How the Blue Jays rebuilt to repeat in '93

TORONTO -- When the confetti settled following the Blue Jays’ first World Series championship in 1992, the path to repeating wasn’t simple.

Key contributors were headed for free agency, including Joe Carter, Tom Henke, Jimmy Key, David Cone, Dave Winfield and Candy Maldonado. The Blue Jays had built that 1992 team with a series of major moves, including their blockbuster a year prior to acquire Carter and Roberto Alomar from the Padres for Tony Fernández and Fred McGriff, and Canada’s team would need some of the same magic to run it back.

Thankfully for Toronto, not all was lost. John Olerud was just turning 24 and about to put together one of the greatest offensive seasons in club history, chasing a .400 batting average deep into the season before finishing with a .363 mark and a 1.072 OPS. Devon White was still patrolling center, while the young duo of Juan Guzman and Pat Hentgen was ready to lead the rotation. Duane Ward, the great reliever long used in tandem with Henke, was about to step into the closer’s role and be one of the stars of the 1993 season, saving 45 games.

This was still a story of rediscovering depth, though, as the Blue Jays turned over nearly half of their 40-man roster between seasons, and they needed new stars at the top.

General manager Pat Gillick, no longer “Stand Pat," had some answers. Here is a look back at five of the most important moves that helped keep the Blue Jays on top of the baseball world with back-to-back championships, something that’s only been accomplished since by the New York Yankees winning three straight from 1998-2000.

Signed Paul Molitor (Dec. 7, 1992)
The Blue Jays managed to lure Molitor away from Milwaukee after 15 great seasons with the Brewers, which wasn’t an easy sell even for a team coming off a championship.

“There was no question in my mind at the end of the season that I would return to Milwaukee,” Molitor told the L.A. Times in 1992. “But as the talks progressed, I became more open to changing teams. I was looking for a club that not only was competitive, but had a real chance to win.”

Molitor’s three-year, $13 million deal solidified the Blue Jays’ lineup with a solid replacement for Winfield’s bat and represented the beginning of “WAMCO," the feared fivesome of White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter and Olerud. This group could hit for power, of course, but also brought a unique blend of average and on-base percentage to go with their speed at the top. It was a pitcher’s nightmare from the first pitch of a ballgame.

Molitor had an excellent season, hitting .332 with 22 homers and a .911 OPS, but he showed up when the Blue Jays needed him most in October. He was named World Series MVP, batting .458 over those six games, with 11 hits, two home runs, three walks and zero strikeouts.

“It’s my best year. I can’t explain why,” Molitor told the Toronto Star following the win, before adding, “My timing was pretty good.”

Signed Joe Carter (Dec. 7, 1992)
Dec. 7 was one fine day of business for the Blue Jays as they also brought back Carter from free agency. Carter’s legacy with those 1992 and ’93 teams is so rock-solid that many forget how close he was to leaving. The Royals were making a very strong push, and given that Carter lived in the Kansas City area at that time, it nearly happened.

“People think being a free agent is all glamor. Maybe it is,” Carter told the Toronto Star at the time. “But this was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. My wife and I asked the Lord. He answered us and told us [to choose] Toronto. If he’d said Kansas City, it would have been Kansas City.”

Where would this Blue Jays team have gone without Carter? Their Plan B may have sufficed, but only Carter could deliver the home run that might live forever as the greatest moment in franchise history, a walk-off shot to win the World Series in the bottom of the ninth of Game 6, scoring Molitor and another major in-season addition. Whether you’ve watched five seconds of Blue Jays baseball or each game since 1977, you’ve heard Tom Cheek’s famous call: “Touch ’em all, Joe!”

Signed Dave Stewart (Dec. 8, 1992)
Soon after the whirlwind of Carter and Molitor, the headline on the Toronto Star’s sports page for Dec. 9, 1992, read “Jays sign nemesis Stewart.” Welcome aboard!

Stewart had dominated the Blue Jays, including throwing a no-hitter against them at SkyDome in 1990. The year prior in ’89, Stewart had beaten the Blue Jays in Game 1 and Game 5 of the ALCS with the A’s, throwing eight strong innings in each outing. If you can’t beat them, sign them.

“He’s a gamer, a guy who rises to the occasion in big games,” manager Cito Gaston told the Toronto Star at the time.

Stewart’s signing mirrored the Jack Morris addition the year prior: a veteran starter who had been to the postseason and won before. Stewart even picked up the 1989 World Series MVP Award with the A’s. While his World Series starts weren’t as strong with the Blue Jays -- a 6.75 ERA over his two outings -- he pitched very well in the ALCS against the White Sox to help get them there.

Trade for Tony Fernandez (June 11, 1993)
Fernandez had been dealt two seasons prior in the package for Carter and Alomar, but he returned in a midsummer deal in 1993 for outfielder Darrin Jackson. When Fernandez walked into the visitors' clubhouse at Tiger Stadium the next day, catcher Pat Borders shouted out, “What year is this?”

The public reaction to the deal at the time wasn’t all positive by any means, but Fernandez filled a need for the Blue Jays at shortstop and was a known commodity. This also gave Fernandez a shot at his own title with the Blue Jays after he’d been dealt following parts of eight MLB seasons in Toronto to begin his career.

Gillick’s reunion worked. Fernandez hit .306 over 94 games down the stretch, then continued his strong hitting into the postseason. For a player who’s held up as one of the franchise’s greats, playing parts of 12 seasons over four stints, it’s only fitting that the late Fernandez earned a ring with Toronto.

Trade for Rickey Henderson (July 31, 1993)
The Blue Jays entered July 31, 1993, at 59-45, first in the AL East with a stacked roster. Henderson still represented something they were missing, though, because every roster but one in MLB was missing Henderson, one of the most singular talents the game has seen.

At the time, the Blue Jays needed pitching. Henderson wasn’t the expected move, but there’s more than one way to win a ballgame. This was also another case, like Stewart, of the Blue Jays adding a player who’d once dominated them. That day’s Toronto Star headline read, “Okay, new Jay! The A Toronto fans loved to hate.”

Toronto fans had good reason. In the 1989 ALCS, when the A’s beat the Blue Jays, Henderson had six hits, seven walks and a whopping eight stolen bases over five games. The Blue Jays weren’t the first team to have Henderson run all over them, but on such a grand stage with such a talented team that was destined for more, that one left a sour taste. When he started doing it in a Blue Jays uniform, though, fans quickly came around.

This broke up WAMCO, of course, with White moving down the lineup, but White was just fine with that, joking at the time that Henderson’s on-base percentage was probably double his. Gaston didn’t have much of a decision to make, either.

“I guess they say he’s maybe the best leadoff man in the history of the game,” Gaston said. “More than likely he’ll be leading off, won’t he?”

Henderson wasn’t at his best down the stretch or even throughout the playoff run, but just like each of these five moves and the dozens of smaller ones made along the way, it’s all about timing. With the Blue Jays down 6-5 entering the bottom of the ninth in Game 6 of the World Series against the Phillies, it was Henderson due to lead off. He walked, and following a flyout from White and a single from Molitor, it was Henderson who crossed the plate first as Carter skipped around the bases, crowning the Blue Jays back-to-back World Series champions.