How to hurt “The Big Hurt”? Cut his playing time. Frank Thomas’s nickname was well-deserved over two decades when he was one of the most feared sluggers in baseball. Now 39 and mired in a slump, the Toronto Blue Jays decided that the designated hitter would no longer be an everyday player. That hurt Thomas so much that he was released by mutual consent yesterday.

Thomas has 516 home runs over a 19-year Major League Baseball career, the 18th-most of all time, as well as an impressive average of .302. The former Chicago White Sox stalwart led the Blue Jays last year with 26 home runs and 95 runs batted in, but after hitting three home runs in his first seven games this term, his form collapsed – though he is a notoriously slow starter.

The Blue Jays offered Thomas the chance to play two or three times a week, which offended him. Not least because his contract included an option for a $10 million (about £5 million), one-year deal in 2009 that would have kicked-in automatically had he made 376 appearances at the plate.

“It’s pretty obvious, sixty at-bats isn’t enough to make that decision,” he said on Saturday. “I’m angry, I know I can help this team. My career isn’t going to end like this.” At a meeting yesterday, team and player agreed to part by mutual consent. So the Blue Jays avoid giving Thomas $10 million next year… but will be paying him $7 million not to play for them this term - the remainder due on the $18 million, two-year deal he signed before last season. That has to hurt.

While another veteran slugger, Barry Bonds, still sits at home waiting for an offer, Thomas should be able to hook up with another team easily enough. The Baltimore Orioles, who have started surprisingly well in the American League East division, could be interested, as might Thomas’s former club, the Oakland Athletics, who are the unexpected leaders of the American League West.

The heavy-spending Detroit Tigers remain rooted to the foot of the American League Central but are no longer the worst team in the Major Leagues: that is the Washington Nationals, dismal in the National League East despite their move to a new ballpark. In the West, Joe Torre finds himself under pressure early in his Californian career: the former New York Yankees manager, now in charge at the Los Angeles Dodgers, has seen his team slide to the bottom of the table.