Danny Farquhar

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Daniel Andres Farquhar

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Danny Farquhar reached the majors with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011.

Farquhar hit .436 as a high school sophomore. As a senior, he had a 0.89 ERA, a school record. As a college freshman at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, he was 6-1 with four saves and a 2.17 ERA. He led the Sun Belt Conference in ERA. In 2007, the sophomore went 6-3 with six saves, a 3.08 ERA and 115 strikeouts to 22 walks in 87 2/3 IP. He was 4th in the conference in ERA and second in whiffs. As a junior, he faded to 3-8 with a 4.95 ERA. The Blue Jays still took a gamble on him with their 10th-round pick in the 2008 amateur draft. He was signed by scout Rob St. Julien for $112,500 and made his pro debut that summer.

Danny split his first pro season between the Auburn Doubledays (2-2, 2.39, .215 opponent average) and Lansing Lugnuts (6 hitless, scoreless innings), making a good first impression. In 2009, he was a very effective reliever for both the Dunedin Blue Jays (1-0, 7 Sv, 0.53, 23 K in 17 IP) and New Hampshire Fisher Cats (1-4, 15 Sv, 2.36, .193 opponent average, 51 K in 45 2/3 IP). With New Hampshire for all of 2010, he was 4-3 with 17 saves, a 3.52 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 76 2/3 IP. He allowed only a .189 average but walked 42.

On November 17, 2010 Farquhar was dealt with Trystan Magnuson to the Oakland Athletics for Rajai Davis. However, he never got to play for Oakland, as on April 18, 2011, he was sent back to Toronto in return for P David Purcey. He made his major league debut with the Blue Jays on September 13th that year, pitching in 3 games with a 13.50 ERA. He had not made it back to the majors when the Blue Jays placed him on waivers in June of 2012. The Athletics claimed him back, but only held on to him for a couple of weeks, as on June 26th he was placed on waivers again and was now claimed by the New York Yankees. On July 23rd, of that year, Farquhar was traded by the Yankees to the Seattle Mariners along with D.J. Mitchell, in return for Ichiro Suzuki. In spite of all the transactions, he did not play for any of the four teams that held his rights during that season.

He returned to the majors with the Mariners in 2013, pitching 46 times in relief with a record of 0-3, 4.20, but logging 16 saves. In 2014, he had a solid season as a middle reliever, going 3-1, 2.66 in 66 games, with 1 save. He gave up only 58 hits in 71 innings, while striking out 81 and walking 22. However, he regressed badly in 2015, ending up with a record of 1-8 and a 5.12 ERA in 43 games. On November 5th, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays along with IF Brad Miller and 1B Logan Morrison in return for Ps Nate Karns and C.J. Riefenhauser and OF Boog Powell.

On April 20, 2018, playing for the Chicago White Sox, he fainted in the dugout during a game against the Houston Astros after having faced four batters in the top of the 6th inning. He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital. It was announced that he had suffered a brain aneurysm, and he was listed in critical but stable condition. Two days later, it was reported that he was "progressing well" following successful surgery but faced a long rehabilitation. He was discharged from hospital on May 7th and doctors indicated that would likely be able to pitch again, although when that would be was still an open question. It was very unlikely to be before the end of the current season, however. Another step in his recovery came when the White Sox designated him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at their game of June 1st against the Milwaukee Brewers. He explained that the biggest effect of the injury was loss of memory, as he had almost no recollection of the events of the fateful day. There were no physical sequels, although doctors asked him to be careful about raising his blood pressure. He was cleared to resume baseball activities in June but did not return to the majors that season, although he felt that he would have been ready to do so.

On January 21, 2019, he was signed to a minor league contract by the New York Yankees, an organization he had been briefly part of in 2012. He made his return to the mound in spring training, facing the Pittsburgh Pirates in a Grapefruit League game on March 2nd. On March 12th, he was reassigned to minor league camp. The Yankees stated that they were satisfied with his recovery thus far, but that he needed to pitch regularly in order to get back to a point where he could help the major league team, and that this was best done in the minors. However, he was released on June 19th after a couple of appearances with the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders during which he gave up 7 runs in 3 innings; he had been in extended spring training prior to that.

Late in 2019 it was revealed that he almost broke open the Houston Astros infamous sign-stealing scheme in September of 2017. In a game on September 21st, he became conscious that something was wrong as the Astros' batters were fouling off some nasty breaking pitches and he noticed that there was some noise coming from the Astros' dugout every time his catcher called for a breaking ball (it was of course, someone banging with a bat on a trashcan to signal an upcoming breaking pitch). He called his catcher to the mound to change the sign sequence and the Astros were so concerned that he had found them out that they stopped their illegal scheme for a couple of days in fear of being exposed, something which did not happen until after the 2019 season, when a member of the team at the time, Mike Fiers, spilled the beans to the media, starting a firestorm.

He did not pitch professionally again after that. He joined the White Sox organization on July 31, 2019 as a coach and spent the rest of the season with the Birmingham Barons. In 2020 he received a pitching coach assignment for the Winston-Salem Dash before the minor league season was cancelled due to COVID-19. He did coach Winston-Salem in 2021 and then served as the pitching coach for the Glendale Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League. Farquhar returned to the Dash in 2022, then moved up to the Birmingham Barons in 2023. In 2024, he went back to another of his former teams, the Mariners, for whom he was named Major League Pitching Strategist and Assistant Pitching Coach.

Sources[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Scott Merkin: "Farquhar stable after ruptured brain aneurysm: Messages of support pour in for White Sox reliever in critical condition", mlb.com, April 21, 2018. [1]
  • Scott Merkin: "Farquhar returns to White Sox for first pitch: Right-hander sustained brain hemorrhage on April 20 vs. Astros", mlb.com, June 1, 2018. [2]
  • Scott Merkin: "Four years later, Farquhar reflects on career-ending aneurysm", mlb.com, May 5, 2022. [3]
  • Bob Nightengale: "As Danny Farquhar fights for life, friends from a decade in baseball balance hope, heartbreak", USA Today Sports, April 22, 2018. [4]
  • Tom Schad: "Doctors: Danny Farquhar's aneurysm recovery likely measured in months and years, not weeks", USA Today Sports, April 23, 2018. [5]
  • Tom Schad: "Danny Farquhar on recovery from ruptured aneurysm: 'I had a few doctors call me a miracle'", USA Today Sports, June 1, 2018. [6]

Related Sites[edit]

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