MONTREAL -- Rheal Cormier, the Canadian former Montreal Expos pitcher who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball, has passed away.
He was 53.
Cormier was born in 1967 in Moncton, N.B. and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth round of the 1988 MLB Amateur Draft.
He broke into the big league in 1991 and spent four years with St. Louis before being traded to Boston, where he played one season.
He was traded once again after that season, this time to Montreal. In his inaugural year as an Expo he went 7-10 with a 4.17 ERA and 100 strikeouts. He pitched only a single game for the Expos in 1997, before finishing out his career with another stint in Boston, then time with Philadelphia and Cincinnatti.
He posted a career record of 71-64 in 683 games, including 108 starts, with a 4.03 ERA and threw 760 strikeouts.
In 2012, the left-handed pitcher was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, alongside former Expos star Rusty Staub.
Three years before his big league debut, he pitched for Canada in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Then in 2008, a year after his final game in the majors, he again threw for Canada in the 2008 Beijing Games -- he tuned up for the event by tossing in a men's senior league.
"Rheal was one of the most vibrant people I've had the pleasure of knowing," former teammate and Hall of Famer Jim Thome said in a statement released by the Phillies. "He loved baseball, but he always put his family first."
"Frenchy was the kind of guy who would do anything for you and I'm lucky to have called him my friend for many years. Our time spent together in Philadelphia as teammates was unforgettable. He will be greatly missed but never forgotten," Thome said.
Cormier was diagnosed with a tumor in his lungs in January, 2020.
- With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
