Just over two years ago, the Toronto Blue Jays welcomed one of their own back home for a star-studded celebration of his legacy. The Blue Jays inducted Jose Bautista onto the Level of Excellence at Rogers Centre, officially cementing him as one of the greatest Jays of all time.

A lot of “good” players have donned the Blue Jays uniform, but which ones are truly great? Whether they’re players, executives or broadcasters, 11 people’s names are on the ring of honour. But if there were room for a 12th name, who would that be?

Since it’s been a few years since Bautista’s ceremony, it might be time to consider who the next name will be on the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence. Here are six prime candidates who may be worthy of having their names immortalized as franchise legends.

When people debate the greatest pitchers in Blue Jays history, it’s always a battle between Roy Halladay and Dave Stieb. Most fans would agree that, in some combination, both of them are 1A and 1B in the rankings of Blue Jays starting pitchers. But who is the third-best Blue Jays pitcher? That title might belong to Jimmy Key.

Although we don’t revere pitching counting stats as much in the modern era, Key ranks fourth in wins (116), fourth in games started (250), third in ERA (3.39), third in WHIP (1.196), sixth in ERA+ (121) and sixth in strikeouts (896). He spent nine years with the Blue Jays, was an All-Star twice with the Blue Jays and he finished second in Cy Young voting in 1987.

For so many years, Key played second fiddle in the Blue Jays’ rotation to Stieb, but the left-hander was an integral part of Toronto’s starting rotation for eight seasons. Hell, Key even pitched out of the bullpen in 1992, helping the Blue Jays secure their first World Series championship.

If we’re looking at about 30 fWAR as the threshold for consideration into the Level of Excellence, Key is right on the doorstep with 28.1fWAR and 29.7 bWAR. But has the time come and gone for Key? On paper, measured against other Blue Jays pitchers, he makes sense as a contender.

It goes without saying that Buck Martinez is the heart and soul of the Blue Jays. Whether it was his six years in a Blue Jays uniform, his stint as manager of the club, or his 28 years as a broadcaster, Martinez has been a quintessential Blue Jay since his debut with the team in 1981.

After his cancer diagnosis, that’s when the Blue Jays fan base showed their support for Martinez and rallied around the longtime broadcaster. His return to the TV booth in 2022 after his first absence was one of the most heartwarming moments in recent memory. The Blue Jays players stepping out onto the field and the fans acknowledging Buck’s return didn’t leave a dry eye in the stadium.

It’s hard to imagine the Blue Jays without Martinez, and hopefully, one day soon, he’ll be enshrined on the Blue Jays Level of Excellence.

This might be the hipster choice, but Jesse Barfield checked so many boxes for the Blue Jays. Not only did he arguably have one of the best outfield arms in franchise history, he could swing the bat as well. Barfield was the American League’s home run king in 1986, when he clubbed 40 round-trippers.

Given the benefit of time and the advancement of defensive analytics, Barfield’s time with the Blue Jays also looks better under the microscope. FanGraphs’ overall defensive metric ranks Barfield second in franchise history (83.2), just behind Tony Fernandez (99.9).

We run into the same issue here as with Key; has too much time passed that it feels like a Level of Excellence induction becomes an afterthought? 36 years after Barfield’s final year with the Blue Jays is an absurdly long time to wait, so if the Blue Jays thought he was going in, it should’ve been done by now.

But if we’re looking at this decision in a vacuum, considering Barfield’s overall body of work with the Blue Jays, I believe he should be a candidate to go onto the Level of Excellence.

Vernon Wells spent 12 years in the Blue Jays organization, and while the end of his tenure in Toronto soured a bit, there’s no taking away his contributions to the team during the 2000s. He ranks second in franchise hits (1,529), fourth in home runs (223) and fifth in fWAR (24.8).

He was also a three-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner, and a Silver Slugger winner in 2003. Unfortunately, Wells never tasted the postseason during his time with the Blue Jays, but he authored several signature moments, including one of his best: a walk-off home run off Mariano Rivera on July 20, 2006.

Wells’ body of work was impressive, but does it warrant a place on the Rogers Centre’s ring of honour? I think he was a very good player, but I’m not sure he quite crosses the line into Blue Jays GOAT territory.

You can’t tell the story of the Blue Jays of the 2010s without mentioning Encarnacion. It took a while for him to get there, but like Bautista, Encarnacion was a late bloomer, hitting his breakout season at age 29.

Encarnacion ranks third in franchise history in home runs (239), fourth in slugging percentage (.522), sixth in wRC+ (137) and sixth in RBIs (679). If there’s one knock on Encarnacion’s candidacy, he spent the bulk of those games as a designated hitter, providing little value on the defensive side of the ball.

But Encarnacion bested guys like Joe Carter in home runs and was very close to him in RBIs, which may make a compelling case for Encarnacion to join the ring of honour as well. The Blue Jays may have missed the boat on inducting both Bautista and Encarnacion concurrently, but Encarnacion may have been a borderline decision for many folks.

He was “only” with the Blue Jays for eight seasons, but once Encarnacion took off in 2012, there weren’t many more feared hitters than him in the American League.

Similar to Buck, Jerry Howarth was one of the staple voices of the Blue Jays for decades. As the radio play-by-play announcer for 36 years, Howarth was a friendly companion for Canadian baseball fans from coast to coast to coast.

He helped narrate all the Blue Jays’ most memorable moments: their first taste of the postseason in 1985 during the “Drive of ’85”, the World Series championships in 1992 and 1993, Bautista’s bat flip from Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS and Encarnacion’s walk-off home run from the 2016 AL Wild Card game.

Whether it was lulling kids to sleep as they listened to the game, or keeping people calm as they muscled through traffic, Howarth had an uncanny ability to make everyone feel like his friend during the Blue Jays broadcast. Just as Martinez was a pioneer of Blue Jays TV broadcasters, Howarth was a staple radio voice of the team.

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