Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Whit Merrifield Talks Jays Playoff Push, Final Stretch Storylines & More | BB Interview

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Barn Burner InterviewYoutube Link 🎥 https://youtu.be/GCOrvFydz4APinder is joined by former Toronto Blue Jay Whit Merrifield to get you set for the Blue Jays’ playoff push. They discuss this season’s storylines, Bo Bichette’s injury status, key pitching matchups, and everything you need to know heading into a nail-biting end to the year.#bluejays #toronto #torontobluejays #mlb #mlbbshorts #mlbbhighlights 6ix Inning Stretch Podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPjoTLVy5UHo-ka7xD0uEcyPqbiunxtaTCHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER BLONDE https://originbrewing.myshopify.comFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

to be joined by a three-time All-Star, a former Blue Jay, a three-time stolen base king in the American League and a nine-season major leaguer. Whit, Maryfield, two-hit Whit from the sixth inning stretch podcast. Whit, how are you, buddy? I'm great. Hope you guys are great. Yeah, we're doing well. I'll tell you what. There's some sweaty palms north of the 49th parallel as Canadians are watching the Toronto Blue Jays turn a five, six game lead in the AL East into, oh,

maybe they'll be on the wild card. What if you made of their recent stretch of play, including a Yankees walk off last night to compound the pain? Yeah, they're just trying to keep, you know, keep everybody engaged, keep everybody interested is all it is. It's, it's, you know, it's playoff baseball. It just comes a little early. It's late in the year.

Guys are banged up. The Yankees are in a little bit of desperation mode trying to catch the Jays and the Jays are playing better teams right now than the Yankees are. So it's not as easy of a finish as I think a lot of Blue Jays fans would like. But whenever you can control your own destiny, there's a better feeling than when you're chasing somebody, hoping that they lose. And you're having to win, but hoping that they lose. Blue Jays just got to worry about winning and five games left. Really, I think you've got to win three to kind of solidify.

that division. So three out of five, I think, is something that just keep your focus on that. Don't worry about losing the game before that you haven't been playing good lately. Just win three out of five and you win the division. Yeah, the lead is won in the division, but the Jays do on the tie break from winning that season series against the Yankees. Any thought to teams that go to the wild card having momentum? Now, obviously the Js, they've done the opposite. They've got smoked and not had any momentum. their season's been overcoming off the last few wild cards. But how would you view that rest of like, let's say you get four days between the end

of the season and the start of the divisional series versus playing in a best of three in the middle there? You know, I think that's, I've never been a huge advocate of using that four-day rest as an excuse if you don't play well. In my personal experience, every time I've come off an All-Star break with those was four days off. I've always felt like my game is great. I'm refreshed. I feel rejuvenated and ready to rock. So I can only imagine what that's like going into a playoff stretch. So I think that's kind of a built-in excuse. If teams not playing well, oh, you know,

we had some time off. We got rusty. So but with the Js, you know, they've got a great mix of veterans that have been there, done that and young guys. So I don't, I don't see that be an issue for them. but when it comes to playing well in general, you really want to be playing well going into the playoffs, regardless of whether or not you're going into the wild card or having those days off. You just want to have that good feeling about your team and the way you're playing.

So these five games, not only are they important for the Js to win the division, but they got to start playing some better ball to get that feeling of this is who we are. This is how, you know, when they were playing great earlier in the year. They got to get back to that as they go into the playoffs. What do you do with the rotation here? Let's have a few different outcomes here. If you've got a wild card versus if you've got a DS, who would you like to see lined up for those games? And is it different given where you are, you know, it looks like right now,

if they need to win their last game of the year, that could be a Gosman start. But I don't think you're doing that if you've got it locked up. Or maybe you do save them for a wild card if that game is necessary. How would you approach that? Yeah, it's interesting because you're in the playoffs. So you really, you don't, Gossi's the guy, right? Gossi, in my opinion, he's the number one guy. He's the guy that you want going game one. So if it comes down to that last game of Gossman is going to pitch and if we win, we're in the DS.

If we lose, we're in the wild card. Do you throw Gossi in that game? I don't know if I would. I would prefer to save him for game one, like regardless. I don't think there's a right or wrong decision there, but I think they do what they need to do. They win the division before that last game. I think it's Gossman, game one.

