 15 seasons, eventually serving on Walter Alston’s big-league staff from 1969 to 1972. While coaching for double-A Albuquerque in the Dodgers chain, Hartsfield wowed Peter Bavasi, the team’s young business manager and son of Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi, with his knowledge. According to Stephen Brunt’s excellent book, Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, Bavasi grew so enamored with Hartsfield that he promised the coach that if he ever had the opportunity to run a big-league club that Hartsfield would be his manager. When Bavasi became the general manager of the San Diego Padres in 1973, Hartsfield was named bench boss of the Padres’ triple-A affiliate in Hawaii. Hartsfield managed in Hawaii for four seasons, before Bavasi, who accepted the Blue Jays GM job in 1976, honoured his promise and hired him as the Blue Jays’ first manager. Unfortunately, after an exciting 9-5 Opening Day victory by the Blue Jays over the Chicago White Sox on a snowy day at Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977, there were few highlights for Hartsfield in his three-season tenure in Toronto. The Georgia native endured three consecutive, 100-loss seasons and was let go at the end of the 1979 campaign.

-This week’s trivia question: Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, B.C.) is the only Canadian major leaguer to belt 30 home runs and have 30 stolen bases in the same season (He had 49 home runs and 33 stolen bases in 1997). But there are two other Canadians that have had at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same big-league season. Can you name one of them? Please provide your answer in the “Comments” section below.

-The answer to last week’s trivia question (Eleven players born in Canada have hit 100 home runs in the major leagues. Of those 11, just four are right-handed hitters. Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, B.C.) is one of them. Can you name one of the other three?) was any one of Jason Bay (Trail, B.C.), Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.).