OverDrive - Matheson on the Blue Jays advancing to the World Series, Springer's massive home run and Bichette's injury status

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss the Blue Jays advancing to the World Series, the team's journey for the season, George Springer's incredible home run and his iconic year, Bo Bichette's status to play against the Dodgers, John Schneider's legacy and more.

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It's incredible. What's happening, Keegan? Happy to be home, guys. Happy to reacquaint myself with my couch for a day, my apartment, you know, get my life back in order. It's been good. Did your girlfriend catch you drinking scotch at 5 in the morning, or what's the deal? Yeah, not a great look, fellas, but came in.

I got home at about 3.30 in the morning last night, and I used to do that all the time, Now that I've cleaned up my act, it's a bit more rare. And I tell you what, guys, the champagne's fine. I don't mind the champagne. But when you get that stale, stinky beer on you, I think she smelled me coming to the apartment before she heard me. So tough entrance, but long nights. And, man, another West Coast opponent, too.

So I've given up on health and sanity and all that stuff for the next few weeks. I'll figure it out in November, December. Keegan, before we get into the meat of the game last night, I just wanted to get your thoughts on how people should view this from the management side of things. Is this just like, you know, they got lucky. They just put this thing together and somehow it worked out. Like, how should people view?

Because in years past, everyone was like Shapiro, Atkins, get rid of them. How should they view those two now? And I still sense that eagerness to call it luck or call it that one time. It all finally came together. but there's been a method to some of this madness along the way. And a lot of the times, guys, it's just been more madness than method. But you see finally the vision that the Blue Jays have had all along.

And it took some tinkering. And this guys, I think, is a case in favor of the argument for continuity and letting a front office figure it out. Now, a lot of front offices in Major League Baseball, if they'd put up the Blue Jays results over the last 10 years, there would have been changes. They had not won a playoff game since 2016. It's been a long damn time.

In a lot of cities, under a lot of ownership groups, they would have cleaned house, maybe a couple of times. But this group was allowed to stick around and kind of fine-tune things. They've been chasing this exact outcome. They've been chasing this style of team forever, and they've whiffed a few times.

But each time you whiff, you've got to realize what went wrong, and I think they finally have. I think they've found that sweet, sauce in here and of course springer seasons like that you can't plan on that i'm not going to pretend that ross ackins was sitting in his office in january thinking this guy's going to have a career year at 36 you need some luck along the way every world series team has some luck but i think the jays with some time and a lot of time they finally figured it out yeah they did and the

springer one really is of all the stories and we still have more you know to write here you have more to write. We have more to see. I mean, they're going to play at least four more games. And if they end up winning the World Series, then obviously we'll get to that point and everything else will be recalibrated. But is the Springer's story? Would that be one for you? How would you start the book up to this point? Springers got to be it, man, because I remember talking to George, guys. I remember this conversation and I always will. We were down in Bradenton or Sarasota, one of these Florida cities I don't want to be in on like March 18th or something.

And Springer was coming off a really bad season. He looked old last year. Okay? He did not just play poorly. He looked old. He looked like he was aging as a player. And in spring training, he looked terrible. And I know that spring training doesn't matter.

But if you're coming off a bad season and you still look bad in spring and I'm on my fifth week of spring training, I've got to at least pretend to pay attention to it. Nothing looked good for Springer. And I remember pulling him aside one day. And I like to be honest with guys. I pulled him aside. I said, George, listen, like, hasn't looked good so far. I'm going to ask you about that. And I remember he looked at me and not in a way where he was scoffing or disagreeing with me, but he said, listen, I actually feel really great. Like, I think I'm going to surprise some people. I feel great right now. And I don't care about spring. I think you're going to see it in the regular season.

I remember walking away from that guy's thinking like, okay, dude, short thing. And at that point, I thought it was likelier. And Hayes, I think we talked about this on the field last night. I legitimately thought there was a chance. that by July, August, we were having a really uncomfortable conversation about George Springer. If the Js were a 500 team, man, do you just DFA the guy, get some young guys in, eat that salary, you eat the last 6th year, this has been the biggest shock I've covered, frankly. You don't see this happen for baseball players at 36. It's just unbelievable. And I can't say enough about the guy, man. Full credit to him. What do you think it is, Kagan? Like, is it health? Is it just good fortune?

