Hard-throwing Blue Jays reliever Jeremy Jeffress dealt with seizures for five years before he was diagnosed with juvenile epilepsy earlier this year.
Jeremy Jeffress was the butt of a lot of jokes when he was acquired by the Blue Jays last November.
A flame-throwing stoner who could light up a radar gun if he could only put down the munchies.
Jeffress had a 99 m.p.h. fastball and three violations of the minor-league drug program to his name — all for marijuana use — and seemed to be another one of Alex Anthopoulos’ misfit reclamation projects. He had already exhausted the patience of both the Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers.
But as is the case with most things, the complete story was more complicated.
Jeffress was diagnosed with juvenile epilepsy this season after enduring sporadic seizures for the last five years. “It’s been a long road, but right now it’s good,” the right-handed reliever said Wednesday, a day after he was named as one of five September call-ups to the Jays’ expanded roster.
