2002 Toronto Blue Jays season

2002 Toronto Blue Jays
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1977)
East Division (since 1977)
Location
SkyDome (since 1989)
Toronto (since 1977)
Other information
Owner(s)	Rogers Communications, Interbrew
General manager(s)	J. P. Ricciardi
Manager(s)	Buck Martinez, Carlos Tosca
Local television	CBC Television (Brian Williams, John Cerutti) The Sports Network (Rod Black, Pat Tabler) Rogers Sportsnet (Rob Faulds, John Cerutti)
Local radio	CHUM (AM) (Jerry Howarth, Tom Cheek)
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The 2002 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's twenty-sixth season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing third in the American League East with a record of 78 wins and 84 losses.

Offseason

• J. P. Ricciardi became the Blue Jays fourth GM on November 15, 2001
• December 7, 2001: Billy Koch was traded by the Blue Jays to the Oakland Athletics for Eric Hinske and Justin Miller.
• December 18, 2001: Brian Lesher was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays.
• December 22, 2001: Luis Lopez was purchased from the Blue Jays by the Oakland Athletics.
• February 10, 2002: Ken Huckaby was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays.

Regular season

Summary

The Blue Jays started the 2002 season with slow progress in performance. Buck Martinez was fired about a third of the way through the season, with a 20–33 record. He was replaced by third base coach Carlos Tosca, an experienced minor league manager. They went 58–51 under Tosca to finish the season 78–84. Roy Halladay, a talented but inconsistent prospect who was no more than a fifth starter who alternated between Toronto and Triple-A during his first three seasons, was relied on as the team's ace and rose to the challenge being the team's top pitcher, finishing the season with a 19–7 record and a 2.93 ERA. The hitters were led once again by Carlos Delgado. Ricciardi was credited for dumping Raúl Mondesí in mid-season to the New York Yankees to free up his salary, which in turn was used for the off-season signing of Mike Bordick, Frank Catalanotto and Tanyon Sturtze. Promising young players were assigned to key roles, including starting third baseman Eric Hinske (who later won the Rookie of the Year Award for this year) and 23-year-old centre fielder Vernon Wells, who had his first 100 RBI season replacing Mondesi. Another bright young player was Josh Phelps, a former catcher turned designated hitter, who hit 15 home runs.

Opening Day starters

• Homer Bush, 2B
• José Cruz, Jr., OF
• Carlos Delgado, 1B
• Darrin Fletcher, C
• Roy Halladay, P
• Eric Hinske, 3B
• Felipe López, SS
• Raúl Mondesí, DH
• Shannon Stewart, OF
• Vernon Wells, OF

Season standings

AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	103	58	0.640	—	52–28	51–30
Boston Red Sox	93	69	0.574	10½	42–39	51–30
Toronto Blue Jays	78	84	0.481	25½	42–39	36–45
Baltimore Orioles	67	95	0.414	36½	34–47	33–48
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	55	106	0.342	48	30–51	25–55

Record vs. opponents

2002 American League Records Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team	ANA	BAL	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TB	TEX	TOR	NL
Anaheim	—	7–2	3–4	6–3	6–3	8–1	6–3	4–5	3–4	9–11	9–10	8–1	12–7	7–2	11–7
Baltimore	2–7	—	6–13	3–4	1–5	2–4	7–0	5–1	6–13	4–5	5–4	10–9	3–6	4–15	9–9
Boston	4–3	13–6	—	2–4	5–4	5–4	4–2	3–3	9–10	6–3	4–5	16–3	4–3	13–6	5–13
Chicago	3–6	4–3	4–2	—	9–10	12–7	11–8	8–11	2–4	2–7	5–4	4–3	5–4	4–2	8–10
Cleveland	3–6	5–1	4–5	10–9	—	10–9	9–10	8–11	3–6	2–5	3–4	4–2	4–5	3–3	6–12
Detroit	1–8	4–2	4–5	7–12	9–10	—	9–10	4–14	1–8	1–6	2–5	2–4	5–4	0–6	6–12
Kansas City	3–6	0–7	2–4	8–11	10–9	10–9	—	5–14	1–5	1–8	3–6	4–2	7–2	3–4	5–13
Minnesota	5–4	1–5	3–3	11–8	11–8	14–4	14–5	—	0–6	3–6	5–4	5–2	6–3	6–1	10–8
New York	4–3	13–6	10–9	4–2	6–3	8–1	5–1	6–0	—	5–4	4–5	13–5	4–3	10–9	11–7
Oakland	11–9	5–4	3–6	7–2	5–2	6–1	8–1	6–3	4–5	—	8–11	8–1	13–6	3–6	16–2
Seattle	10–9	4–5	5–4	4–5	4–3	5–2	6–3	4–5	5–4	11–8	—	5–4	13–7	6–3	11–7
Tampa Bay	1–8	9–10	3–16	3–4	2–4	4–2	2–4	2–5	5–13	1–8	4–5	—	4–5	8–11	7–11
Texas	7–12	6–3	3–4	4–5	5–4	4–5	2–7	3–6	3–4	6–13	7–13	5–4	—	8–1	9–9
Toronto	2–7	15–4	6–13	2–4	3–3	6–0	4–3	1–6	9–10	6–3	3–6	11–8	1–8	—	9–9

