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George Springer was a key contributor in the Blue Jays World Series Run In 2025, but there are questions surrounding what his production will look like this upcoming season. Springer is in the last year of his contract and will once again be a huge part of what the Blue Jays do offensively, but can he replicate his production from last season? In this episode, we discuss our perspective on George Springer and break down his importance to the Toronto Blue Jays success in 2026. We then discuss the Spring Breakout game as well as the highlights from the Blue Jays spring training game right here on Locked On Blue Jays.
Your current Toronto Blue Jays roster: Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Kevin Gausman, Yimi Garcia, Anthony Santander, Dylan Cease, Jeff Hoffman, Yariel Rodriguez, Cody Ponce, George Springer, Jose Berrios, Andres Gimenez, Daulton Varsho, Alejandro Kirk, Brayden Fisher, Leo Jimenez, Tyler Rogers, Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement, Jake Bloss, Bowden Francis, Kazuma Okamoto, Jesus Sanchez, Ricky Tiedemann, Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Louis Varland, Tommy Nance, Jonatan Clase, Tyler Heineman , Myles Straw, Shane Bieber, Mason Fluharty, Eric Lauer, Trey Yesavage
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Well yesterday we talked about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the big season he needs to have
for the Jays to succeed.
How will this guy help in the 2026 season?
Can he repeat what he did last year?
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Yesterday, like I said, we talked a lot about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and how he can help the
Blue Jays and lead the Blue Jays in 2026.
But now we got to touch on a guy that I think there's a lot of question marks surrounding
in George Springer.
Now will that be regression?
That can he keep somewhat the same statistics.
How can he help this team this season as well?
We're going to let you guys in on what the team is going to look like for spring breakout
as well as spring training.
What's going to happen?
I'm wearing our team Canada hockey hat because the rule baseball classic is kicked off.
So I've got to support the boys rep the rep the team Canada.
But Carter, since we will get things underway with George Springer, I think the biggest
question is, is how much regression will there be?
So looking from your point of view, what are you seeing from George this year and as
well looking back at last?
Well, you don't think George Springer will get better?
Go on, age 36, like that's the prime of your career, is it not?
Sure.
We'll say that.
I mean, we can have that spin zone.
We'll look for the exact same season from George Springer.
I think anything I'd like a 115, 120 weighted runs created plus last year, it was a 166
weighty run screen plus with MVP votes, nobody expected George Springer to have that, especially
after the 2024 season, David Popkins with the swing adjustments with George Springer,
the ability to have a little bit more lifting the swing to increase that launch angle and
to sacrifice a little bit of that swing and miss to have that be more a more prominent
part of this game to hit more home ranch George Springer, being the home run leader on
the trial.
Lou Jays by a pretty significant margin, which again, not a lot of people have.
So there is some uncertainty in regards to George Springer, but it's not like this guy
is going to fall off the face of the earth.
Like I don't expect it to be a 2024 Valley.
And then you have this 2025 peak and all of a sudden you're back to 2024, where you have
this massive Valley again.
That's not where I'm at with Springer.
Now he's in a position where he is the D.H.
He has a very good idea of what his role is going to be here in 2026, going back to 2025
just overall his games and how the outlook was compared to D.H. and when he played in the
outfield.
The games at D.H. 44 in the right field or 12 in the left field and then 11 in center
field.
I expect that to be about about 120 now, probably from that D.H. spot.
You will see George Springer.
I think the odd time playing in the outfield, I think, just to kind of keep him in the game.
And then, you know, worst case scenario, if you need to have George Springer in the outfield
based off of maybe a late game substitution, you have a pitch hit scenario.
You want George Springer to just feel comfortable in the outfield.
You don't want him to be isolated there for months on end.
Then all of a sudden the big game throw him out there, not saying that George Springer
wouldn't be able to obviously be fine because he's played outfield in his entire career,
but you just want to keep him fresh.
You want to keep the legs fresh.
So I expect him to be the D.H. most of the time, but George Springer is a guy that you'll
probably will see in the outfield from time to time.
That's not what you're allowing on George Springer for at this point in his career.
And just the way the Toronto Blue Chays are structurally throughout the roster, you have guys
that can play defense in the outfield.
