There’s more uplifting baseball news on the Blue Jays’ front. Toronto has hired former Expos’ all-star Tim Raines as a roving minor-league coach and coordinator within the farm system. That’s a great hire.

There are no major-league responsibilities right now, although Raines will be a visible presence with the major-league club at early spring training and likely on several exhibition bus trips.

The former NL batting champion and four-time league stolen base king will be asked to counsel young Jays’ outfielders and baserunners throughout the farm system, replacing Rich Miller. The 53-year-old, who made his debut in 1979 with the Expos, had been out of baseball. Welcome back. Even though it’s officially a minor-league hiring, it’s a great move by GM Alex Anthopoulos on several levels.

First is the fact that bringing Raines into the fold acknowledges the rich history of major-league baseball in this nation, even as the Jays are gaining real momentum in La Belle Province.

Second, Raines is being hired before he is able to add the inevitable “HoF #30” at the end of his official and soon-to-be more valuable autograph, as is the right of every immortal at Cooperstown.

It won’t be this year, but fact is if the Jays had waited until after Raines was voted into the Hall of Fame, even though it may take a few years, it would seem like opportunism. The Sanford, Fla., native will likely not earn 75 per cent of the votes cast this time, but his candidacy is gaining traction.

Third positive? Two of the best outfield prospects in the Jays’ current system, project with similar tools and skill sets to Raines. They are both high draft picks from June 2012, D.J. Davis and Anthony Alford. Raines will be able to help them tremendously. Raines knows their issues on and off the field. He was a second baseman, not a natural outfielder. He had a below average outfield arm, but it made him have to work harder, charging base hits with quick release and hitting the cutoff man.

The Jays’ young prospects will listen to a man with a similar background who has been there, done it, made mistakes and found redemption along the way. It adds to his credibility with the message.

Alford could be the main prospect to get inspiration from Raines’ personal story. The 18-year-old from rural Mississippi dropped to the third round of the ’12 draft despite five-tool major-league potential. The reason was he was committed to Southern Miss to be their quarterback. The Jays took him as the best athlete available and signed him only after they agreed to let him play football.

How did that work out? In December, after his Golden Eagles football team went 0-12 and he lost his starting QB role, Alford was arrested on campus for aggravated assault, charges that have since been reduced to conspiracy to possess a weapon on school property. Still not good. He has since transferred to Ole Miss for 2013, but clearly, his troubled future now lies in baseball.

Raines is the perfect mentor to bring into the Jays’ organization as a confidant for Alford, whether this was Anthopoulos’s intent or not. He also has a troubled history. After two Expos callups in 1979-80, Raines broke into the NL with a bang at age 21. He finished second to Fernando Valenzuela as rookie of the year in a strike-shortened ’81 season, stealing 71 bases in 88 games.

After that rookie season, Raines went home to Florida with money and fame and could not handle it. The ’82 season was marred by inexplicable mood swings and loss of focus. On his 22nd birthday, Sept. 29, a story appeared in the Toronto Star by Wayne Parrish outlining a season ruined by drug use. It was his personal sophomore jinx and threatened to ruin his career.

This was early in MLB’s awareness of its own drug abuse problems. The Expos quietly sent Raines to a California drug rehab centre. We decided that our troubled star was not going to be subjected to a daily Q&A regarding his drug-addled season, but there was a story needed to be told as part of the recovery. We leaked the info to Michael Farber, then of The Gazette, now with TSN’s The Reporters. It was the right media choice in getting the message told in a sensitive, well thought out manner. The confession was cathartic for Raines and a warning for other young players in baseball.

On the first day that Raines reported to 1983 training camp in West Palm Beach and had his one-time-only mea culpa presser on the field, he finished and turned to join his mates. Andre Dawson walked up and wrapped his arm around his friend and squeezed and for the next 20 years as a major-leaguer, the Hawk was a positive influence that never let go. It’s why, in my mind, Dawson had to go to Cooperstown ahead of Raines. Without the Hawk there would have been no Rock.

Welcome back to baseball Mr. Raines and teach Mr. Alford well.