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Originally Posted by bluejays
He had some very good years and iconic moments. But level of excellence? Not that big a deal but to me he didn’t have the career longevity here and the team didn’t do well enough to deserve it. But I don’t begrudge them for doing it. That one HR was iconic.
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I disagree on both counts. He played over 9 seasons as a Blue Jay which exceeds fellow Level of Excellence players George Bell (9 Seasons) & Joe Carter (7 Seasons). He has the Blue Jays single season record of Hitting 54 HR in a season, an iconic playoff HR, double the Blue Jays WAR of Joe Carter & George Bell, and was on teams that made the ALCS in consecutive seasons. Jays teams of the mid 2010s were better teams than any of fellow Level of Excellence member Carlos Delgado was on and as many ALCS appearances as Jays teams that George Bell was on. He's not in the top 3 Blue Jays ever (My Opinion would be Steib, Halladay & Delgado with Delgado being one of the most criminally underrated baseball players of all-time), but on basically all counts he belongs with the group that's currently in the Level of Excellence.
https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/history...-of-excellence