You have guys with cannon arms, absent barger, Nathan Lucas, who had a lot of outfield
assists last year.
Dalton, far show, mouth strong.
You have some very good outfielders.
There's really no reason to throw George Springer in the outfield.
So I guess the biggest thing is going to be, what can he produce for the Toronto Blue
Chays offensively?
And I'll throw it back over to you to kind of give your predictions or projections and
your expectations and what George Springer is going to do for the Blue Chays here in 2026.
Yeah.
So just before I guess we dive into my opinions and thoughts, I'll give you what he did
last season.
In 140 games and 586 played appearances, yet 106 runs, 154 hits.
This is a guy that, I mean, Carter brought it up, 32 home runs with 84 RBIs, a batting
average of 309 on base, the 399, an OPS of 959.
George Springer was unleashed last year, and I don't think there's any debate in that.
I think it was the resurgence that all of Blue Chays land needed from this guy.
When you sign that contract with George Springer, I don't even know if you expected him to
be that.
Like it was a great, great season.
Now people always bring up regression and it's a completely fair assessment with George
Springer.
There is going to be some.
He's not going to be the same guy.
This was an unbelievable, unpredictable season.
What I'm sort of hoping for from George Springer is not to dive right back down to where he
was before, but I think if you could get close to his 2022 numbers where this guy hit 25
home runs.
I think if you can have George Springer hit 25 in that range, that's exactly what you
want from him.
Getting those RBI's, getting those runs, and the ability to be in games.
Again, 140 games is great.
That's about where you want it to be, 140, 145 games, and then give him a couple of days
of rest.
I think that's fine.
I think in doing so, you play him as that DH because what that'll allow him to do is
to be healthy.
That's the biggest thing.
With the guy his age, you don't want him to be in the outfield every game because that
puts strain on the body.
And putting strain on the body at that age is really going to increase your injury chances.
The biggest thing is keeping George's bat in the lineup and keeping him comfortable
in that number one spot, where I think we can all guess he'll be any grown.
And you want to keep him well-rested so we can be that offensive player that we come
to expect from George Springer who is 36, but plays like he's freshly 23 years old and
there's rookie season in Major League Baseball.
It's really fun to see him just laying the body on the line.
Just really no regard whatsoever, but that's another reason why.
Yeah, you have him at that DH spot with the injury history.
And like you said, probably as your number one hit, I would be very surprised if they
go away from that, especially for opening day.
Hope that he is your number one hitter throughout the season.
That means that George Springer had a very productive season once again.
It's just crazy to think that George Springer had his most productive season.
I think by far and with the Toronto Witches uniform in his fifth season in his age 35
seasons.
And then just we always talk about the 2024 season.
I was trying not to talk about it, but it is hard to ignore with how recent that was.
And just the leap that he had throughout 2025.
But you brought the age you brought about up the injury concern.
One thing you have to worry about a little bit with a guy like George Springer just being
36 years old.
It's playing a ton of baseball in 2025.
This is a guy that has done it before in a World Series run, but hasn't been 35 years
old doing it.
So George Springer had some quotes just about this kind of the transition from 2025 into
2026.
And then just the physical toll that the season does take on the body.
So he said that you have to understand that you can't achieve it.
You have to understand that it's a long year and we played until the last possible
day that you can possibly play to.
So you've got to get your body right.
You got to get your mind right and understand that what you did last year, good and
bad. You start fresh from there.
So we've heard a lot of this sediment from a lot of different players, coaches, especially
John Schneider.
It's pretty much saying that you got to take the good things from 2025, but you can't
just expect 2025 to roll into 2026 and have that same success without putting the work
in.
So you got to take that confidence, be confident that you can go back there.
And you know, now what it takes to get back to the World Series.
So now you have to just play it and you have to put the work in once again to hopefully
have that end goal of having a similar season with just a slightly different outcome
here in 2026.
Well, in Carter, I mean, we talked a ton about Vladimir Grotto Jr.
and his ability to lead this ball club, but it's not like George Springer's going anywhere
this season.
He still will be a big time leader of a lot of these young guys, even some of the veterans.
I mean, when Vlad, he needs something, you can see I'm talking to George, right?
It's not like George's out the window.
It's not that he's too old and doesn't know the game.
