OverDrive - Dempster on the Blue Jays dropoff from the 2025 season, how fan support can affect a team, and George Springer's value in the trade market

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Former MLB pitcher and Baseball Analyst Ryan Dempster joins the show to discuss the Blue Jays woes this season and the dropoff from their 2025 World Series run, how much sway fans have in a home crowd for a club, and what George Springer’s value could be in the trade market.

literally days away from the trade deadline. And to chat about it, we're joined now by a guy that knows the game very, very well. Good Canadian boy joining us on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Here's Ryan Dempster. How you doing, Ryan? I'm doing great, guys. Thanks for having you on. Yeah, thank you for doing this. Obviously, you're aware of, you know, what the Jay's been going through here

and, you know, massively disappointing season, considering the expectations of what happened last year. I don't know if you've been in a situation that, you know, can mirror this, like such an extreme polarization in terms of wins and losses one year to the next but if you have and you can speak to it please do like what's what do you think the vibe

is like in the clubhouse when you're 10 games under 500 and you're in game seven of the World Series last year yeah well I think the early narrative was like okay it's a marathon not a sprint okay we're just going to but now you're in the final 60 game stretch of the season

and you know there's an old saying you're going to win 50 and you're going to lose 50. What do you do with the other 62? Well, you know, you got to kind of get on it right now and it's almost becoming too little too late. It's just a weird, I just didn't see this coming to be honest with you. I looked at their team and

look at the production across the board. I think you know, is down. I mean, Vladdy, this power outage is just so bizarre. I can't understand it. He isn't a home run at the Rogers Center September. You know, and it's just, it's, it's, it's just weird. And I can't really put a finger on it.

I don't know if it's just a hangover. I don't know if it's the longevity of last year. O leaves and guys not healthy in the rotation. It's just, yeah, it's a strange thing that they're obviously trying to figure out and haven't been able to fix it. Ryan, leading up to the trade deadline, now I'm in the clubhouse an hour a day, but you've been in there when it matters more when it's just the players. And when you were on a team and you know that the guy next to you,

the guy a few lockers down is being talked about. His name is in the media. He may be a trade candidate. Is that something that in your experience, players are bringing out in the open? Does it depend on the guy? How does that affect a room and the individuals who are in it? The room doesn't really affect. I think, you know, as a room, you know, what you hope is that you're playing good baseball.

I think the only time I ever noticed, like, the trade deadline effect guys, is when you're playing good baseball and they don't upgrade the team. And you're like, man, man, we put ourselves in the game. this position and we didn't get any help. Like you guys couldn't have done anything and it becomes a little disheartening at times with certain clubs. I think right now, you know, guys are just trying to scratch and claw their way to a better record.

But, you know, individually, sure, I think, you know, I think it affects guys who've maybe been somewhere a long time and then you hear your name coming up. But at the same time, if you're usually a pro, like you know what's going on. and unless you have some sort of no trade clause, it's out of your control, so you just go out there and try and do what you can that day to help your team win. Ryan, we were just having the debate of, you know,

what a front office can do when a season is just going a direction that is not good, expectations have been missed by miles, and nothing's really changing. There's just a malaise over the club. You know, do you fire the manager? Do you make a big trade? Do you, you sort of raise wholly half?

hell and, you know, break something in the clubhouse. I mean, like, there's all kinds of different ideas of how you might put a jolt into a team that's lost its way. I mean, what's your take on that? Like, how effective can that be? Can you think of an instance in your career where there was a turning point in a season, whether it was a firing or a trade or just something happening, a outburst of emotion? Or do we put too much stock in that type of stuff? Yeah.

I mean, sometimes I felt like teams I was on that if we got in some sort of brawl with another team, especially early on in the season. But if you're looking for a spark right now, like, I worry. I worry it's too little too late for the Blue Jays. I hope that's poster board material for them. They put it up in the locker room. I don't know what the motivation is, but you've got to play better baseball than you are right now. There's times it gets a little bit sloppy when it comes to certain things. And so I think that they, you know, at the end of the day, that's all, that's what matters the most.

You can be like, rah, raw. It doesn't mean guys are trying to play harder or anything like that. But I just think, like, collectively, they just haven't been able to get it. I mean, they got two guys on their team with double-digit home runs, and one of that's 10 home runs. Like, there's just not a lot of slug. Who would have thought at the start of the season that Acomoto be double the nearest and anybody else on the team?

And we don't know, right? Like, I think that's the other part that is, like, we want to have all these answers. those guys we were talking about before I intentional talk today I asked and I asked here and Kevin I go is this because if you if you really wrap your head around everything that went on last year

playing the Dodgers the Dodgers you know you're trying to slay Goliath and you're got a whole country behind you're so close multiple times a ball in the gap it gets caught by paw heads a play at home plate Rojas was able to throw and get them out at home plate by a half a step.

You know, all these different things that go on. Base is loaded and Yamamoto, base hit wins the world. Like, all these things, is this one of the biggest hangovers we've seen, given the emotional toll of last year? I don't know. And, like, it's hard to say that because the season's not over. They could do, look what the Red Sox just did.

Like, nobody's immune to a great hot streak just as things have gone bad. So I just think there's a little bit more to it. guys, sometimes guys are banged up and they're trying to play things because we can't make excuses ever, right? We don't want those. That's what we're taught. You don't make excuses. You make solutions.

Well, maybe guys are trying to fight through things. And it's really hard. And what they went through last year to play all the way to the end of that and then just be like, hey, it's going to be, we're going to get there again. Really? Look at how many teams have lost a game like that in game seven of the World Series and get right back there. You know, it's tough.

