When Tyler Heineman stepped on the mound in the ninth inning last night, he likely wasn’t aware he was setting a franchise record. With the catcher being used in mop-up duty in the 15-5 defeat by the Miami Marlins, he became the fourth position player used in a game situation this year – which sets a new single-season franchise high for the Blue Jays.

The high before that was at three, a tie between two different years. The first was the 1980 Blue Jays, who used Bob Bailor on three separate occasions and the other was the 2019 squad who used Luke Maile twice and Richard Ureña once to get through the season. With Heineman toeing the rubber last night, he became the fourth occurrence of the campaign, as Isiah Kiner-Falefa pitched twice for the Blue Jays before being traded while Ernie Clement also took a turn on the mound.

The first instance of the Jays using a position player on the mound was Craig Kusick in 1979.  With the score 22-2 in favour of the California Angels, Kusick came on in relief in the top of the sixth inning. He allowed three hits and two earned runs through his 3 2/3 innings with zero walks and zero strikeouts. Fun fact – his ERA over those three innings is better than Luis Frias,  Jose Cuas, and newcomer Brett de Geus – although the sample size is a major factor.

The Jays also hold a not-so-nice record in that they were the first team to ever use a position player on the mound during the postseason.  They called upon Cliff Pennington in Game 4 of the 2015 ALCS against the Kansas City Royals after Mark Lowe hit a batter in the ninth inning with two outs on the board. Pennington allowed two hits through 1/3 of the ninth inning.

The current list of position players used for the Blue Jays in a pitching situation is below:

1979: Craig Kusick
1980: Bob Bailor (x3)
1984: Rick Leach
2004: Frank Menechino
2011: Mike McCoy
2012: Jeff Mathis (x2)
2015: Cliff Pennington (playoffs)
2016: Darwin Barney / Ryan Goins
2018: Kendrys Morales
2019: Luke Maile (X2) / Richard Ureña
2020: Santiago Espinal (X2)
2022: Whit Merrifield
2023: Ernie Clement
2024: Isiah Kiner-Falefa (X2) / Ernie Clement / Tyler Heineman

The use of position players on the mound has been used for a long time in the game of baseball but has gained steam over the past few years when ballgames get out of hand. With the score run up and a comeback unlikely, why use a bullpen arm that can be saved for another day?

Especially in this day and age where players play multiple positions growing up, using someone on the bench can provide a bit of stability for a manager looking to save pitchers for another rainy day.

This makes sense for the Jays, who boast one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball.

Manager John Schneider has called upon Kiner-Falefa, Clement, and Heineman all when the scores were out of hand – a rule instituted before the 2023 season regarding when teams could use a position player on the mound. This was due to teams using position players for pitching when their team was winning by a lopsided margin, rather than the opposite, with the same idea in mind of saving dedicated arms for actual useful scenarios.

Nevertheless, the use of Heineman last night was another notch on the belt of a disappointing campaign for the Blue Jays. Considering the Jays were playing after an off-day on Thursday with an extra pitcher in the pen due to the September call-up rules, the backstop likely didn’t even need to be used, but that’s an argument for another day.