This is a guy that is still having success at the MLB level throughout his entire career.
And that there's a lot to be said about what he can bring to the game.
We talk about that with Max Scherzer and his return and what he can do for this team
in a leadership role.
Well, Max or George Springer is the same guy the same way where I think a lot,
and he's, he makes it easy for these guys to feel comfortable going up to him and
asking some questions.
Again, I look back at the David Schneider thing when he was trying to figure out his swing.
George Springer was the guy in there trying to give him as much help as he could to hit that lead off spot.
And I mean, look what that can do for a guy, I guess.
But Carter, I mean, this is a guy that had his second best OPS of his entire career last season.
That tells you a lot about what kind of person George Springer is and what his commitment is to the game, right?
He's not a guy that's going to say, Hey, I've been in this and done this a long time.
I know what works on my dozen.
He is completely willing to change things and it looks like for the better.
He's still hungry.
He still wants to get better and he still wants to perform at an elite level.
The battle and within George Springer has not flourished whatsoever.
George Springer is still as competitive and still wants to ingest as much as he did when he was younger.
Maybe even a little bit more with the new team hasn't won in a little bit with some of the cheating scandals that
happened previously when he was an Astro.
Maybe he wants to get one with you know, no asterisk beside as Toronto Blue Jays fans.
I think that would be the perfect way to cap off a George Springer 10 year with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Whether he does come back next year, whether he doesn't, that is another reason why the season is pretty big for George Springer.
And I just said, I don't think that desire is gone.
I can't imagine that George Springer is going to be done after the season.
So if he signs that two year, three year contract, especially if he has a good season, if he has,
you know, maybe that 800 OPS, not going to be an average guy.
But like you said, if he can hit in the mid 20s for home rounds, like that is a very valuable player.
Even if it is George Springer, the DH, she don't even if it's flooding 50, 50, maybe even closer to that 70, 30 DH in outfield.
This is still a player that can be valuable to any single ball club, whether that is a competitive team or a team that's, you know,
trying to make that turn from that French team and maybe making that next step.
So big season for George Springer, big season for the Toronto Blue Jays, a lot of expectation there as well.
But George Springer being in that leadership role, having all the experience in the world in these playoffs scenarios,
throughout 162 and just having the same team and running it back with the, the chemistry that they did have in that lock room.
George Springer is going to be the leader, along with Vladimir Kroch, and you're along with Kevin Goss, with a lot of these guys, with a lot of these veterans.
They all, the ship starts with George Springer, starts with Vladimir Kroch, but George Springer is right there behind him.
Yeah, you're not wrong at all.
We're going to continue to talk about George Springer as we get closer and closer to the season, just like a lot of these star players on this team.
But Carter, I did want to mention just before I forget.
I am working on the MLB fantasy league for all the listeners.
We've got a few people joined already through the people that wanted to join last year.
That is in the group chat for those of you that are listening and want to rejoin.
It is in the group chat for that league.
I'm giving you guys till Monday, then Monday, I'm opening up to everybody new.
Whatever spots are available, you get in and you know what, if we fill up, I may open up a second one.
So let me know if you guys get in, join in, shoot us a text or whatever, but the link will be in the description on Monday.
So check that out.
But Carter, a lot more we want to get into, especially on this spring breakout roster and who is going to be in there.
You've read it over.
I've read it over.
I want your thoughts and opinions on some guys you'll be highlighting and keying into during the spring breakout.
Anything left that you want to touch on on George Springer before we move on to that spring breakout and some of the spring training stuff?
Yeah.
So it's a season that relies a lot on what George Springer can do at the plate.
Talked about it immensely at this point with the offseason with the people that have left the trial blue jays with the injury to have based on taunt air.
There is some offensive production to be made up and part of that is George Springer having that regression.
So having George Springer be as productive of a hitter as possible and as close as he can get to that 20s 25 season.
I don't know if he'll get there.
I don't think that should be the expectation.
But you need a decent amount from George Springer, especially in that number one spot with the second hitter kind of being up in the air right now.
And honestly, four through seven, they have some opportunity to be streaky at times.
You don't have necessarily that guy that's going to go out there every day and put up superstar numbers.
You have guys like Kirk Farsher that can definitely contribute.
