The Toronto Blue Jays just signed a player with some suspect far-right views
It flew under the radar for most Toronto Blue Jays fans when 35-year-old lefty pitcher Derek Holland signed a minor league deal with the team on Wednesday. Or at least it should have.
The aging relief pitcher isn't the type of acquisition to make headlines, coming off a stint with the Boston Red Sox's Triple-A team, released earlier in the week before inking a deal with the Jays.
With a career ERA of 4.62 across 246 games and a less-than-stellar 6.35 ERA in 11.1 innings during his brief minor league stint in Worcester, he's not a player you'd expect to get a whole lot of attention. Until you take a look at his Twitter history.
Wow the Blue Jays signed Derek Holland? Surely he’s vaccinated and will fit in with this team well! Let’s check his Twitter likes! pic.twitter.com/EQ715XuXnR
— spencer (@Spenred) May 4, 2022
It's in the pitcher's likes that you'll find (at least as of the time of his signing) all sorts of far-right, hateful, misogynistic crap that doesn’t play as well in Canada as it does south of the border.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/py3yhpqpc1
— Derek Holland (@Dutch_Oven45) May 4, 2022
Some of the stances he appears to support include the disgusting comparison of women's reproductive rights (under more threat than ever right now) with vaccine mandates, anti-abortion and the rise of "the new right."
— Benjamin Camenzuli (@BenCamenzuli) May 4, 2022
Holland had only been a member of the organization for a few hours before his past deeds started to catch up with him, with one fan calling him out as "a guy that hasn't been good since 2014," and another simply stating, "oh yeah, he's trash."
Not a good look 😬
— X - Antoinetta 🏒🥅 TML 💙 (@mnmfan76) May 4, 2022
In addition to his support for some pretty vile political views, Holland has rubbed Jays fans the wrong way in the past.
Jays wouldn’t sign him if he wasn’t vaccinated. That said, yikes.😬 Isn’t he the jerk who wiped his ass with the Jays towel during the 2015 Rangers/Jays series? Then we proceeded to whip his ass.
— Shannon (@realisreality) May 4, 2022
Based on his recent performance and the fact that he's likely already pissed off a large share of fans without ever even donning a Jays uniform, it's a safe bet that the late stages of Derek Holland's career will play out in the minor and safely south of the Canadian border.