Is it him not playing in the field? Like, what is it? Not playing the field really helps. I honestly think that's been a big part of this. And I didn't think that it would be such a factor, but it has been. And it's a real mindset change. And you can give a lot of credit to David Popkins

and the hitting group. But last year, George Springer was trying to not get out. This year, he's the aggressor again. He's trying to hurt somebody. He's trying to hit the ball really far. Last year, it was defensive. Because George Springer, guys, we've talked about this before. think it even comes through over the TV. What an incredible athlete he is. Like in terms of

raw athleticism, he's one of the best I've ever covered. And that's why he's good. And for that quality of athlete to go into a defensive mindset, didn't work. Doesn't match. You know, that's for slap hitting little five foot seven outfielders, not George Springer. Like, the dude is built like a free safety. He's able to hit home runs. He could hit 30 next year, too. I don't care. But he's such a gifted athlete, and he's getting back into that. And he's having fun again guys he's he's energized man when i think of the 2025 blue jays i think of george springer going first to home on a double it's like screaming his way around third base he's energized he's young again and it's all that mindset man he's the aggressor now with kegan matheson which i guess gets us

to the world series here in the bobbocet conversation which i would not call it an elephant in the room but you had the exclusive last night and you know he told you he said, I'm ready to play. You know, I'm ready to go. And he's Bo Bichette. And he, outside of Vlad, it's him and Vladdy for the last decade. And if he's ready to play, he's ready to play. You would presume he's being honest about that.

He's not just caught up in the moment and dealing with adrenaline. You presume he's ready to play. Go ahead. I also heard A.J. Persinski say, I don't know about that. If I'm from the Jay's, you maybe got to say, take a seat. We're doing this. We're going to give it a rip without you, man. Right.

And that's a World Series winner. And Prisinski's a, like, a, a, a serious. analyst in the game. So Keegan, let's presume he's on the roster. Let's say Bichette is on the World Series roster. How much does he play? Where does he play? And what does it mean for everyone else?

It's not a simple answer, guys. It's kind of clunky, to be honest with you. And it was interesting, Hayes, when I asked Bo that, he was asked, when did you feel good enough? And he said a few days ago, right around when Tony went down, Anthony Santander. So from that, I can assume that he was arguing to get on the roster then, but if he says he's ready, and I believe he is, then he's going to play. And you want that bad in the lineup every single day. Now, can I envision Bo Bichet at shortstop, especially three games in a row when you're on the road in L.A.?

Not really at this point. That's tough to envision. Andres Jimenez has looked really damn good at shortstop. You can have Ernie at second or 30. It works without Boe in there defensively. What that would mean, then, guys, is George Springer in the outfield, right or left field, is that bumping out someone like Nathan Lucas or is that killing your platoon matchups and on top of this guys George Springer's DH the whole playoffs and he's been really, really good

do you want to mess with that? So this is a good problem but good problems still need good answers. You can still screw up a good problem and John Schneider would really need to make a decision on this but if Beau is healthy and I believe he is you need his bat in the lineup.

Having him bat forth behind Vladdy you need him in there and I understand that there's going to be the argument of do you mess with the chemistry, whatever. This is Bo's team. It has been for 10 years, and he deserves to be part of this. And, man, if you told him he was not going to be part of this, I think he'd burn someone's house down at this point, man. He wants to be in there. Well, and that's another thing, right? Like, his contract is up soon.

Oh, that's a delicate situation, man. It really is because, again, I am very uncomfortable with Springer shifting anything. Like, the way Springer is D. And how comfortable he is, I don't want to come off. that. Anybody to screw with that would have to be crazy. Why can't you play him at second, Kagan? I'd love to if there was another season to work with, but going from a shortstop, his whole career right to second in this, I think that's pretty risky. And I mean, he's a ball player. It's not like you're asking to play a different sport. It's fine. I think you can

hang, but I think you're really risking a lot there if you've asked him to do that. But if you roll out Bow at shortstop, then you're kicking Jimenez back to second. probably Ernie Clements at third base, and you've got Barger back in a corner outfield. It can work, but guys with a knee injury, running is one thing. But it's that kind of quick bouncing side to side, that movements for ground balls.