But I think a lot of your growth junior would be benefit immensely.
If you had another guy, kind of like, you know, the Robin to his Batman per se if you can think of put up some decent numbers.
I think a lot of trying to look just bad and a lot of your growth junior and coaching staff are going to be very appreciative of that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And as we keep mentioning, again, this is not the end of the conversation with these guys.
We're going to have many more episodes where we have to talk about these guys and want to talk about these guys.
But again, if there's one game, particularly that you want us to touch on,
leave us a comment in the description in the comment section below or shoot us a message on Twitter or Instagram or wherever because, you know,
some days we, you know, mean Carter, just think of stuff to talk about.
Where is if you guys want us to talk about something specifically, let us know in the comments or somewhere else down below.
But we'll take a quick break. We'll come back with the spring breakout roster and who's going to hopefully impress us.
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So Carter, just before we continue into the spring breakout roster and who we like,
who we're excited for, who we think will do well.
I do want to toss it over to you because we got to bring up the everyday club.
World baseball classic has officially started.
Spring training is going on.
The regular season is getting closer and closer as we speak.
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club does have to offer.
But the spring breakout roster has been released for the Toronto Blue Jays.
This is always a very fun game to watch.
As you see, a lot of the Blue Jays top prospects premiered on this stage.
So there's a lot of guys that you can be excited about.
Treyas Savage going to be the headliner obviously of this one,
which is crazy to think where you have a guy like Treyas Savage.
And then you have a guy like Jojo Parker who has just drafted.
But then you think Treyas Savage was just drafted as well.
But it's already a major league here.
So there's a lot of guys that you can get excited about.
But for you, is there anyone specifically that you're going to be looking at that
stat line or looking at some of the at bats or the pitches in this game
that you're going to be looking at with a little bit more of a magnifying glass?
Yeah, I mean, it's easy to say Treyas Savage at Jojo Parker.
I mean, I'm always excited to see both those guys with the position they were
picked in for Trey.
I mean, what he did last season and what he's going to mean to this team
moving forward.
But Carter, just a few more, a few other guys.
I mean, Jake Bloss has to be on that list of guys I'm going to be really paying attention
to to see sort of how much I guess Lee she gets.
I think he has to be up there for me.
A couple other guys, again, with what Josh Kassovich has been able to do
throughout spring training.
Very excited to see him.
Not only on the offensive side of the ball, but the defensive side of the ball as well.
I think I'm still in question on how good of a defender he is.
And I'm a little bit concerned.
So I want to see him being able to make a place.
But a guy I'm super excited for as well.
Not a guy we're going to see this year, obviously in major league play.
But for the future of the organization, I think you have to be excited for him.
And I mean, you could go down the list, but those are my top two.
I'd say Bloss and Kassovich outside of the jojo parker and trade a savage.
How about you?
Anybody's any standouts for you?
There's a few, like, trade a savage.
I don't really care what he does in this game.
Like, we know who trade a savage is.
He was phenomenal when he pitched in it last year.
Two and he pitched scoreless three strikeouts.
So like, it's nice to see trade a savage,
but he could get absolutely blown up in this game.
And I'm really not going to care.
We know who trade a savage is.
This guy is an absolute dog.
Jojo Parker just as a headliner.
I think it's hard to not be excited about a guy like that.
And a game like this, Johnny King,
just a lot of these top prospects that are very fun to see.
On a stage like this, when you're not going to be able to see them
throughout the regular season,
or at least it's not as accessible,
as at least trying to blue chase games are for a lot of people,
you have the ability to watch these guys on a bigger stage
and really see what, like, all the hype is about,
whether it's, you know, 18-year-old that throws gas
or if it's a more polished college guy,
or just a guy that just graduated college,
that can't have an immediate impact on the team,
sort of, you know, that Josh Kassovich type,
not as much with the finished college park.
But they have an immediate impact part.
Jake Cook, another guy I want to see how we can do
defensively, a very speedy guy as well.
So it's one thing that I'm going to be looking at for sure.
As a guy that's not, you know,
necessarily the biggest on prospects on a guy
that I'd rather have the major league talent
and the established talent for these prospects.
But if these guys have good outings
and these guys can, you know,
raise that stock up throughout the season.
