Toronto Blue Jays: Top 10 moments from the 2019 season

9. Freddy Galvis makes his case for catch of the year

Blue Jays at Oakland A’s – April 20, 2019

A common cliché in sports writing, when a nice snag is made on the diamond, is “flashing the leather,” but what do you call it when a player doesn’t even use their leather entrapment device to assist in receiving the ball?

Should we say “flashing the flesh?” Alright, no, that’s a bad idea. I promise I won’t say it again. Regardless of superlatives, Freddy Galvis caught a baseball over his shoulder running backwards into the outfield without a glove.

That’s special. What’s also special is the “yeah I just did that” nod he gave to his teammates before firing the ball back into the infield. To give Galvis’ snag some more context, MLB created a video soon after entitled “Galvis joins Legendary Barehanded Catches club.” It was one minute and twenty-seven seconds long and featured only two other plays.

That means in the annals of MLB lore, the guys presumably locked in a dark room somewhere at MLB headquarters could only dredge up two other plays comparable to the one Galvis made, ranging back into the abyss that is Oakland Coliseum’s outfield. While Galvis’ time with the Blue Jays was short, we will always have the image of this fine catch to remember him by.