Do you remember Tim Crabtree?
This is “A Blue Jay from the Past”. Each week, I’ll spin every Blue Jays’ season in the Wheel of Names and pick a player who played a significant number of games for the Jays, ideally a full season. This week, the Wheel of Names landed on the 1996 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Tim Crabtree.
A few months before their first World Series win, the Toronto Blue Jays selected right-handed pitcher Tim Crabtree out of Michigan State University in the second round. Crabtree was a fast riser, reaching Double-A shortly after the draft, pitching there for the entirety of the 1993 season. In 1994, Crabtree made his Triple-A debut, where he had a 4.17 ERA in 108 innings pitched.
The following season, Crabtree made his big league debut, pitching 32 innings with the Jays with a 3.09 ERA and a 3.60 FIP. He became a regular with the Jays in 1996, posting a career-best 2.54 ERA and a 3.36 FIP in 67.1 innings pitched. The 1997 season was Crabtree’s final as a Blue Jay, posting a career-worst 7.08 ERA and a 5.47 FIP in 40.2 innings.
Before the 1998 season, Crabtree was traded to the Texas Rangers for catcher Kevin Brown, notably not Kevin Brown the pitcher. Brown was a regular with the Jays in 1998, but Crabtree found success with the Rangers that season, as he posted a 3.59 ERA and a 3.53 ERA in 85.1 innings pitched. He followed that up with a 3.46 ERA and a 3.15 FIP in 65 innings pitched in 1999, his last good season in the big leagues.
Crabtree authored a 5.47 ERA and a 4.41 FIP in 103.2 innings pitched in his final two big league seasons. Although he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Rangers for a second stint, and the Detroit Tigers over the next few seasons, Crabtree never pitched another inning in the big leagues after the 2001 season.
While his career only lasted seven seasons, Crabtree was an effective reliever for about four of them. Although he missed the Jays’ World Series wins, the righty was able to help the Rangers make the American League Divisional Series in back-to-back years.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.