You got to hope that the Toronto Blue Chase
are going to be acquiring at the trade deadline.
I'm never a guy that's going to be married to the idea
of these prospects.
But if you can flip them for a major league talent
that can help you go into deep playoff run,
I'm always going to be on board with that.
So Carter, one position I think we haven't gone over
a whole time in regards to these young guys is catcher.
Brandon Vellas-Wayla, Aaron Parker, Edward Durran.
I guess out of those three guys,
I know this is probably an easy answer for you,
but which one of those three are you the most excited to see?
I mean, it just has to be Brandon Vellas-Wayla
in terms of the spring training battle.
I actually think that Brandon Vellas-Wayla
is probably going to have a better season
than Tyler Heinemann here in 2026.
I think Heinemann had a career year,
I think just because of the option scenario,
Heinemann is the easy pick to have,
would be that backup catcher on the 2026 team.
We'll have to see how he does.
Heinemann is a very good defender
and he knows the entire pitching staff.
So I don't expect there to be too much fluctuation
between those two,
but Brandon Vellas-Wayla,
you know, if he has a very good performance once again,
who is he showing that he is a very good defender as well,
there could be a little bit of an argument
that maybe Brandon Vellas-Wayla should get a shot
in for this big league roster.
So that's going to be obviously one guy.
Now watching if we're talking about the catcher position,
other than that, probably not going to be a lot of impact.
At least on this year's Trinobuja's team,
very hard to have impact now at the catcher position
if you're a Trinobuja.
Yeah, you're really just not going to get a whole ton of playing time.
I mean, that's why you have Heinemann there
is because you're not sort of wasting a season for him.
Right, Brandon Vellas-Wayla will get playing time
in the minors.
He won't get playing time with a major league club.
Heinemann's a guy that can bind.
He's a guy that can put the ball in play.
Again, very good defender.
He's going to put the body on the line to block.
He's very familiar within the Trinobuja's organization.
This isn't his first rodeo with the Trinobuja's.
So I think it's very easy to see how that is going to lay out
and how Tyler Heinemann is.
Once again, going to be back with the Trinobuja's.
No, just great clubhouse guys.
Well, he looks like a very fun guy to be around.
Yeah, exactly.
Carter, one more guy wants to bring up that I'll be sort of
keeping an eye on his gauge stand up for.
A guy I'm sort of excited to see,
but also worried because I think I have these expectations.
Now in my head for gauge stand up for that he's going to be good.
Again, not 2026 Trinobuja's good,
but he'll have a good season to build upon
what he was able to do the last few.
So another guy I'm just excited to see what he could do out there.
Oh, absolutely.
Like there's so many players that you're going to be excited
to see Arjun Demaw.
We didn't even bring up like Charles McAdoo,
which has had a pretty eventful spring training.
So one that you're going to want to watch
is pretty much how we're going to sum up this segment.
But there was a spring training game from the Trinobuja's as well.
We still have some regulars that are at the World Baseball Classic,
but there were some World Baseball Classic games as well.
So just a bunch of things that we're going to go over in this last segment.
How are the Trinobuja's looking right before the regular season?
We're going to dive into that after the short break.
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So Carter, as we continue on, obviously the blue jays
did have a game.
Are they ever going to win a regular game again
in pretty season here?
Because this is, it's not looking good.
All right, the golden grapefruit is out the window.
There's no coming back.
We won't be hanging a banner this year.
It's out the window.
It's ran over by a semi-truck and lit on fire by a flamethrower.
Like it is thing is gone forever.
I mean, it felt good last year.
And that last year, it started early
and it really persisted through the entire season.
I mean, we know that spring training
isn't an actual representation.
Luckily, of the regular season,
just asked George Springer
and how his spring training went in 2025.
But yeah, not great.
It seems like every single time the blue jays are in a game
and they end up blowing it with, again,
there's a lot of young players
that are going to be out of the bullpen.
Going to be guys that are in AA,
AA, things like that.
So you can't be that upset about it.
And rather than get the opportunity,
they kind of just test,
we'll put their feet in the water
and really test out what they have.
And if they're already to maybe take that next jump,
not to the major leagues necessarily,
but if they're in high and maybe to AA,
AA to trip away, things like that.