I think it's Bieber game two. If Bassett's back healthy, we had Bassett on the podcast the other day, and he brought up a great point to where, you know, you got Gossi and you got Beaver. And then after that, you can kind of play with, you can throw who the straight, You can throw the pitcher that exposes the weakness of the other team.

So if the other team is not a good sinkerball hitting team, you can throw Bassett or you can throw Barrios. And if a team struggles with a four-team fastball, you can throw Scherzer and you can kind of play with that way. So they have guys that they can mix and match. All of them are really good. And so you're playing with House Money almost because I think from a rotation standpoint, I'm not sure there's a team in the playoffs that might be in a better spot rotationally than the Blue Jays. What do you do with you Savage?

Are you putting Trey in the bullpen? Do you, you know, toy with the idea of starting them? Or again, is it matchup dependent? I mean, we haven't seen a ton of except that he's zoomed through four levels of ball to get to the majors one year after being drafted. Like, he's got a lot of swing and miss. Yeah, look, I think Trey is, from what I've seen from him, he is going to be a stud in this.

league for a long time. I believe it's hard. It would be hard for me early in the playoffs to trust him to start. He's a mature, from everything I've heard, he's a super mature down to earth, like, like even keel kid. So it might not, the level of the playoffs might not affect him. But you got to go with the guys that have been there and done that. You just, especially early.

I think he's a guy that you throw in the bullpen. He can come in. His stuff is so good. He can come in and strike a couple guys out, maybe in the middle of the game if you need him to. And then as the playoffs go on and guys, stuff happens. And maybe somebody gets hurt or guys are banged up and you need that starter for this game. He's a guy you can throw in there and say go get him rook.

But early on, I would not start him. I would put him in the pin and kind of use him as that middle. middle relief kind of guy. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you haven't seen a ton of stuff that he just keeps, guys keep heading back to the dugout, shaking their heads. So he'll be an asset somewhere, it looks like. What did you make of the moves yesterday?

Alec Benoa DFAed to make room for Anthony Santander, who is a notorious slow starter, got off to his normal slow start, and then got hurt before we saw, you know, the 40 home run guy that they tried to sign in the offseason. Is it a lock that this guy's going to get playing time, or is he going to have to, in the next five games potentially, show that he can supplant one of these better defensive outfielders

who, frankly, have been part of this winning success all year? Yeah, it's interesting. The Santhad there thing is quite interesting because you paid him to come in and be a guy. I think it would be a little bit different if the offense was cruising, like they were a little bit earlier in the season. But I think right now, because the offense is scuffling a bit, I think you don't have a problem throwing him in there and trying to find a spark.

He's been, at least when I played against him, he's been maybe the moment we played ball team in the game when he came up. He was hitting a big home run or getting a big hit. So I think you and the Blue Jays know that because a lot of them was going to some Blue Jays. But I think they can rely on that and hope that that happens because the offensive scuffling, they need a spark. So you throw them in there. maybe you throw George in the outfield to DHM. But I definitely think that he'll find a way in the lineup somehow. And with the Manoa thing, that's, I don't really know kind of what to stay about that.

It's not, honestly, it's not overly surprising as a guy that was kind of around when all this stuff started happening. But a little surprise that right after coming off his Tommy John when he was about to be back, that this is the time to do it. But again, there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind closed doors. People don't know about. And I haven't been there in a year and a half, almost two years now. So a lot of stuff could have happened that I just don't know about.

But a little surprised by the news yesterday. But wish the best to Alec. And I'm sure he'll be fine. on his feet. It's funny. He was dominant, like, right early after being drafted at the major league level. Like, he's getting side young votes. You're like, holy crow, this guy's like, this is going to be a career of Blue Jay, like front of the rotation guy. Yeah. Loses it. Tommy John. A lot of questions about, you know, where's this conditioning at? You know, the command of the strike zone seemed to wax and wane. It was there. It wasn't.

And he actually posts some pretty decent numbers of AAA, but like to me, maybe I'm wrong. it just says, look, we got a chance to win something this year. We might normally not put DFA a guy this time of year, but if it can help us get another body under our playoff roster, we got to do it. No question. And again, there's, it wasn't just the, it wasn't just the this is the guy that fits in the,

he's the one that's going to have to fall in the sword and take the DFA. There's more to it than that that I think a lot of people don't probably know. and including myself. But there is a reason that it was him, and I don't know what that was, but Alex, look about at 2022, like you said, the stuff is there, the potential is there.

