Blue Jays begin what they and fans hope is the ultimate redemption arc after last year’s Game 7 heartbreaker
John Schneider shook his head, laughing at the absurdity of it all, and then gave an honest answer. Was the Blue Jays manager still waking up in the middle of the night, jarred out of a deep sleep, replaying all the myriad moves he could have made during last year’s epic but excruciating loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.
“Baseball guys, we suck, you know?” Schneider said, smiling. “We’re so weird. If I’m watching guys hitting in BP [batting practice], I think why couldn’t you do that [in a game]? So, yeah, it’s still happening but it’s way less than it was. My wife hated me. She was screaming at me, ‘Go to sleep!’
“But I think until you get back there, until you win one, it’s part of you, right? What I’ve realized is it’s not going to define us. It’s not gonna define me, Vlad [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.] or anyone here.
“What will define us is how we handled ourselves, how we played, and what that does for us going forward. That should be the definition of what we take out of 2025. Was it fun? Hell, yeah. Did it suck? Hell, yeah. But how we handled it and what we got out of it is going to define us going forward.”
This season will be a celebration of the 50th year of existence for the Blue Jays but the mood among Canadians who follow the team is far from nostalgic. The expectations for 2026 are enormous — and so is the interest based on data. Game 7 of the 2025 World Series was the most-watched Rogers broadcast in history, averaging 10.9 million viewers. Sportsnet said the game peaked at 14 million viewers around midnight ET. Those are extraordinary communal numbers and you can hardly find anything in Canada short of the Olympic Games that brings so many Canadians together.
What fans of the Blue Jays are hoping for in 2026 is the ultimate redemption arc, but history says that will not be easy. The noted American baseball writer Jayson Stark, who procured the anecdote about Schneider waking up in the middle of the night and obsessing over Game 7, wrote a fascinating piece that examined the road ahead for Toronto. One of the eye-catching statistics: Only one team in the past 65 years (the 2014 Royals) won the World Series after losing the World Series the previous year. Furthermore, Stark wrote that there are only six teams in history to lose a World Series Game 7 and then win the next World Series. These are stark odds, indeed.
“We were the top dog in 2025,” Schneider said. “Right now we’re a half-game back of New York. It happens that quickly. My expectations are for these guys to show up every day, be great teammates, and be obsessed with winning. If we do that, we’ll be just fine.”
This is not some scrappy underdog. Cot’s Baseball Contracts projected the Blue Jays’s year-end payroll (including tax) at $316.7 million US. The budget includes some notable additions who will likely determine the Blue Jays postseason aspirations, including top-of-the market starting pitcher Dylan Cease, fellow pitcher Cody Ponce, who returns to MLB after salvaging his career in Korea, submarine-reliever Tyler Rogers and the most intriguing newcomer of them all — Kazuma Okamoto.
Okamoto, the 29-year-old is a six-time all-star in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, and will start at third base for the American League champions. He brings tantalizing potential as well as a corps of media from Japan who will be in Toronto for the season chronicling his every move. If he hits, the loss of Bo Bichette to the New York Mets will sting less.
Depending on what gambling site you might frequent, the Blue Jays are the fifth best bet on the board to win the World Series. Baseball Prospectus predicts the Blue Jays to finish 88-74, slightly behind the Yankees (88.6 wins) in the A.L. East. The site’s PECOTA projections gives Toronto a 69.4 per cent shot at making the playoffs. That’s the third-best percentage behind the Mariners and Yankees.
One of the buzzwords on Thursday at the Rogers Centre was expectations. Questions for Schneider, Guerrero Jr., opening night starter Kevin Gausman, and general manager Ross Atkins were peppered with various forms of that theme.
“We want them, we embrace them and understand them,” Atkins said.
The general manager also said in unequivocal terms that this year’s Opening Day roster was stronger than the roster at the end of last year.
“Without a doubt we feel that,” Atkins said. “We can understand why our fans don’t see it quite that clearly because of the subtraction of Bo Bichette, who is a very good player and will continue to be. But bolstering our pitching was a very clear goal and one that we feel that we accomplished in a significant way.
“Then the addition of Okamoto is something that we’re very excited about along with the experiences and the growth of the players that we’ve been talking about.”
The stadium experience will be pricey but fantastic for those who get in. The investment in infrastructure walking around Rogers Centre on Thursday was impossible to ignore, including a new premium club on the 200 level — the aptly named Rogers Terrace — featuring dedicated concierge service, a sushi bar, a wood-fire oven, and an exclusive open air terrace overlooking Lake Ontario.
But the franchise’s most important investment wasn’t a stadium improvement. It was the 14-year extension given to Guerrero Jr. last year to make him a lifetime Blue Jay. It is remarkable to think that the dominant conversation among the fan base at this time last year was that the Blue Jays’s floundering front office— fresh off a disastrous 74-win season — was heading toward a rebuild that was unlikely to include Guerrero Jr. and fellow homegrown pillar Bichette.
You can understand why Blue Jays fans are dreaming of another World Series when you revisit what Guerrero Jr. did in the postseason. He slashed .397/.494/.795 with eight homers, 18 runs scored, and 15 RBI in the playoffs. It was a performance that was, dare we even utter this phrase, Ohtani-esque.
“My confidence is on another level, especially when you know you’re going to be home here for a lot of years,” Guerrero said via translator Hector (Tito) Lebron. “Not just myself, my family. When you see your family is very happy, very comfortable, your confidence level goes way up, especially knowing that you’re gonna be playing in front of your friends for many years.”
“Vladdy is the perfect franchise player,” Gausman said. “He does everything the right way. He really engages the fans. He loves playing baseball. If you watch him play, it’s every pitch. He really enjoys every single aspect of the game.”
The Toronto Blue Jays are returning to the mound this Friday. This 50th season is shaping up to be a big year for the team as they hope to build on last season’s World Series run. CBC Toronto’s Greg Ross got a sneak peek of what fans can expect when they head back to the ballpark.
The schedule is conducive to a fast start. The season begins with a six-game home stretch versus the Athletics (March 27-29) and Colorado Rockies (March 30 to April 1). Then comes a three-game road series against the bottom-dwelling White Sox (April 2, 4-5) followed by a return home to face the now-hated Dodgers (April 6-8). An 11-4 start would be a statement — and one the fan base would surely enjoy.
“Winning breathes confidence,” Gausman said. “I think the way that our team was last year, we got really close and then started having fun and playing great baseball. Then we kind of found our identity as a team, our culture, and that was to make sure we did every aspect of the game really well whether it was baserunning, pitchers fielding their positions, trying to keep runners off taking the extra base. We were really good at everything. Now we know we can kind of match up with any team, but that also kind of puts a bull’s-eye on our back.”
Predicting baseball is fool’s gold but the vibes around this team are fantastic. If they stay healthy, Schneider is going to sleep well. At least until the postseason when no one gets a good night of shuteye.
Source link
