Leroux joins Ontario Blue Jays' staff

Ex-big leaguer and national team alum Chris Leroux has joined the Ontario Blue Jays’ staff as a pitching coach. Photo: Baseball Canada

August 14, 2020

Official Ontario Blue Jays Press Release

The Ontario Blue Jays are excited to announce the addition of Chris Leroux as a Pitching Coach.

Chris grew up in Mississauga and attended St. Joseph Secondary School before being selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the ninth Round of the MLB Draft. Leroux instead chose the college route, signing his National Letter of Intent to attend Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He played for the Eagles for two seasons while spending time in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Falmouth Commodores in 2004.

In 2005, Leroux was selected in the seventh Round by the Florida Marlins where he chose to sign. Four years later, he made his MLB debut on May 26th, 2009 for the Florida Marlins against the Philadelphia Phillies.

In addition to Miami, he spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees Major League teams. Leroux accumulated 65 games and 71 2/3 innings in the MLB, striking out 66 hitters in those games. After his MLB career, Chris spent time with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.

During his career, Leroux has spent time with the Canadian National Teams including, the World Baseball Classic (2009, 2013 & 2017) as well as the Pan American Games (2015 & 2019) where he won a Gold Medal for Team Canada in Ajax.

GM and fellow Pitching Coach, Joe Ellison on Leroux: "I think Chris is going to bring a wealth of knowledge from the professional and national level that will benefit all of our OBJ pitchers. He will be able to share insight from his experiences at the highest levels, those same levels each one of our players aspire to play at."

"I can't wait to work with (Mike) Steed and the rest of the crew. They're a great group of baseball minds and even better people. The OBJ organization is full of the best baseball IQ's in the country,” said Leroux about joining the Ontario Blue Jays.