Browsing: Schneider

Oct 23, 2025, 06:31 PM ET

TORONTO — While most of baseball is saying hats off to Shohei Ohtani, Toronto manager John Schneider wants a cap back from the two-way star.

Before signing a $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ohtani met with Blue Jays officials on Dec. 4, 2023, at the team’s spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida.

Ohtani will be the opening batter of the World Series, hitting leadoff for the defending champion Dodgers against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Friday night after his unprecedented performance at the plate and on the mound in the NL Championship Series.

“I hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jay hat that he took from us in our meeting. I hope he brought it back, finally,” Schneider said Thursday.

“And the jacket for Decoy,” he added, a reference to Ohtani’s dog, a Nederlandse kooikerhondje. “It’s like, give us our stuff back already.”

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Ohtani helped lead the Dodgers to last year’s title, hitting .310 with 54 homers, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases.

Back to pitching in a limited role this season as he returned from elbow surgery, he batted .282 with 55 homers, 102 RBIs and 20 steals while going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 62 in 47 innings.

Last Friday, he homered three times while pitching six shutout innings and striking 10 against Milwaukee as the Dodgers completed a four-game sweep of the NL Championship Series.

Absent Ohtani, the Blue Jays had the finances to give first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a $500 million, 14-year contract that starts next year, and he helped Toronto reach the World Series for the first time since 1993.

“He’s a great player,” Schneider said. “But that aside, I think that we have a great team and just an unbelievable cast of characters and players. I think things worked out the way they’re meant to work out.”

Schneider isn’t sure how close the Blue Jays came to signing Ohtani.

“When we met with him, you felt good about it, and you felt good about the feedback he was giving about our organization and opportunity here,” he said. “But you never really know what a player’s feeling in free agency, and there’s a lot of things that have to line up for them personally, too, so you can’t really think about what if. You think about the 26 [players] that we have.”

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A 95-mph sinker from Seattle Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo struck George Springer on his knee in the seventh inning of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 6-2 defeat in Game 5 of the ALCS on Friday. Springer suffered a right-knee contusion, according to Blue Jays manager John Schneider, though Schneider noted that the four-time All-Star’s X-rays were negative.

“George is about as tough as they come,” Schneider said. “I think he’ll have to really, really be hurting to not be in the lineup on Sunday. So we’ll see how he is.”

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Schneider then called out Mariners fans who booed after Springer rose to his feet and tried to stay in the game. Springer walked to first with a significant limp before Joey Loperfido ultimately replaced him as a pinch runner.

“I know this is an awesome atmosphere to play in. And it’s really, really cool to play here,” Schneider began before switching course.

“I think the fans that were booing him should take a look in the mirror and understand what kind of player he is. And I’ll stop there because when a guy gets hit in the knee and is in obvious pain, and you have 40,000 people cheering … not the right thing to do.”

Springer, who tied the game 1-1 with a double in the fifth inning, immediately fell to the ground after Woo’s pitch hit him in the seventh.

The ball drilled Springer in the kneecap and made a sound akin to a foul ball. The former Houston Astros outfielder rolled over in pain and grabbed at his right knee.

At the time, the Blue Jays were ahead 2-1. They seized the lead in the sixth inning, spoiling Woo’s return to the mound when Ernie Clement scored Alejandro Kirk on an RBI single. The All-Star hadn’t made an appearance since he left a Sept. 19 start against the Astros due to pectoral tightness.

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Toronto’s one-run advantage stood until the eighth inning. That’s when Cal Raleigh blasted his 64th homer of the year off left-handed reliever Brendon Little. Soon after, righty Seranthony Domínguez gave up a go-ahead grand slam to Eugenio Suárez.

The Mariners’ bats came to life, and Seattle won a pivotal Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead.

The Blue Jays will host Game 6 on Sunday. Schneider hopes he’ll have Springer available, this time in front of his home crowd.

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With a runner on first and two outs in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the ALCS, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider walked out to have a chat with starting pitcher Max Scherzer. It went about how you would expect if you’re familiar with Max Scherzer.

As soon as Schneider reached the mound Thursday, Scherzer began barking at him. It was unclear if Schneider wanted to pull the future Hall of Famer or simply talk about the next batter, Randy Arozarena, but the message from the pitcher was the same.

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In a word: “No.”

Scherzer proceeded to strike out Arozarena and smack his glove in celebration.

The veteran right-hander made sure to let Schneider know what happened as he walked into the dugout.

Among the people entertained by Scherzer’s reaction: his dugout.

Scherzer wound up staying in the game for the start of the sixth inning. He got the first two outs with a Cal Raleigh flyout and Julio Rodríguez strikeout, but then he walked Jorge Polanco on his 87th pitch of the game. That finally led to Schneider pulling him for left-hander Mason Fluharty, who ended up allowing Polanco to score.

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Scherzer’s final line: 5 2/3 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts in a pivotal Game 4 that the Jays won 8-2 to tie this series 2-2.

After the game, Schneider didn’t seem too worried about his pitcher’s vigor:

“Been waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound. … I was joking with him, Iâ€ve been waiting for that moment since our Zoom call in the offseason before we signed him. Loved it. Thereâ€s a little more of that in between (before) I sent him back out for the sixth, too.

“It was awesome. I thought he was gonna kill me. It was great. He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out. Itâ€s not fake. Thatâ€s the thing. Itâ€s not fake. He has this ‘Mad Max’ persona, but he backed it up tonight. The infielders had a good laugh, too, and he got the job done.â€

Scherzer’s explanation:

“I understood where the game state was, knew how I wanted to attack, and all of a sudden, I saw Schneids coming out, and I went ‘Whoa whoa whoa whoa, Iâ€m not coming out of this ballgame. I feel too good.’ And so we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ballgame, but just with some other words involved.”

The postseason hasn’t always been kind to the three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion, but it has never been for a lack of intensity. Scherzer is a guy who can be seen growling and muttering under his breath, often profanely, between pitches during the regular season, and he hasn’t changed at 41 years old and on his seventh MLB team.

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There’s a reason Toronto wanted a pitcher like him on a team with playoff aspirations, signing him to a one-year, $15.5 million deal before the season. It wasn’t always pretty during the regular season, with a thumb injury knocking Scherzer out for most of the first half and a 5.19 season ERA, but he answered the bell in Game 4, putting his team in position to tie a series that felt nearly lost as it left Toronto.

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