TORONTO — The Blue Jays will honor the late Tony Fernandez by wearing a patch with his No. 1 on the left sleeve of uniform jerseys this season.
A member of Toronto’s 1993 World Series champions who had nine RBIs in the six-game win over Philadelphia, Fernandez had kidney problems and died on Feb. 16 at age 57.
He is the Blue Jays’ career leader in games (1,450), hits (1,583) and triples (72). He spent 12 seasons with Toronto in four stints and had a .288 batting average and 2,276 hits over 17 big league seasons. Fernandez also played for San Diego, the New York Mets and Yankees, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Milwaukee.
“There are few players in the game who can impact a team and a fan base the way Tony did in Toronto,” Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said in a statement Monday. “Beyond his impressive career numbers, achievements, and accolades, Tony resonated with baseball fans because of how he played the game and conducted himself as a teammate.”