He's just got to, you know, learn from the struggles that he's had and understand what made him good and give back to that. And he's a hard worker, and I think he will. And, you know, like I said, I wish him the best. I think he'll lay on his feet.

What are you expecting from Bo Bichette? He's been ruled out essentially until the playoffs. Do you think you'll see him deaching? Do you think you'll see him playing as usual shortstop? Or is this maybe just the great big question marks surrounding this club that certainly could use Bo's bat right now as the offense has cooled off the last two weeks since his departure? I think from a hitting standpoint, I think Bo will be fine being that it's his back leg, his right leg that is bothering him. I think if it was his front knee, it would be more of an issue because he would be turning on that knee. And so that would probably be a little more painful.

But from a defensive standpoint, I would, I don't know, man, I might even like, I don't know if they've done this or not or talked about this, but I might entertain putting him a second base just to kind of, I don't know, I mean, it's the same amount of range a second, but you have more time to field the ball and gather yourself and throw the first and you do a shortstop and maybe that will help with his knee. But I don't really know how Bo is progressing. I don't know how he's moving around.

I'm sure he's out taking ground balls and feeling it out. And if, I mean, Bo's a gamer. Bo wants to be out there in the playoffs more than anybody. So if he feels any sort of inkling that he can be out there, especially with the offense scuffling,

like I talked about earlier, I think they're going to not hesitate to throw him out there. And he's going to be pounding on that door of Schneider every single day saying, look, I'm ready, get me out there, get me out there, get me out there. And they'll have to get him out there at some point. Probably a pretty good year to be his agent. He's a free agent this winter. And, oh, I think is after last year, which is probably a career low year, injuries,

the bat wasn't there. You know, you had this guy that was, oh, he's going to be up at the top of the league and hits every year. and he's really durable. And then last year there was neither. Fast forward one year. And yeah, at the time of his injury, he's running away with the hits lead in the American League

and proving his value in his absence right now. I mean, I don't know what I would have pegged him at for a contract as a free agent before the season started. But safe to say he's made himself a lot of money the last 12 months. For sure. I hyped him up a little bit a couple episodes ago on our podcast and told him that that's about, I probably earned him another 10.

$20 million, you know, through that, because I'm sure multiple, multiple GMs listen and take what I say to heart. So I earned them some money. So I said, you know, that's a, that's a 1% kickback for me. And talking to him to you now, I'm going to up that up to 1.5% because I think Bo is, I think he is the best shortstop coming out in the class. He's everything that you want from a guy that you're going to sign long term. And I say that in a sense where the money he's going to get isn't going to hinder what he's going to work for. Money doesn't drive him. It's winning and it's being the best baseball player he can be. And that's, I don't want to say rare, but it's kind of rare to find. Usually when guys get a big contract, there's that

like a little bit of natural letdown. Like you're set for life. You work all this time to to sign that contract, not you've signed it. Yeah, you're still going to come out and work hard and do what you can for your team, but there's that human element of almost a little bit of like monkey off your back. The monkey on Bo's back is being in the Hall of Fame winning World Series. That's what drives Bo. And so that's why I don't think him signing a big contract is going to do anything but propel him. And I'm hoping it's with the Blue Jays.

I have a feeling it'll be with the Blue Jays. J's, but whoever does get them, they'll get a good one. Yeah, I will say this. I mean, there's been a lot of talk probably prior to your arrival in Toronto about, you know, are they willing to spend? But the last few years, like they're top five payroll of baseball. They're right up against that top luxury tax threshold. I think they proved with Vladdy that they're not afraid to cut a big check,

even if it maybe doesn't match their statistical valuations of what a good deal is. They knew that it was more important to the business to get that done. Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I think if they have to outspend to keep bow, it doesn't seem like something they wouldn't do at this point, especially how the teams looked when he hasn't been there. So, you know, I think there'd be a lot of happy Canadians if that business got done in the winter.