And then there's going to be cuts coming up soon.
So you really got to figure out
who you want to keep within this spring training roster.
And those last fringe decisions
that you're going to have to make
as we get closer and closer
throughout the regular season.
But there's a couple of things
that I want to talk about in from this game.
Oh, yeah, man, it just seems like
he is the gift that keeps on giving.
It's getting to the point where
I am almost in favor of starting him
with the opening day team.
I might be getting a little bit ahead of myself here,
but there's a lot of things to like.
You're seeing the zone coverage,
you're seeing the eye at the plate,
you're seeing just the exit velocities
that are popping off this guy's bat.
The has 111 minor and I would double 110 off the wall,
like 105 minor and I would single.
And these are pretty consistently throughout the game.
He has some loud outs as well
that don't show up on the score sheet.
So for a guy that is a right handed hitter,
maybe a guy that you can have in there
against lefties for a predominantly left handed outfield
at least on the hitting side of things,
it couldn't be an option for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The only thing is who spot does he take
is it David Schneider.
And if it is David Schneider,
how does that work for the infield?
But where are you at with Aloha Menes?
And maybe am I getting a little bit too far ahead
of myself here?
No, I don't think so.
I think he has to be in the conversation.
I want to hear that talked about like,
again, we talk about guys like
Miles Straw, where does he sit, right?
Where does David Schneider say there's two guys
that I think you have to start looking at.
And even, I mean, again,
I don't want to make say anything out there
because I bet you that Miles Straw
and David Schneider both start with this team.
But I think that if Aloha Menes keeps on pumping,
I think he could be on this team in no time.
I think he can make that and that's what they wanted from him.
And he's giving that to them.
So I think he has to be happy with his production.
And I think you have to at least be asked,
the management has to at least be thinking about the answer
and bringing it and starting him with this major league club.
Yeah, I'm excited for this guy.
And he keeps exciting me.
It seems like every game.
But Carter, I wanted to go.
There's so much stuff on the offense
that I still want to touch on.
Obviously, ML just say this, Addison Farger
is an absolute dog and continues to be.
And I will leave it there because I'm sure
we will talk way more about Farger
as this spring training continues.
But Carter, it's more so the pitching.
Louis-Varlin got absolutely crushed today.
And I hate to see that.
This is a guy I have a lot of hopes for.
Again, how much am I taking away from this?
Not everything.
But I don't want to see guys get taken yard and in like an inning.
I'd rather not see a home run in one inning personally.
But yeah, I don't know.
It worries me during the game, right?
And then I take a step back after before we do the podcast.
And then I think, OK, so that could deal.
But again, anytime your guy gives up a home run, it's worried.
Yeah, you don't like to see it, obviously.
And there's so much of things like in context
that you have to look at.
This is a pretty good price line.
I think they weren't sitting any of their guys
like Maddlesons in this game, Austin Riley's in this game.
They have a lot of their regulars that were played
a lot of times.
Louis-Varlin coming in, I believe it was the third inning,
maybe the fourth inning.
But it was against all of those regulars as well.
So I'm not a guy that's ever going to look at the stat
lines in spring training.
Unless they are favorable for the Toronto Blue Jays,
then you get some spin zones that you like to run with.
And maybe get some people a little bit agitated,
which is definitely fun to do in spring training.
Well, you get a little bored at some points.
But there's a lot of guys here to get excited about.
And there's a lot of people that can
are kind of on this fringe to make the Toronto Blue Jays
ball club.
But we talked about Oloy Hemenas being one of those guys.
You talked a lot about Josh Kassovich,
not guy kind of knocking on the door.
Leo Hemenas, a guy that's out of options.
So it's not necessarily even just Oloy Hemenas personally.
It's it's Davis Schneider.
It's Miles Shraw.
It's all these other guys that are really
fighting for a couple spots.
I think Nathan Lucas is a shoe in.
You're going to have to have a backup catcher,
whether that is Brandon Bonsweather,
whether that is Tyler Hemen.
So there's a couple spots open.
So there's a bunch of guys that you're going to look at.
And that's where really where my focus is.
I'm not as worried about Louis Barlin.
Like if I want to see the second areas breaking,
I want to see the velocity there.
And even at this point, like it is pretty early on
in spring training.
