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Even in the most trying moments, when it looked like his career had migrated north to never to return, George Springer refused to lose sense of who he is. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the fearsomeness that had defined Springer’s career vanished. And yet he balked at the idea that numbers would define him. He still believed greatness existed within, and any hope at a resurgence necessitated him being his truest self. Which is why every day when the music in the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse thumped through the speakers, Springer would start to dance.

“There has to be a lightheartedness about the day,” Springer said. “It doesn’t matter how you’re doing. I’ve kind of always been that way. When things are not going the way, you want ’em to, you tend to try to find and search for things that aren’t there.”

Gone, in this instance, was the power that defined Springer’s game and the dynamism that made him a four-time All-Star. The quest to find them tested Springer’s fortitude and made the 2025 season that much more fulfilling. Because along with his swing, Springer found purpose. The former World Series MVP wanted to take the Blue Jays back to the playoffs, win another championship — and to ride a Royal Canadian Mounted Police horse through the streets of Toronto.

Saturday starts the endgame of that journey. At 4 p.m. ET, the top-seeded Blue Jays will host the New York Yankees in the first of their best-of-five American League Division Series at Rogers Centre. The 36-year-old Springer will bat leadoff, serve as designated hitter and try to carry over his best season in more than half a decade to the time of year that makes him want to dance more than any.

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For all of the excellence Vladimir Guerrero Jr. offers, the power Daulton Varsho provides, the timely hitting Bo Bichette brings, nobody mattered more to the 2025 Blue Jays than Springer. His .309 batting average ranked fourth in Major League Baseball, his .399 on-base percentage second, his .560 slugging percentage fifth. Only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani finished with a higher weighted on-base average than Springer’s .408 mark. It harkened back to Springer’s time with the Houston Astros, when his prolific regular-season performances were capped annually by Octobers worth remembering.

“A lot of people wrote off George Springer, said he’s passed his prime, thought the Houston George that I knew and I hated and I played against was gone,” Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt said. “People thought that was a thing in the past. I’m just proud of George being kind of who he is and never really just being OK with being average.”

Even if age is the ultimate performance suppressor, the sight of a diminished Springer — no longer able to patrol the outfield gazelle-like, cratering to a .674 OPS last year — registered as a surprise. He arrived in Toronto in 2021 on a six-year, $150 million free agent contract to rekindle the glory days of the Blue Jays, who last won a World Series in 1992. Though Springer’s lone championship came with the 2017 Astros later exposed for cheating via a sign-stealing scheme, he had earned a reputation as an annual winner and postseason performer, his 19 postseason home runs tied for sixth most all time.

Playing for a Toronto team swept out of the wild-card round in 2022 and 2023 before finishing in last place in the AL East in 2024 whittled away at that reputation as well as his numbers. It prompted him to embrace the suggestions of Toronto’s hitting coaches — David Popkins and Lou Iannotti joined Hunter Mense — that he prioritizes getting off what they called his “A-swing” more often. Springer’s capacity to swing at high speeds had evaporated in 2024, and it would have been easy to chalk that up to age.

“He was very, very passive at times, and he was very defensive, especially hitting-wise,” Bassitt said. “And this year they have him locked into ‘No matter the count, it’s just aggressive.’ He always feels like he’s on the attack and in control of the bat, and then you make a mistake and he’s ready for it.”

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The path to his return was not linear. In spring training, Springer hit .108 in 37 at-bats. He went hitless on Opening Day. Toronto’s staff did not waver in its support. Springer’s body remained pliable and explosive, and Toronto’s coaches were convinced that in time the results would match the quality of his swings. The Blue Jays’ hitting coaches, Springer said, have “done everything they can to make sure that I stay in the right headspace. That even if I hit a ball hard and I’m out, it’s OK. It’s to focus on the process and not the result.”

Outcome eventually caught up to process. His bat speed, which had dipped below 72 mph, approached 74, one of the largest gains in MLB this year and in the upper quartile of the league. He stopped chasing pitches outside the zone. He kept drawing walks. And when he did get off that A-swing, it did extreme damage. He posted an OPS over 1.000 in each of the season’s final three months. Springer’s 32 home runs led the Blue Jays. His all-around game crested as well, with 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts and a thirst to cause havoc on the basepaths.

“His baserunning has been contagious,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That has set a standard for our team and helped us astronomically.”

On-field Springer, teammates said, is exceeded only by his off-field version. He is beloved in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, where he serves as the wise man to a batch of 20-somethings. When Varsho spent two months on the injured list with a strained hamstring, the only thing he could guarantee every day was that his phone would ring and he would see Springer trying to FaceTime him. Springer’s support buoyed Varsho through the doldrums of waiting for an injury to heal — and served as lesson time, too.

“One thing that I’ve learned from him is how to be able to shut off your brain after games. He’s the best,” Varsho said. “Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, it doesn’t matter. Once that game’s done with, it’s over. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anybody be able to go right after the game, snap their fingers and it’s like, it’s gone. And it’s honestly very, very impressive. Talk about him postseason-wise: That’s why he’s so good. Because he’s able to turn that brain off really fast.”