For sure. And it's the same thing with Vladdy is playing for the Blue Jays is so much fun. It's such a privilege. but until you play for the Blue Jays, there is a little bit of a a little bit of a stigma that comes with playing for the Blue Jays and that that's playing in a different country, having to do with customs every time you travel.

The taxes in Canada aren't great. So, you know, players think about that when they're a free agent signing somewhere. And so if I have X deal with the Blue Jays and it's matching with a team like Texas or somewhere like that, players are going to lean a little more towards Texas. The thing with Bo and Vladie is they play for the Toronto.

They know how great it is to be a Blue Jay and how much fun it is to play for the Blue Jays. And so you can get them to when you have the similar deal, you can get them to stay with Toronto because they love it. And that's what happened with Vladdy. I'm glad they got something done with him. And same with Bo. You're not going to get a, if someone comes and tries to sweep Bow away, if Toronto offers them the same deal, he's going to stick with Toronto.

I don't because that's what he loves and what he knows. And there's just there's few places to play. It's like playing for the Blue Jays, but it's just the natural thing of being the only team in a different country. There's people think about that kind of stuff when they're trying to make decisions on where to spend a long time in their career. Give us a rating on the vibes. How are you feeling about this group heading into the postseason?

I mean, you talked about the depth of the rotation. with you there. I've got a little concern about the back of the bullpen, although there is lots of options, especially if you're savages back there. The lineup has been one of the best hitting lineups, hard to get out, doesn't strike out. That's cooled off of late. Are you feeling good about this team as they head into October? They've got all the pieces to make a run in October. The teams that seem to consistently make runs in October are the ones that you mentioned, the ones teams that don't strike out, teams that get timely hitting. I think Toronto, if I'm not mistaken, leads baseball and comeback wins. That's timely hitting.

But they're in a great spot with their rotation. They have veterans in their rotation, veterans in the lineup. And they have a good bullpen. The bullpen has just because they've scuffled at times during the year doesn't mean it doesn't mean they're not a good bullpen. You got a guy and Jeff Hoffman that's has been there, done that. His numbers might not reflect the kind of pitcher that he is, but it doesn't matter if he pitch well in the postseason. And he's done that, and he's pitched in the postseason and pitched well.

So I think that guys are going to need to step up and play better than they're playing right now. But I feel good about the team. They got five games to kind of get it figured out before, you know, the real baseball starts. But I still feel pretty good about this team. How's the career change been? Obviously, you know, now removed from playing, but still around the sport with the podcast, the sixth inning stretch.

How did the idea come around? Did you hum and ha? Were you like, oh, this is totally for me? How has it been so far? It's been good. Yeah, it's been good. Honestly, I was just kind of sitting in my house, playing with my daughter, playing golf and got a call that this podcast was starting. And they asked if I wanted to be a part of it.

And I said, yeah. So it's been great. It's been nice to continue to pay. because I really wasn't paying attention of what was going on at the time. But this has given me a reason to continue to follow baseball and follow my friends and follow Toronto specifically. So I've enjoyed it.

I've enjoyed catching up with a bunch of old teammates and telling stories and, you know, talking some smack. That's kind of what I miss the most about playing is just riffing on guys. So I hope that I can... But the point of it for me was to bring a different perspective to maybe what you're seeing from a player standpoint,

especially from a guy that knows a lot of the guys and knows the clubhouse and how the clubhouse works and kind of the intertwined things that happen. I want to be able to give a perspective that fans might not understand because, you know, with any sport, there's the fans view and there's really what's going on. And I'm just trying to help bridge that gap. I love it.

I saw you were going once a week for most of the regular season. How does the schedule look for? for the playoffs. You're going to ramp it up or is it just going to be monster shows or you've got to unpack about eight high intensity games? Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We need to talk about that.

And I know I'm going to try and get up to Toronto for one of the home games. I actually got some stuff going on early of October. So hopefully they can get to the second round so I can get up to a game. But yeah, no, I'm sure we'll make time to figure out how to talk about what's going on. and talk to people and cheer for the Blue Jays. Witt, it's been pleasure. All the best with the pod moving forward. I hope you had a good session at the range.

You know, you got a two-year-old and you've got a podcast, but I hope you've got some time for golf still. And we appreciate you coming on, sharing some insights with us today and have enjoyed the podcast, so continued success. With that, I appreciate it.