{"id":812629,"date":"2026-07-19T18:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812629\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:20:14","slug":"duane-ward-passes-away-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812629\/","title":{"rendered":"Duane Ward Passes Away – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime big league reliever Duane Ward<\/a> passed away this weekend, as announced by the Blue Jays.\u00a0 Ward passed in Toronto, as the right-hander was among the many former Jays in town for the unveiling of the Joe Carter statue in commemoration of the 1992-93 World Series championship teams.\u00a0 Ward arrived in Toronto on Friday but didn\u2019t attend the statue ceremony prior to Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Selected ninth overall by the Braves in the 1982 draft, Ward made his big league debut for Atlanta in 1986 but was dealt that July to the Jays for Doyle Alexander.\u00a0 Ward then spent the rest of his career in Toronto, becoming a staple of the club\u2019s bullpen first as a set-up man and then as a closer.<\/p>\n

The 1988 season was Ward\u2019s first full year in the majors, and he posted a 3.30 ERA over 64 appearances and 111 2\/3 innings.\u00a0 That year established Ward as the Blue Jays\u2019 chief set-up man in front of closer Tom Henke, and the two right-handers became one of the most dominant late-game duos of the era.\u00a0 Henke usually acted in a traditional closer role and Ward logged a lot of innings as more of a fireman \u2014 from 1988-93, no pitcher in baseball had more appearances than Ward\u2019s 434 games.<\/p>\n

Ward\u2019s strong work during this time was recognized by a ninth-place finish in AL Cy Young voting in 1991, when he posted a 2.77 ERA and 30.8% strikeout rate over 107 1\/3 innings and generated 4.1 fWAR.\u00a0 With Henke battling groin and shoulder problems that season, Ward also recorded 23 saves, more than capably filling in at closer.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays won their first World Series title in 1992, with Ward contributing a 1.95 ERA over 101 1\/3 innings and Henke a 2.26 ERA in 55 2\/3 innings.\u00a0 This was the duo\u2019s final season as teammates, as Henke signed a free agent deal to join the Rangers during the offseason.\u00a0 Ward was then elevated to the closer\u2019s role on a full-time basis, and the result was another Toronto championship in 1993 and another superb performance from the right-hander.<\/p>\n

Over 71 2\/3 innings in 1993, Ward posted a 2.13 ERA and 34.3% strikeout rate, while recording 45 saves.\u00a0 That save total led the American League and is still the single-season record for a Blue Jays pitcher.\u00a0 Ward\u2019s performance was recognized with the only All-Star nod of his career, plus a fifth-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the rest of Ward\u2019s big league career consisted of only 2 2\/3 innings for the 1995 Blue Jays.\u00a0 Biceps tendinitis and a torn rotator cuff (plus the players\u2019 strike) kept Ward from pitching at all in 1994, and the injuries prematurely ended his career.\u00a0 Ward pitched in eight minor league games for the Cubs in 1996, but that was it for his career at age 32.<\/p>\n

Ward finished his career with a 3.28 ERA over 462 games and 666 2\/3 innings pitched.\u00a0 The counting numbers include 121 saves and 679 strikeouts, with the latter translating to a 24.4% strikeout rate.\u00a0 Ward was also exceptional at keeping the ball in the park, as he allowed only 32 home runs over his career.<\/p>\n

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Ward\u2019s family, friends, and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime big league reliever Duane Ward passed away this weekend, as announced by the Blue Jays.\u00a0 Ward passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,285104,462,82],"class_list":["post-812629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-duane-ward","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}