Toronto Blue Jays: Best all-time players by continent

SOUTH AMERICA 

Much like Asia, South America has three sources of baseball talent – Venezuela being the ‘powerhouse’, Colombia being the ‘up-and-coming’ and Brazil ‘the new frontier.’

There have been 40 players from South America (39 from Venezuela, one from Brazil) in Blue Jays history.

There have been many great players from this continent, and probably the best-ever to wear a Blue Jays uniform was Omar Vizquel. But the problem was his 60-game stop over in Toronto was not very impressive and he retired after just one season with the Jays.

The best overall would have to go to Tony Castillo, who played parts of six seasons with the Jays between 1989-1996, including winning a World Series in 1993.  Castillo had a 13-13 record with a 3.49 in 218 games as a Jay.

Other notable players include Venezuelans Kelvim Escobar, Henderson Alvarez, Marco Scutaro, Ezequiel Carrera and the first Brazilian baseball player in MLB history, Yan Gomes.

Toronto’s top South American prospect is Eric Pardinho, a 16-year-old pitching prospect, who the Jays signed during last season’s international signing period.