Glew: Remembering the ex-Blue Jays that died in 2025
Former Toronto Blue Jays workhorse right-hander Jim Clancy died on July 12 at the age of 69.
December 31, 2025
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
Today is the last day of 2025, so let’s pause to remember some of the former Toronto Blue Jays who passed away this year.
Jim Clancy
Selected from the Texas Rangers in the 1976 expansion draft, Clancy was a cornerstone of the Blue Jays’ pitching staff in the 1980s. He established himself as a top-of-the-rotation starter in 1980 when he went 13-16 with a 3.30 ERA and threw a career-best 15 complete games. He also tossed 250-2/3 innings and was voted the Blue Jays Pitcher of the Year.
Over the next eight seasons, Clancy became a staple in the Blue Jays’ rotation, a quiet workhorse who was a calming influence on the team. The 6-foot-4 right-hander had six 200-inning seasons for the Blue Jays and two others where he hurled at least 193 innings.
In 1982, he topped the American League with 40 starts and set career highs with 16 wins and 266-2/3 innings. For his efforts, he was named the Blue Jays’ representative in the All-Star Game played at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
Clancy still ranks near the top of most of the Blue Jays’ all-time pitching categories, including second in starts (345), innings (2,204-2/3) and complete games (73) and third in wins (128), strikeouts (1,237) and shutouts (11).
He passed away on July 12 at the age of 69.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Joe Coleman
Coleman was best known for his two 20-win seasons with the Detroit Tigers in the early 1970s. But he also spent five months as a reliever with the Blue Jays in 1978 after being purchased from the Oakland A’s.
Coleman settled into a middle relief role with the Blue Jays where he’d pitch two or more innings in 15 of his appearances with the club. On August 15, he threw a season-high five innings out of the pen in a 9-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. In total, in 31 appearances for the Blue Jays, he went 2-0 with a 4.60 ERA in 60-2/3 innings.
Coleman became a free agent after the 1978 season and signed with the San Francisco Giants. He toed the rubber in five games with the Giants before he was released. He then landed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and made his final 10 big league appearances with the Bucs.
He passed away on July 8 at the age of 78.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Octavio Dotel
Dotel signed a one-year, $3-million contract with the Blue Jays on January 4, 2011.
In his first regular season outing with the club on April 8, 2011, the veteran reliever tossed a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced, to pick up the win over the Los Angeles Angels. That first appearance was the high point of Dotel’s tenure with the Blue Jays. For the next two months, he was inconsistent and by mid-June his ERA had ballooned to 5.19.
But he found his form after that and didn’t allow a run in 14 of 15 appearances between June 17 and July 23, lowering his ERA to 3.68. However, with the Blue Jays hovering around the .500 mark and out of contention in the American League East, he was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals that July as part of the package for outfielder Colby Rasmus.
The Blue Jays were one of 13 major league teams Dotel pitched for during his 15-season big league career that spanned from 1999 to 2013. That was a record number of teams for a major league hurler until Edwin Jackson pitched for the Tigers, his 14th team, in 2019.
Dotel died on April 8 at the age of 51 after the roof of a popular night club he was in in the Dominican Republic collapsed during a concert.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Lee Elia
Best remembered as a manager of the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies, Elia was hired by Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi to be his bench coach in 2000. One of the initiatives Elia introduced at Blue Jays’ camp was teaching the players in a classroom setting about baseball fundamentals – something the Blue Jays had struggled with in 1999. At the beginning of camp, the players were divided into groups and each day a different group was taught in a classroom before their on-field workout.
Another pet project for Elia was working with Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado, who wanted to improve defensively after making 14 errors in 1999. Almost every morning that spring, Elia could be found hitting grounders to Delgado on the half-diamond near the players’ parking lot at the Blue Jays’ complex.
The Blue Jays finished the 2000 season with an 83-79 record and in third place in the American League East. Fregosi was let go after the season and Elia resigned.
Elia later coached for the Mariners and Rays.
He passed away on July 9 at the age of 87.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Steve Hargan
Hargan joined the Blue Jays in 1977 after he was selected from the Rangers in the MLB expansion draft.
But things got off on the wrong foot between the two sides. The Blue Jays offered the veteran right-hander a two-year deal that Hargan felt was below market value and he became the club’s first spring training holdout. A couple of days later, the two sides agreed on a two-year contract.