A collapse can come really fast after that because of the emotional. tolls at all. Yeah, and that I think is one theory that makes a lot of sense, that it just started snowballing away from them, and they realized we're that much further away from Game 7, the World Series now, and how do you get it back on the rails? They've had a lot of injury problems, too. Like, there's been other realities.

Well, and, like, yeah, I look at Texas. I was with Texas, right, in 2012. They went to the World Series in 2010. 2011, had a chance to win the World Series. Josh Hamilton hits the home run, the next thing, you know, ball over Nelson Cruz's head and then we'll see you tomorrow night happens well

then 2012 losing one game playoff and then it's been not much success since so like that's how hard it is to stay at the top of the game in your league that's why when people talk about the Dodgers what's so impressive is that they're there I know they have the talent but

like you still have to show up every day and you still have to perform and it's not just given because of what you pay somebody or what you give them on paper. Look at the New York Mets. I mean, a $300 million pay roll, and they stink. They're the last team's last place in their division.

So, like, there's no guarantees with anything, and that's why I think sometimes that probably would hurt a lot, and it hurts a lot for guys because you realize you're so close, and it's not guaranteed you're even going to be in the playoffs next year, let alone get back to a World Series. Ryan, that Red Sox team that you mentioned, the Blue Jays, when the Blue Jays were at Fenway a month ago, I couldn't imagine a team looking worse than the Red Sox looked then,

and now they win 15 in a row. So they work so well as the counterbalance argument. And you know what it's like to win in Boston and what that city can be like with a good team. I don't think there are many places in baseball like Fenway when their team is good. What's it been like for you to see that run, and does it kind of bring you back to some of those memories of what type of place Boston can be when the Red Sox are hot?

Oh yeah Yeah It's unreal man Like I think that's what sometimes It's hard for Players When they're trying to relay that to their fans

It's like Fans have no idea What a difference maker they can be An energy and an aura around it So when you're losing You're constantly being beat down And you feel it like Let's go let's go

Like imagine being a kid We're still kids I know we're grown men And we're playing the game But we're still kids inside And so when you have negative energy around you, you go into a different place, mindset-wise. And then all of a sudden you get into a place where you start winning,

and then it becomes this thing where you feel like no matter what the score, you can always come back. Like, you know, whether that was in Boston when I was there, I felt that way when we won in 2013, a large part had to do with that clubhouse and who we had in there and how it was all going. But also along the way, you know, 2008 with the Cubs, we were down like 9-1 in the game to the Rockies

and Lou took everybody out of the game. Just put all the scrubs in, man. Here you go. Lemons, you're in. We made the best lemonade. We came back and won the game 10-9. And guys like Henry Blanco were hitting homers. It was just, it was this thing where it was just like, holy cow, man.

Like this is just what the power is of being able to have positivity around you. And that's what those cities can do and those fan bases can do. and pitching. I mean, Boston is one of long games, really good pitching. You know, that will do it. If you execute and you're good on the mound, you know, obviously you've got to play good baseball,

but you can feed off that as you get going and those fan bases like that. And we've talked about this. I've talked about it with you guys. In Toronto, you have one of the most special places. The Rogers Center is so loud and so obnoxious that that is home field advantage. We saw it in the playoffs.

It can be raucous. It's tough. And so I think, you know, know, for, you know, Blue Jay fans to try and understand this moment, but it's hard to have patience with your team when you're expecting another World Series run. And it's not quite there. You talk about the kid inside you, Ryan. I mean, last year it felt like George Springer was drinking from the fountain of youth on a nightly basis.

He was the MVP of the Blue Jays in a lot of ways. And this year, there's been a falloff, right? The feels like Father Times catching up. And yet, you know, he's one of these. you know, pending free agents that the Blue Jays have to dangle at the trade deadline. And, you know, he'll be 38 in September. What's your take on how teams might view him? Because he has hit a little better in the past week or so,

shown a little bit more signs of the George Springer who can be very effective. And he also has that incredible clutch time resume, being a former World Series MVP, hit one of the biggest home runs in Blue Jays franchise history just last fall. Do you see him as somebody that could be attractive to a would-be contender? The thing is, I would say, yeah, but when you see the numbers in, like you mentioned, you know, maybe a little bit better recently, so that helps, you know. The last seven games, almost 300 with an OPS over 800, but, you know, what are you giving up?

You're not getting a lot back in return. You get a draft pick compensation for him if you don't. and I'm correct, or did they get rid of that now? I don't know. Yeah, experience matters in the playoffs. I just think, you know, I want to catch George. Like, we saw him last year. Facts, right?

He was grinding through a lot of stuff physically, trying to get out there every day in the postseason. The amount of stuff that goes on, it's like it happens so much where people don't realize the injuries their guys are dealing with because they don't say anything. They just take some anti-inflammatories, painkillers, whatever.

you got to do to go out there because you don't know when it's going to happen. Well, that has a lingering effect into the next year and maybe just a little bit slower start for him. And the fact that he's hitting the ball a little bit better right now is that another week of that do the Blue Jays win games and you climb back into this. Like so many things are determined in the next week as to what teams are going to do. But if I'm a team and I'm looking for a right-hand bat, maybe one that I can give a tough day off to tough righties.

George Springer, why wouldn't somebody want that on a team? This guy's a multiple-time World Series champion, a guy who's a guy who's a tough day he's performed on the biggest stage. So, yeah, I think he is a track. He is Ryan Dempster, co-host of intentional talk, and you see him on the MLB Network. We always love having you on, Ryan. We'll do it again soon.

Thank you for this. Yeah, you bet, and hopefully things turn for the Blue Jays up there in Toronto and the city can enjoy another playoff run, but they've got to get it going. They sure do. They won today. So that's a good start. Here we go. Streak starts today.

I love it. All right, guys. Thanks, Ryan. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Oncour. Check out our brand new. episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf forades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things

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