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Looking at the careers of the four former Blue Jays on the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot
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Photo credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Ryley Delaney
Nov 18, 2024, 19:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 18, 2024, 15:55 EST
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The newest Hall of Fame ballot features four former Blue Jays.
On Monday, Major League Baseball announced the Hall of Fame ballot for 2025, and it features former Blue Jays Curtis Granderson, Russell Martin, Troy Tulowitzki, and Mark Buehrle.
In this article, we’ll look at the careers of the four players, as well as the special moments they had with the Blue Jays and throughout their careers.

Mark Buehrle

Buehrle is the only returning former Blue Jay on the ballot, as it’s his fifth year of being on the ballot. Buehrle spent his final three seasons with the Jays, posting a 3.78 ERA and a 4.01 FIP in 604.1 innings pitched. He missed out on 200 innings for 15 straight seasons, as he went eight innings and two-thirds in his final career start.
Drafted in the 38th round of the 1998 draft, Buehrle spent his first 12 seasons with the Chicago White Sox, winning a World Series with the team in 2005 and throwing a perfect game in July 2009. His last season was in 2015 and he was part of the Jays that went to the American League Championship Series.
Funnily enough, the 12th anniversary (unofficially) of the blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins was on November 13, 2012. However, it officially went through on November 19, 2012.

Russell Martin

Two other players from the 2015 roster are newcomers to the Hall of Fame ballot. Starting with Russell Martin, the catcher signed a five-year deal, $82 million deal with the Jays, ironically the 10th anniversary was this past Sunday.
From 2015 until 2018, Martin slashed .225/.336/.399 with 66 home runs in 1,759 plate appearances. My all-time favourite home run came in Martin’s first season with the Jays, as he hit a three-run blast that unofficially clinched their first postseason berth in 22 seasons.
The Jays traded Martin during the 2018-19 off-season back to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he started his career. Overall, he finished his career slashing .248/.349/.397 with 191 home runs in 6,648 plate appearances, playing six seasons with the Dodgers, four for the Blue Jays, two for the New York Yankees, and two for the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he hit a huge home run in the Wild Card Series.

Troy Tulowitzki

Sometimes, a front office just needs to go for it. After five seasons in charge of the Blue Jays, Alex Anthopoulos did just that in the 2014-15 off-season. Not only did he sign Russell Martin, but he acquired Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics via a trade.
After a massive winning streak, the Blue Jays were just three games back of a Wild Card spot and had a 50-51 record on July 28, 2015. The following day, they packaged prospects and José Reyes to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Troy Tulowitzki.
His impact was immediate, as the shortstop went deep in his second plate appearance on July 30, 2015. The Jays made another big acquisition before the trade deadline, acquiring David Price, finishing the season with a 43-18 record to win the American League East and make the postseason for the first time in 22 seasons.
Tulowitzki spent parts of three seasons with the Jays, slashing .250/.313/.414 with 36 home runs in 987 plate appearances. Unfortunately, injuries caught up with the shortstop, and after 13 plate appearances with the New York Yankees in 2019, he called it a career.
Overall, he slashed .290/.361/.495 with 225 home runs in 5,415 plate appearances, making the World Series in 2007 with the Miracle Colorado Rockies. If not for the injuries, who knows where he’d rank among shortstops in the 21st century?

Curtis Granderson

If the Blue Jays had defeated the Kansas City Royals in the 2015 American League Championship Series, they would’ve played Curtis Granderson and the New York Mets.
Like the other three players we’ve looked at, Granderson played the twilight of his career with the Jays, as he signed on as a free agent before the 2018 season. Granderson slashed .245/.342/.430 with 11 home runs in 349 plate appearances for the Blue Jays in 2018, before being moved at the 2019 trade deadline to the Milwaukee Brewers.
His last season was in 2019 as a 38-year-old with the Miami Marlins with not-so-great results. However, Granderson slashed .249/.337/.465 with 344 home runs in 8,306 plate appearances with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Mets, Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Brewers, and Jays. A pretty good career, if you ask me.
As always, you can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.

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