Canadian Baseball Hall to add foursome
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023 includes Jesse Barfield, Denis Boucher, Rich Harden and Joe Wiwchar.
They will be inducted on June 17 in a ceremony at the hall of fame in St. Marys, Ont.
Barfield hit 179 home runs over parts of nine seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Joliet, Ill., native also spent four years with the New York Yankees.
Boucher, a Montreal native, played for the Blue Jays and Expos over his 10-year pro career and later served as a pitching coach for the Canadian men’s team.
Harden, a Victoria native, posted a 59-38 career record and 3.76 earned-run average over nine big-league seasons with Oakland, Texas and the Chicago Cubs.
Wiwchar is a longtime Manitoba baseball coach and executive. The Winnipeg native served as an assistant coach on the provincial team that won silver at the 1977 Canada Summer Games.
Free agent reliever Chad Green and the Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to an $8.5-million, two-year contract.
The deal includes options for 2025 and 2026 and could be worth US$29.25 million over four seasons.
Green is likely to miss at least the early portion of this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He injured his pitching elbow last May with the New York Yankees and was sidelined the rest of the year.
The right-hander got off to a solid start last season with a 3.00 ERA and 16 strikeouts over 15 innings. Typical recovery time for the ligament-replacement procedure is 12 to 18 months.
Green gets a $2.25-million salary this year and the Blue Jays must decide after this season whether to exercise a club option calling for $9-million salaries in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Green has a conditional player option for 2024 at $6.25 million that can be exercised only if Toronto declines its option. Green’s conditional option includes performance bonuses of up to $1 million: $250,000 each for 40, 45, 50 and 55 appearances.
If both the Blue Jays and Green decline their initial options, Toronto has a conditional option at $10.5 million annually for 2024 and 2025. Those options have $1 million in performance bonuses for appearances: $500,000 each for 60 and 65 games.
The 31-year-old Green is 33-22 with a 3.17 ERA in seven major-league seasons, all with the Yankees. He has 11 saves and 53 holds.
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Gustav Nyquist is expected to miss the rest of the regular season due to a shoulder injury, the team announced Wednesday. The 33-year-old will not require surgery, the team said.
Nyquist, a pending unrestricted free agent, posted 22 points (10 goals) in 48 games this season. Nyquist missed all of 2020-21 with a shoulder injury.