Advice from the greatest Blue Jay ever: Carlos Delgado on Toronto’s World Series chances, Ohtani and more
Carlos Delgado has more home runs, RBI and extra base hits than any other Toronto Blue Jay in team history. He’s the franchise leader in runs scored, doubles, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
And he has a 1993 World Series ring too.
So, when he says he’s got some advice for the Jays on how to handle their emotions in big games, it’s because he knows.
For any baseball team Delgado, 53, says reaching World Series status is the “ultimate goal.”
“It just brings a lot of respect, brings a lot of credibility,” he explained. “It brings a lot of responsibilities as well because everybody’s out to get you.”
His advice for the team: “Enjoy the moment, embrace it, control your emotions and go out and continue to execute whatever [helped] you to get here.
“Don’t try to do too much,” Delgado told CBC in an interview this week. “You just can’t change overnight. You just can’t do things that you didn’t do in the regular season.”
“Just hit the ball. Put the ball in play. Work the count. Elevate pitch counts,” Delgado said. You can watch the full interview with Delgado on this page, where he talks about his time in A-ball playing for the St. Catharines Blue Jays, what surprised him about Canada after leaving Puerto Rico and more.
Delgado has some thoughts on how to handle Los Angeles Dodgers superstar slugger and pitcher, Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani is “one of the most talented players ever to step on a baseball field,” Delgado says. “He can throw 100 with a nasty split and a sweeper. […] he can also run.”
He suggests throwing “breaking balls, down in the dirt” against him, And, in one word, if you don’t have to pitch to him… “don’t.”
“Just go to the next guy.”
Carlos Delgado, the greatest all-time Toronto Blue Jay, on what it was like moving to Canada at 16 from Puerto Rico to play baseball, how to pitch to Shohei Ohtani, his advice for the 2025 Blue Jays and more.
Delgado’s message to fans: “Enjoy it and go crazy”
“I was watching on TV Game 7 and I can feel the energy in my living room,” said Delgado, now a family man living in his home country in Puerto Rico.
“Rogers Centre is going to go crazy,” he said. “This is the biggest stage. It’s the biggest time of the year. And your team is making it to the World Series since, what, ‘93?”
Carlos Delgado recalls his time playing in the World Series, when the Rogers Centre was still known as the SkyDome.
“It was just so loud. It was, like 50,000 people going crazy.”
He said “it was like a dream come true” when he joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.
“You feel like a kid in a candy store,” Delgado said, about playing alongside Blue Jays stars Joe Carter, Devon White, Robbie Alomar and Paul Molitor.
Carlos Delgado, one of the greatest players to ever wear a Blue Jays’ uniform, talks with CBC reporter Aura Carreno Rosas in Spanish about what it was like moving to Canada at 16 from his home country in Puerto Rico to play baseball.
Today, Delgado spends his time doing community and philanthropic work, helping youth in Puerto Rico with his non-profit organization Extra-Bases.
He even runs a small real estate business on the side.
“Baseball’s always going to be in my life,” Delgado said. “I will be watching [the game]. [Friday] night, obviously, I will be watching. Saturday night, I will be watching. It’s going to be an exciting series.”
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