Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Joe Coleman dies at 78

July 10, 2025

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Former Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Joe Coleman passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 78.

Coleman’s son, Casey, who also pitched in the big leagues, said his father died in his sleep at home in Jamestown, Tenn.

“He was a good man with a really good heart,” Casey said of his dad in a statement provided to the media. “Everywhere I went in professional baseball, I met pitchers he coached. Many gave him credit for making it to the big leagues.”

Coleman was best known for his two 20-win seasons with the Detroit Tigers in the early 1970s. But he also spent five months as a reliever with the Blue Jays in 1978. In 31 appearances for Toronto, he went 2-0 with a 4.60 ERA in 60-2/3 innings.

Boston native

Born in Boston in 1947, Coleman was blessed with strong athletic genes. His father, also named Joe, pitched 10 seasons in the big leagues between 1942 and 1955.

Coleman was an overpowering teenage right-hander at Natick High School when he was selected third overall by the Washington Senators, whose general manager was George Selkirk (Huntsville, Ont.), in the first MLB amateur draft in 1965.

Serving as his agent, Coleman’s father negotiated a $75,000 signing bonus for him with the Senators. The 6-foot-3 righty made just 12 starts with the class-A Burlington Senators before making his MLB debut on September 28, 1965. The 18-year-old right-hander proceeded to toss a four-hit complete game in the Senators’ 6-1 win over the Kansas City A’s. That performance also made him the first player ever selected in the amateur draft to play in the big leagues.

The following year, he spent all but one start with the double-A York White Roses prior to cementing a spot in the Senators’ rotation the next season. Coleman won 12 games and posted identical 3.27 ERAs in 1967 and 1968, but after his ERA rose to 3.58 in 218-2/3 innings in 1970, he began to lose some of his luster with the club’s brass.

Dealt to Tigers

On October 9, 1970, the Senators traded the then 23-year-old Coleman to the Tigers as part of a package for onetime 30-game winner Denny McLain.

Coleman would enjoy his greatest success with the Tigers.

In 1971, he went 20-9 with a 3.15 ERA and threw 16 complete games and 286 innings, while finishing third in the American League with 236 strikeouts.

For an encore, he won 19 games in 1972 and was rewarded with his only All-Star Game selection. That selection made the Colemans the first father and son pitching duo to be chosen to the Midsummer Classic. His father was an All-Star in 1948.

One of the highlights of Coleman’s career came in his sole postseason start that fall. In Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Oakland A’s at Tiger Stadium, he tossed a seven-hit shutout and set an ALCS record with 14 strikeouts. That record would stand for 25 years until Baltimore Orioles right-hander Mike Mussina fanned 15 in Game 3 of the 1997 ALCS against Cleveland.

Coleman’s postseason excellence carried over to the 1973 regular season when he established career-highs with 23 wins and 288-1/3 innings.

Unfortunately, all of those innings took their toll. Arm troubles forced him to change his delivery and rely more on a forkball. And in 1974, he struggled with his control, walking 158 batters and his ERA ballooned to 4.32. His command issues worsened in 1975 when he finished 10-18.

Sold to Cubs

After recording a 4.86 ERA in 12 starts for the Tigers to begin the 1976 season, Coleman was sold to the Cubs on June 8. The Cubs converted him into a reliever and he posted a 4.10 ERA in 39 games.

Charlie Finley and the A’s

Perhaps remembering how dominant Coleman was against his club in the 1972 ALCS, Charlie Finley and the A’s acquired the veteran right-hander from the Cubs in the spring of 1976.

It proved not to be a good marriage.

Coleman, a player rep throughout his career, found it challenging to deal with the penurious A’s owner. Despite being one of the A’s most effective relievers (2.96 ERA in 43 games in 1977), Finley attempted to get rid of Coleman, one of A’s top paid players, on multiple occasions.

Coleman had a 3-0 record and had not allowed a run through his first eight appearances at the start of the 1978 season. But he permitted two runs in four innings in his ninth game and served up a two-run home run to White Sox Lamar Johnson in the ninth inning in his 10th appearance on May 21. That home run inspired a tantrum from Finley who decided then and there that nothing was going to stop him from getting rid of Coleman.

Sold to Blue Jays

On May 22, 1978, Finley sold the 31-year-old Coleman to the Blue Jays for a reported $10,000. But the volatile owner then had second thoughts and called Blue Jays’ GM Peter Bavasi and offered him twice as much as the Blue Jays paid to buy Coleman back.

Bavasi suspected it was because Finley had discovered that a National League team was willing to pay him considerably more than the $10,000 the Blue Jays paid. Finley even went so far as to tell the Blue Jays that he had a medical report indicating that Coleman had a bad arm. But the Blue Jays weren’t convinced and they refused to sell Coleman back to Finley without a bigger return, and a return deal never materialized.

For his part, Coleman was happy to be in Toronto.

“I was disappointed at the way it happened,” Coleman told the Toronto Star of the A’s decision to sell him to the Blue Jays. “But I’m certainly not sorry to get away from Finley.”

Bavasi, however, didn’t exactly welcome Coleman to the Blue Jays with open arms. In one of his first conversations with Coleman, he bluntly told the veteran that he was not in their long-term plans.

“It was a shock to me,” Coleman told The Sporting News of his early conversation with Bavasi. “I didn’t know why I was here. He didn’t want to get into a contract situation with me that would take up a spot of one of the younger kids.”

Middle relief role

Coleman, nevertheless, settled into a middle relief role with the Blue Jays.

He made his debut with the club on May 24, 1978 and allowed three runs in two innings in the Blue Jays’ 8-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Exhibition Stadium.

It was the first of 15 relief appearances by Coleman with the Blue Jays in which he tossed two or more innings.

The highlight of Coleman’s Blue Jays’ tenure came on July 7 when he got redemption against the White Sox, the team that had expediated his departure from Finley’s A’s. He entered that contest in relief of Jesse Jefferson in the fifth inning and tossed four scoreless innings. The White Sox failed to register a hit off him and he was rewarded with the win.

“I was hoping he [Finley] was watching,” Coleman told reporters after the game. “We were playing the White Sox in Oakland when Lamar Johnson hit a homer off me, and after the game, Charlie said I couldn’t throw hard enough to break a pane of glass.”

Just over five weeks after that performance, Coleman enjoyed his longest outing with the Blue Jays – five innings in relief of Dave Lemanczyk in a 9-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Signs with the Giants

Told he was not in the Blue Jays’ plans, Coleman became a free agent after the 1978 season and signed with the San Francisco Giants. He toed the rubber in five games with the Giants before he was released. He then landed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and made his final 10 big league appearances with the Bucs.

Coaching career

In early 1980, Coleman signed with the triple-A Spokane Indians and served as a pitcher/pitching coach with them for the next three seasons.

Coleman was later a big league pitching coach with the St. Louis Cardinals (1991 to 1994) and California Angels (1996).

He continued as a minor league coach in the Rays, Tigers and Marlins organizations until 2014.

As noted earlier, his son, Casey, pitched 58 games in the big leagues with the Cubs and Kansas City Royals between 2010 and 2014. That made the Colemans the first three-generation pitching family in MLB history, according to baseball historian Bill Nelson.

“We are saddened by the passing of former Tigers pitcher Joe Coleman, and share our condolences with his family and loved ones,” said the Detroit Tigers in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “Coleman played six seasons in Detroit, winning 20 or more games in both 1971 and 1973. He was an All-Star in 1972, the same season he struck out a then-record 14 batters in Game 3 of the ALCS.”

Coleman is survived by his wife Donna, son Casey, daughter Kristen and three grandchildren.