Notable transactions

• May 26, 2002: Dan Plesac was traded by the Blue Jays to the Philadelphia Phillies for Cliff Politte.
• July 1, 2002: Raúl Mondesí was traded by the Blue Jays to the New York Yankees for Scott Wiggins.

2002 Draft picks

Source

The 2002 MLB draft was held on June 4–5.

Round	Pick	Player	Position	College/School	Nationality	Signed
1	14	Russ Adams	SS	North Carolina		2002–06–07
2	55	Dave Bush	RHP	Wake Forest		2002–06–04
3	86	Justin Maureau	LHP	Wichita State		–
4	110	Adam Peterson	RHP	Wichita State		2002–06–11
5	146	Chad Pleiness	RHP	Central Michigan		–
6	176	Jason Perry	OF	Georgia Tech		2002–06–22
7	206	Brian Grant	RHP	C.B. Aycock High School (NC)		–
8	236	Chris Leonard	LHP	Miami (FL)		–
9	266	Russ Savickas	RHP	Johnston High School		–
10	296	Eric Arnold	2B	Rice		–

Roster

2002 Toronto Blue Jays
Roster
Pitchers 51 Pedro Borbón, Jr. 37 Brian Bowles 26 Chris Carpenter 40 Scott Cassidy 38 Pasqual Coco 50 Brian Cooper 45 Kelvim Escobar 29 Scott Eyre 36 Bob File 32 Roy Halladay 43 Mark Hendrickson 49 Félix Heredia 46 Jason Kershner 21 Esteban Loaiza 28 Brandon Lyon 34 Justin Miller 39 Steve Parris 19 Dan Plesac 19 Cliff Politte 44 Luke Prokopec 53 Mike Smith 35 Corey Thurman 41 Pete Walker 57 Scott Wiggins		Catchers 29 Kevin Cash  9 Darrin Fletcher 20 Ken Huckaby 17 Josh Phelps 54 Jayson Werth 15 Tom Wilson Infielders  2 Dave Berg 18 Homer Bush 25 Carlos Delgado 11 Eric Hinske  3 Orlando Hudson  6 Joe Lawrence  7 Felipe López  5 Chris Woodward		Outfielders 23 José Cruz, Jr. 31 Brian Lesher 43 Raúl Mondesí 24 Shannon Stewart  8 Pedro Swann 10 Vernon Wells 16 DeWayne Wise		Manager 13 Buck Martinez 14 Carlos Tosca Coaches 56 Mike Barnett (hitting) 53 Mark Connor (pitching) 16 Garth Iorg (first base) 47 Gil Patterson (bullpen)  4 Cookie Rojas (bench) 14 Carlos Tosca (third base) 55 Brian Butterfield (third base)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
CF	Vernon Wells	159	608	167	.275	23	100

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Joe Lawrence	55	150	27	.180	2	15

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO

Other pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO

Relief pitchers

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO

Award winners

• Eric Hinske, Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award
• Eric Hinske, The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award

All-Star Game

• Roy Halladay, Pitcher

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Syracuse SkyChiefs	International League	Omar Malavé
AA	Tennessee Smokies	Southern League	Rocket Wheeler
A	Dunedin Blue Jays	Florida State League	Marty Pevey
A	Charleston Alley Cats	South Atlantic League	Paul Elliott
A-Short Season	Auburn Doubledays	New York–Penn League	Dennis Holmberg
Rookie	Medicine Hat Blue Jays	Pioneer League	Rolando Pino

External links

• 2002 Toronto Blue Jays at Baseball Reference
• 2002 Toronto Blue Jays at Baseball Almanac

Preceded by 2001 Toronto Blue Jays season

2002 Toronto Blue Jays Season 2002

Succeeded by 2003 Toronto Blue Jays season