I don't know how comfortable that would be for Bo at this point. And no matter what decision they land on, guys, I think we're figuring this out as we talk about it. No matter what decision they make, they're taking a risk. Either with George in the field, with Boe defensively, they're going to be accepting a major risk to get his bat back in the lineup. And there's no guarantee the risk will work. I just, I can't imagine this happening without Bobbushet.

No, and I mean, at a minimum, I think he's on the roster. And like maybe game one, they say we're going to stick with the lineup we've had. Maybe. And he's a guy that's coming off the bench, you know, possibly you had Schneider, you had Lou Perfito, you had guys who didn't really factor into the series at all that were on the roster and on the bench. But that's the thing. It's not just about, okay, kinder-fil-Fa comes out.

That I can reason with. But this group, they appreciate what he brings. He's had some big plays. He had a massive play last night, massive hit last night. And you don't want to mess with Lucas. I don't think you want to mess with Barger.

You know, it's a good problem to have, but to your point, Keegan, it's not an obvious and easy one. Yet, if you're going to beat the Dodgers, you probably need Bo Bichette, don't you? I think that's what all the players would say. This is screwing with chemistry, and I hate this.

But if we're going to take these guys down, we need that guy's bat in the lineup. Right. That seems reasonable. Yeah. And you've got to make tough choices. And it's Bo Bichet. I don't think there's any way you can put sparinger in the field, right?

Well. You can, like, based on the way it's gone, like he can't. I don't love the idea of it. No, especially, I mean, after he took that heater to the knee as well, we saw him in the dugout wearing a brace. at different points, like in between innings, that would put pressure on it and cool it. So he's still dealing with that. And that's the good thing I wouldn't want to mess with.

Because, guys, you're going to choose to mess with something. Somebody on this roster is going to get messed with. I don't want to mess with the guy who just had one of the biggest moments in Jay's history. Leave him alone. I'd love to see George left alone. So you're in that clubhouse every single day, and you're around John Snyder more than probably anyone, his family included. Poor guy.

Yeah. What does this mean for the legacy of John Snyder? Man, this is an incredible story for John Schneider, guys. He was a 13th round draft pick by this organization back in, what was it, 2002, I think. And he was your classic minor league backup catcher, more of a defender than anything, never really a threat to be a big leaguer and came up as a manager the right way too he managed in the backfields of the florida coast league way way back in the day so he has touched every single level of this organization and i remember starting to hear about schneider way back in 2017 2018 and there's this

guy in single a that maybe could be a manager someday and everybody would say he's got a wild temper but we think he could be a manager someday some of schneide's ejections back in the day are a hundred times better than what you see in the big leagues. He had some good ones. But for the legacy of him now, John Gibbons did not make the World Series with

this team. Outside of Cito, no other manager has. And you can dine out on that for the rest of your life. And John Schneider, as a manager, is still a very young manager, guys. So I think what I've seen in Schneider is a manager who's developed and grown, who has accepted

some mistakes and talked about them pretty openly. and has admitted when he has screwed things up along the way. But he's gotten better from that. And I'm a big believer that managers can improve and develop. They're not just a guy you decide to love or hate on day one. So it's fascinating to watch this, man. Coming into the season, a lot of people hated the guy. Now, a lot of people are singing his praises, rightfully so,

and I think he should be the AL manager of the year. Yeah, I think that's likely going to happen. And you're right, now that he gets to the World Series, you know, it seems like the obvious choice. but we'll see how that plays out. All right, Kagan, great stuff, man. I know it's been a whirlwind for you, and the beauty of this is we've got a few more days

to tee up game one, man. We've got a little bit of a break here and enjoy it. We'll catch up later in the week, and we'll see you Friday night. All righty, fellas. We'll talk soon. See you then. You've got it. There's Kegan Matheson joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline.

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