2003 Toronto Blue Jays season

The 2003 season was a surprise to both team management and baseball analysts. After a poor April, the team had its most successful month ever in May. The offense was mainly responsible for the stunning turnaround. Delgado took over the major league lead in runs batted in, followed closely by Wells. The middle infield positions remained a gametime decision – Bordick played shortstop and third base, Dave Berg second base and third base, Chris Woodward shortstop and Orlando Hudson second base. Minor league call-up Howie Clark entered the mix as a utility player after Hinske underwent surgery to repair a broken hamate bone in his right hand, which he had tried to play through for the first six weeks.

Despite their hitting successes, poor pitching continued to plague the team. Roy Halladay was spectacular in winning his first Cy Young Award, going 22–7, with a 3.25 ERA, but he didn't get much help from his fellow pitchers, although he had a poor start himself. Rookie Aquilino López was a pleasant surprise out of the bullpen. Kelvim Escobar and former NBA player Mark Hendrickson were inserted into the rotation with their places in the bullpen filled by waiver acquisitions Doug Davis and Josh Towers, who went 8–1 after being called up from Triple-A Syracuse. The closer role was a season-long revolving door, with nobody able to take hold of the reins. Trade speculation had focussed on the acquisitions of pitching at the expense of hitters, but in the end the team simply divested itself of impending free agent Shannon Stewart without getting a pitcher in return. Instead Bobby Kielty, another outfielder with a much lower batting average than Stewart's, was obtained from the Minnesota Twins and later traded in November 2003 to the Oakland Athletics for starter Ted Lilly. The top four pitchers for the projected 2004 rotation would include Halladay, Lilly, free agent Miguel Batista, and the return of Pat Hentgen.

After the spectacular turnaround in May 2003, which helped the team move to just few games behind the wildcard leading Boston Red Sox, team performance slowly returned to reality, as predicted by team management. Carlos Delgado was second in the voting for the American League MVP Award, although the Jays were in third place in their division. The Jays also announced that a new logo, and new uniforms, would be used as of January 1, 2004.

• Frank Catalanotto
• Carlos Delgado
• Roy Halladay
• Eric Hinske
• Ken Huckaby
• Orlando Hudson
• Josh Phelps
• Shannon Stewart
• Vernon Wells
• Chris Woodward[8]

• June 3, 2003: Aaron Hill was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1st round (13th pick) of the 2003 amateur draft. Player signed June 17, 2003.[9]
• June 16, 2003: Scott Service was selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Arizona Diamondbacks.[10]
• July 16, 2003: Bobby Kielty was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later and Shannon Stewart. The Toronto Blue Jays sent Dave Gassner (December 15, 2003) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.[11]
• August 10, 2003: Scott Service was released by the Toronto Blue Jays.[10]

Source [12]

The 2003 MLB draft was held on June 3–4.

Round	Pick	Player	Position	College/School	Nationality	Signed
1	13	Aaron Hill	SS	Louisiana State		2003–06–17
2	50	Josh Banks	RHP	Florida International		2003–06–04
3	80	Shaun Marcum	RHP	Missouri State		2003–06–23
4	110	Kurt Isenberg	LHP	James Madison		–
5	140	Justin James	RHP	Missouri		–
6	170	Christian Snavely	OF	Ohio State		–
7	200	Danny Core	RHP	Florida Atlantic		–
8	230	Chad Mulholland	RHP	Missouri State		–
9	260	Jamie Vermilyea	RHP	New Mexico		2003–06–05
11	320	Tom Mastny	RHP	Furman University
18	530	Ryan Roberts	3B	Texas		2003–06–05

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

[13]