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That time on the calendar has arrived. The Yankees, who the Blue Jays beat via tiebreaker to secure the top seed and home-field advantage in the AL, come to Toronto still reveling in their wild-card series win against Boston. They know Springer well. He beat them in the wild-card game in 2015. He beat them in the ALCS in 2017. He beat them in the ALCS again in 2019. And now, starting with his 68th career playoff game, he has a chance to do so once more.

“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Springer said. “You’ve most likely already played them. You’ve most likely faced a guy on the mound before you’ve played in these environments. The biggest difference is the overall atmosphere is much more intense.”

With more than 40,000 people packed into Rogers Centre, there are scant few baseball environments more intense than Toronto. And it infuses in Springer all the more energy to fulfill his goal. He wants to celebrate a title by serving as an honorary Mountie for one day, high atop his steed, strolling down a packed-to-the-gills Bremner Boulevard.

The Toronto Police Mounted Unit is happy to oblige. In a recent video, a police officer offered Springer a deal: Win the World Series, and the coolest pony ride this side of HorseCapades is his. The love of these Blue Jays, picked to finish last in the AL East, is endless, and the least the city can do for their most productive player is offer him a ride.

So he’ll step into the batter’s box today against Luis Gil and try to make this October as memorable as April through September. Unleashing his A-swing. Fighting the good fight against Father Time. And dancing all the way.

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When the Phillies lost to the Twins on Saturday night, the Crew clinched the National Leagueâ€s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the postseason, since Milwaukee (96-65 after Saturdayâ€s 7-4 loss to Cincinnati at American Family Field) owns the tiebreaker over Philadelphia (95-66), having gone 4-2 in the season series. The Brewers had already secured a better record than every team in the American League.

That means the Brewers not only will host Game 1 of the NL Division Series next Saturday against the winner of the Padres-Cubs NL Wild Card Series, but they would host each subsequent Game 1 all the way through the World Series should they advance. Manager Pat Murphy drove that point home, sensing some angst from the sellout crowd about a team that is 18-21 since a 14-game winning spree in August all but locked up the NL Central, and 1-5 over the past week.

“Credit the Reds,†Murphy said of a surging opponent that can clinch a postseason berth with a win on Sunday or a Mets loss to the Marlins. “Theyâ€re in survival mode and theyâ€re playing their best baseball, and itâ€s dangerous. Just like the Mets were last year at this time, itâ€s dangerous. Weâ€re playing, you know, not exactly lining up to win at all costs, you know what I mean? Weâ€re doing some different things. You can say, ‘Donâ€t coast,†but I donâ€t think theyâ€re coasting. They had great effort. But itâ€s not the same.

“Nobody expected us to win. We donâ€t have the experience that would say weâ€re going to win, or maybe even the talent that says weâ€re going to win. We just have a team, and that team ended up with the best record in baseball. So, Iâ€m not going to criticize this club for anything. Iâ€m not going to evaluate the psychological state of them in a game [where] the ramifications now arenâ€t that great.

“Nobody got hurt. You canâ€t say they werenâ€t excited to play. The crowd was fantastic. They started booing this team and stuff like that, and I started laughing, like, ‘Itâ€s unfortunate they donâ€t realize.†And then they put up on the board in the sixth inning that weâ€re the No. 1 seed in baseball with the best record.â€

All thatâ€s left is to win one more game to break the club record. But thatâ€s proven a bit of a slog, with the Brewers prioritizing postseason readiness over everything else.

Take Saturday, when Cincinnati scored six runs in a third-inning rally that began with a throwing error from starter Robert Gasser, featured two misplays from left fielder Isaac Collins — including a run-scoring throwing error — and a bases-loaded walk issued by Jacob Misiorowski in his Major League relief debut.

“He didnâ€t hold his water,†Murphy said.

The Brewers threw the rookie right into the deep end, summoning him with the bases loaded, two outs and the Reds leading, 1-0. To make it a true bullpen test, coaches had given Misiorowski no prior notice about what sort of situation they had in mind for him going into his relief debut, and the 23-year-old conceded that coming into a bases-loaded, two-out situation was “nerve-wracking.â€

“You can give him a soft landing, and then what? Where do you go from there?†Murphy said. “So, I thought it was the right thing to do. It wasnâ€t best for the team today, but I think it was the right thing to do.â€

Misiorowskiâ€s outing began with bad luck, when Keâ€Bryan Hayes hit a swinging bunt for a run-scoring infield hit to the third-base side of the pitcherâ€s mound to make it 2-0. Then Misiorowski missed wildly with his first two pitches against Reds No. 9 hitter Matt McLain before walking him to make it 3-0.

Then it got ugly. TJ Friedl hit a two-run single to Collins, who threw to an uncovered third base for a run-scoring error that made it 6-0.

Misiorowski eventually settled in to deliver two more scoreless innings, but his 58-pitch outing left him in a tenuous position as far as the NLDS roster is concerned. His fate could hinge on what the coming week brings for relievers Trevor Megill (right flexor) and DL Hall (right oblique), who could return from the injured list as soon as Sunday to test their health against the Reds.

Asked where he believes he fits in the teamâ€s postseason plans, Misiorowski said, “Wherever they put me. Iâ€m just excited to be here and help support and be a part of the team.â€

The manager, too, was throwing his support behind his guys.

“Iâ€m very confident in this team,†Murphy said. “We won 96 games for a reason.â€

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