After arriving in Dunedin, Hargan did not allow a run in his first eight Grapefruit League innings. It was enough to earn him a spot in the Blue Jays’ bullpen to begin the season.
On April 11, Hargan tossed 2-1/3 scoreless innings in relief to earn the win in the Blue Jays’ 5-3 victory over the Tigers. He was then moved into the rotation and made five starts for the Blue Jays – the last of which was a complete game in a 4-1 loss to the Twins. Two days later, he was traded back to the Rangers, along with infielder Jim Mason and $200,000 for third baseman Roy Howell.
Hargan completed his 12-season major league career with the Rangers and Atlanta Braves that year.
He passed away on October 30 at the age of 83.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Randy Moffitt
The younger brother of tennis legend Billie Jean King, Moffitt spent 10 seasons with the Giants and one with the Houston Astros before signing with the Blue Jays on February 15, 1983.
At the 1983 All-Star break, the 34-year-old Moffitt was 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA with six saves and was the Blue Jays’ closer. Unfortunately, like most of the rest of the Blue Jays’ bullpen, Moffitt struggled in the season’s second half. His ERA in the final three months was 6.11 ERA and he only made two appearances in September.
Despite his second-half woes, Moffitt finished the season with a 6-2 record and a respectable 3.77 ERA in 45 appearances. Following that campaign, he signed a minor league deal with the Brewers but he retired after pitching just one game for their triple-A Vancouver Canadians in 1984.
Moffitt passed away on August 28 at the age of 76.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Dave Parker
Most remember Parker as an intimidating 6-foot-5, 230-pound, five-tool right fielder with the Pittsburgh Pirates. From 1975 to 1979, he was one of the best players in the majors. During that stretch, Parker won two batting titles (1977, 1978), the 1978 National League MVP Award, three Gold Gloves and a World Series ring with the “We Are Family” Pirates in 1979.
Parker also enjoyed successful tenures with the Cincinnati Reds, A’s, Brewers and Angels before spending his final 13 big league games as a designated hitter for the Blue Jays in 1991.
The first-place Blue Jays had picked up Parker after September 1, so he was not be eligible for post-season play. Parker became the Blue Jays’ primary DH for the rest of the season. He’d make his first start and go 2-for-5 against the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome on September 16. It was his first of three, multi-hit games with the Blue Jays.
In all, the veteran slugger went 12-for-36, good for a .333 batting average, with the Blue Jays.
Parker passed away on June 28, less than one month before he was to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, at the age of 74.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Hosken Powell
On December 28, 1981, Powell was traded to the Blue Jays for a player to be named later (Boomer Wells).
In 1982, Powell cracked the Blue Jays’ Opening Day roster as the left-handed hitter in a right-field platoon with Jesse Barfield. Powell responded with his best season since 1979, hitting .275 in 112 games, while also setting a then team record with 10 pinch-hits.
Powell’s laid back and supportive attitude made him a much-loved teammate. Despite their competition for playing time in right field, Powell supported and encouraged the 23-year-old Barfield.
Unfortunately, Powell struggled at the plate with the Blue Jays in 1983. With his batting average having dipped to .169 and with prized outfield prospect George Bell ready for a promotion from triple-A, Powell was released on July 10.
Powell was promptly signed by the Brewers and played for their triple-A affiliate in Vancouver in 1983 and 1984.
He passed away on June 27 at the age of 70.
You can read my full obituary about him here.
Dr. Ron Taylor
Signed out of Toronto’s Leaside Baseball Association by the Cleveland Indians, Taylor (Toronto, Ont.) hurled 11 scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 11, 1962 in his MLB debut. Later that year, Taylor was dealt to the Cardinals, where he assumed a key bullpen role on the Cards’ 1964 World Series-winning squad.
Five years later, he found himself in a crucial relief role again with the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series. With two outs and two men on base in the ninth inning of Game 2, Taylor was summoned to face Brooks Robinson, who grounded to third base to end the game. In helping the Mets emerge victorious in that Fall Classic, Taylor became the only Canadian to win a World Series with two different teams (Cardinals 1964, Mets 1969).
Upon retiring from baseball, he returned to Toronto, where he earned a degree in medicine from the University of Toronto and eventually became the Blue Jays’ team doctor.
He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Taylor passed away on June 16 at the age of 87.
You can read my full obituary about him here.