So I don't think Louis Barlin is a guy that's
going to be fully letting you eat up to this point.
But yeah, you don't never want to see your guy
getting knocked on the ballpark, especially the guy
that you're going to have to rely on in those higher levels
to what higher leverage situations.
Yeah, and that's exactly how you, you know, you just,
you hate to see it because you know how much you have
to rely on him going forward this season.
But like you said, I'm not taking everything away from it.
Sean Keys continuing to do good things out there.
I don't know.
He's just, he seems very steady and doesn't overplay himself.
And I don't necessarily know how to put that
into context of why I like him out there.
It just seems like the swing is consistent.
The swing is powerful and it's nice to watch.
A guy like Charles McAdoo is sort of in that same vein
with a heavy swing.
And I think I've liked a lot of stuff
that McAdoo's been able to do.
It's just more so the little bit of baseball knowledge
on the base pass, really this spring training
that has stood out to me.
And that shows me, hey, this guy ain't ready.
And he needs a couple more seasons down low.
But there's a lot of guys right now.
And I'm not saying that either of those two guys
will make an impact.
I don't think they will.
I don't think there's 20, 26 guys.
But I think you can't overlook anybody right now
because it's sort of, you know, that's like what happened
when Addison Barger and David Schneider and Ernie Clement,
you can't underestimate any of these guys
because they start to have a really good season.
Maybe the thought process starts to creep up on you.
All it takes is a little stretch.
All it takes is one season to have the narrative switch
for a lot of these younger players, whether it's RJ Shrek,
whether it's, you know, it could be like a kind of coffee,
it could be Josh Rivera, it could be any of these guys
that aren't necessarily household names
that could take that next step.
And then bolster themselves right into that top 10,
especially for the guy like maybe like Johant and Drick
Pranango for a guy like Gage Downiver,
Santa for who we like to talk about.
Guys that maybe won't be ready for this year,
but could have an impact in 2026.
A very good focal point to look at.
And you want to see these guys have success
and you want to see that narrative continue
to switch in the right direction.
And you hope that it's not the irrelevant smartiness storyline.
And he kind of falls off the face of the earth after making,
you know, maybe some not so good decisions.
But one more thing, the last thing I wanted to bring up
for this episode is Hazu Sanchez.
Chris Dale is starting this game.
And Hazu Sanchez has some pretty good at bats,
getting a whole, I single off the lefty,
getting a hard hit ball off the lefty.
A guy like that, you're probably not going to be
in a lot of those roles.
And I gave him a little bit of a hard time
for the type of school to lap at.
Chris Dale is a very good pitcher
in spring training in major league baseball.
It's not one of the harder guys you're going to face
in a spring training outing.
So yeah, credit to Hazu Sanchez, you know,
given the Toronto Blue Jays something to think about,
more so for sure against the right-handed pitching,
still probably won't see that much against left-handed pitching.
But there is probably going to be a scenario from time to time
where you're going to have Hazu Sanchez in a scenario
where he's going to face that left-handed pitching.
They're both experts, it's fine.
I almost worked out anyway, you know.
Yeah, no, I 100% agree.
I want to see more from this guy.
I want to continue to see him
and what he could produce for this team this year.
But that's what a lot of spring training is.
Is me sitting here and saying,
hmm, I like that.
I want to see more.
Oh, I didn't like that.
I didn't see more from that guy.
That's really what this is.
But just before we take out of here for the evening
or for the day, whatever,
I did want to bring up the everydayer club once again
where it's a $5 membership.
You guys get all the ad free episodes.
You get the link to the everydayer club,
or the everydayer club discord account.
You get a merch shop.
There's a whole bunch of stuff.
The discord account has this fantasy section
where we talk a ton of fantasy baseball,
which is a ton of fun, especially
for those fantasy geeks out there like us.
So as always, I want to thank everybody for tuning in
watching every single day.
We're going to be back with you guys next week
with a lot more to come as spring training continues.
So we'll see you guys then.
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Locked On Blue Jays - Daily Podcast On The Toronto Blue Jays

Locked On Blue Jays - Daily Podcast On The Toronto Blue Jays

Locked On Blue Jays - Daily Podcast On The Toronto Blue Jays