Casey Blake was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 7th round of the 1996 draft.
He would spend all of the 1997 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays, hitting .238/.319/.332 with 7 HR.
- Other notable future major leaguers on that team included IF Ryan Freel, pitchers Kelvim Escobar, Juan Guzman, and Paul Spoljaric–none of whom were in the same team set with Blake.
Blake would make the majors in 1999 with the Jays and would spend the next several seasons as a 4-A type player with the Jays, Twins, and Orioles. He would see sporadic time on major league rosters but was never really able to stick.
In 2003, at 28-years old, he signed with the Indians as a minor-league free agent. It was as good a landing spot as he would expect: the Indians needed a replacement for retired third baseman Travis Fryman and were more than happy to hand the job over to Blake.
The rest is history.
Over the next six seasons, he would hit .266/.337/.451 with 116 HR for the Tribe. Good for an OPS+ of 108.
Bonus! When the Indians traded him to the Dodgers in July 2008, they were able to get a minor league catcher named Carlos Santana.