As the expansion Toronto Blue Jays began their foray into Major League Baseball in 1977, it was clear that turning the club into a contender wouldn’t happen overnight.
That was especially true under Pat Gillick, who joined the organization as vice-president of player personnel in 1976 before moving into the general manager’s chair ahead of the 1978 season.
Arriving in Toronto with a background in scouting and player development, Gillick prioritized building a club with long-term staying power rather than making splashy free-agent acquisitions in pursuit of immediate success.
“The team wasn’t going to be competitive for eight to 10 years,” Gillick recalled in the Sportsnet documentary, The Blue Jays Way, commemorating the franchise’s 50th season. “We had to do two things (to build a contender): Maybe win a little bit, but at the same time, we had to develop players.”
(The first episode of The Blue Jays Way: The Founding Feathers will air on July 12, following Toronto’s game against the San Diego Padres on Sportsnet.)
One of the first wins from Gillick’s vision came in the form of a centre-field prospect from Southern Illinois University: Dave Stieb.
In 1978, during a visit to the school’s campus to watch Stieb play, then-Blue Jays scouts Bobby Mattick and Al LaMacchia made a discovery that would change the trajectory of the organization when the Santa Ana, Calif., native came in to pitch straight from the outfield.
Although they travelled to Carbondale, Ill., to scout Stieb as a position player, the four-inning cameo on the mound impressed the scouts enough for them to change their stance on his big-league outlook.
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The Blue Jays Way documentary on Sportsnet
Sportsnet is giving fans a new way to celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays’ 50th season.
The Blue Jays Way is an in-depth, seven-part original series that documents the winding journey from the franchise’s beginnings to the 2026 run to the World Series.
Check out the first episode of the documentary, The Founding Feathers, on Sunday, July 12, following Toronto’s game against the San Diego Padres.Broadcast Schedule
“I get this call from Mattick and LaMacchia, and I said, ‘Well, do you like the guy?'” Gillick explained. “And they said, ‘We like the guy. We don’t like him as a centre-fielder.'”
The shift might have delivered the biggest shock to Stieb, who had just led the Salukis in average, homers and RBIs on the way to a berth in the NCAA Midwest regional.
“They went on their little spiel about, ‘We like the way you pitch,'” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’m not a pitcher. You saw me come in from centre field.”
But Mattick and LaMacchia were steadfast in their evaluation that Stieb’s potential would be greatest if he made the switch to pitching.
“I remember Mattick writing, ‘Best slider he’s ever seen at that age,'” former Blue Jays president Paul Beeston said in The Blue Jays Way. “I don’t want to call him Ohtani, but (Stieb) was Ohtani before Ohtani. He thought he was going to be an outfielder.”
The Blue Jays ultimately selected Stieb in the fifth round of the 1978 draft, sending him to class-A Dunedin, where he initially continued as a two-way player. But after posting a .509 OPS at the plate while carrying a 2.08 ERA as a pitcher, his focus turned to his work on the mound when he came back for the 1979 season.
“I had no intentions of pitching,” Stieb said in Episode 1 of the documentary. “That was pretty much an accident.”
Accident or not, the rest is history for the right-hander and the Blue Jays, as he rocketed to the majors in 1979, making 18 starts for Toronto in his debut season.
After getting his feet wet in MLB, a then-22-year-old Stieb proceeded to stamp his place as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball.
From 1980 to 1985, Stieb led all pitchers in Baseball Reference WAR (38.6) and innings pitched (1,524.2), was second in complete games (77) and shutouts (19) and seventh in strikeouts (890) and wins (87). In those six seasons, he was also named to five American League All-Star Teams and finished top-10 in Cy Young voting three times.
But for all the stats and accolades, there’s perhaps no better way to describe Stieb’s place as one of the most-feared pitchers of the 1980s than through the testimony of his teammates and opponents in The Blue Jays Way.
“The first time I caught Dave Stieb, that was kind of a wow factor,” longtime Blue Jays backstop Ernie Whitt said.
“Going into Toronto, where’s Dave Stieb?” 1993 World Series MVP Paul Molitor said of facing off against the Blue Jays while a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. “He was one of my least-favourite people when he might be throwing against my team.”
“I had a brother who played for Kansas City,” former Blue Jays third baseman Garth Iorg added. “He would say, ‘Man, you guys are pitching Stieb today? Half our team doesn’t want to play.'”
Stieb spent another eight seasons with the Blue Jays, even coming out of retirement for one final stint in 1998. Along the way, he added two more all-star nods and earned a World Series ring after pitching for Toronto during the 1992 regular season.
The now 68-year-old is immortalized as a member of the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence and is still the franchise leader in pitching WAR (56.9), wins (175), strikeouts (1,658), innings pitched (2,873.0), games started (408), complete games (103) and shutouts (30).
Pretty good for a college centre-fielder who might never have pitched in the majors at all if not for one timely scouting trip.