OverDrive - Matheson on the Blue Jays chasing the division, Springer's elite turnaround and the deadline approach

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Blue Jays, George Springer's resurgence in his career and his notable season, the sizzling run against the Yankees, Anthony Santander and Daulton Varsho's injuries, the approach to the trade deadline in Toronto and more.

Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada.

The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. Keegan Matheson, where did that George Springer home run rank for you as far as loudest moments in the Rogers Center? It's been a while, fellas. I started covering this team in 2017, so I really showed up after all the fun stuff happened, but it's that's up there Absolutely, and even with the dome open, you know, there was no roof there to keep everything in it was An organic moment and a hell of a crowd too

Yesterday fantastic. So that was up there man. The ball hung up in the air to add a little drama to it Not a note doubter by any means but but that was a pop. It was an incredible day here. So the Jays put up 12 runs yesterday. No Beau Bichette, no Anthony Sandon D'Air, no Dalton Varshow. Vlad and Alejandro Kirk go 0 for 9 combined. And still the Jays were able to do it and it was in large part due to George Springer who's had a true Renaissance season. And I don't think there were very very many people out there with us

bringer was going to be able to bounce back like he's a houston astro once again but that's the type of performance we've been seeing him from this from him this season what do you attribute this return to greatness for george springer to he seems re-energized guys there There's a lot of baseball reasons, mechanical reasons into this. But on a surface level, this guy is alive again. And I was dead wrong about George Springer this season. I thought it was going to keep going in a bad direction and get worse.

Because last year, he looked like he was slowing down. He did not look like he had that same jump in his step. And for such a gifted athlete too, right? In spring training it looked terrible and I know that spring training doesn't matter for much but it stretches on for six weeks and you need to talk about something and it did not look good and I remember guys it was a late spring training March 17th or 18th I went up to George before one of those spring games and I said, listen man, this isn't going well, I've got to write about it, let's talk. And I was so surprised at the time with how optimistic he was and he said, I feel great,

everything's going exactly how I want it to go. And at the time I'm standing there thinking, okay, sure, but it's worked. And he was right about this. He's chasing more power which I think is really important because George is an incredible athlete. I don't even think it comes through the TV Well, but this guy could be a linebacker in the NFL He is big and tall and built strong and that's always been in there But now he's allowing himself to chase it just a little bit more. He's getting away from that let's hit 20 singles approach that plagued this team.

I think last year and in prior years. He's uncorking it a bit, man. He's letting it fly and it's working. And you see a player who was having fun at the ballpark again. Because when you are not having fun here and you got to be here every damn day, it piles up on you. We've seen how that looks.. We see how the good George Springer looks and it's been Incredible I could not have been more wrong about him this year. Well Keegan when you look at this the power production in general from this team There's been quite an explosion of late

Like what do you sort of link it to what are the factors that have led this team that looked like it was kind of playing Small ball at times at its worst moments is suddenly playing big al East ball Hey, hell, East balls a great way to put it. This is who they should have been for a few years and It's always felt guys like that 2021 team remember when Marcus Samian was hitting 40 plus that was Vlad E's near MVP year Semien was hitting 40 plus that was Vladys near MVP year that was such an incredibly fun brand of baseball and they pulled back from that and we haven't seen that since now the J started out this season among the bottom teams in home runs in Major League Baseball for too long but this last

month and a half or so they've really come to life now part of that is just personnel it's who they have in the lineup, but they're also chasing better matchups this year. And what I mean by that guys is that last year, I think the Blue Jays sat down each day and tried to put together the best defensive lineup possible that could make a lot of contact. That's an okay way to win some 3-2 ball games, but it's not the most entertaining and you need to play pretty near perfect. What they're doing this year is sitting down and trying to make their best offense. Their defense is good enough by default. Everyone

on this roster can play defense, but they're chasing matchups at the bottom of the order. They're chasing platoons. They're chasing chasing upside which is a hell of a lot more fun to watch as we're seeing and the results are there so i think this comes a little bit from coaching a little bit from the player side but they're chasing that high-end outcome instead of just looking for singles and contact which was only working every once in a while it was a decent way to be good but very rarely great

we're seeing now the opposite of that that's working keegan matheson our guest here now to have over driving covers the blue jays for m l b dot com jose burrios on the hill tonight if the jays win tied with the yanks atop the a l east keegan what do you tell us about some of the injury situations the jays are facing bichette fontan dare and whom who i I missing? Who's

the last? Dalton Varsha. The hamstring injury. What's going on with that trio? So starting out with Bo since he is closest, he was out in the field taking BP today. He looked good. Still wouldn't stun me if he was a little late edition, kind of the wrestler running in at the end here. We'll see. But if he's out today, probably back tomorrow. Dalton Varsho is soon going to start running the bases down at Dunedin which means he's close I'd expect him back maybe just before the all-star break and if he is great because he was the baseball player but also because that simplifies that crowded kind of messy outfield group right now so that would really

simplify that for him and then's not on their more mysterious one and this is taking a long time and when you look at how long he's been out there have not been any swinging he's not hitting up a t he's not hitting in the cage and roth ackin told yesterday that there was a subluxation involved in that which means the shoulder kind of just popped out and back in and that constrained uh... the ligaments around it too so that's been curious and when he was

in the lineup guys as you know he was not producing whatsoever early in the season so my worry with Santander maybe more my curiosity is a better way to say it he's a notoriously slow starter so when he comes back from this injury is this starting again does he need to ramp up slowly again? We'll see, but this lineup needs the best version of him. It's just got to be that good version, which we haven't seen yet. So there have been moments this season, Keegan, where there have been debates on this very radio station about whether the Blue Jays will be buyers or sellers at the July 31st trade deadline.

I don't think there's any debate now. I mean, they have to be buyers. Just unfathomable they could be sellers. And I guess what, we're into July now, and what should they be buying if they're starting to sort of fill out their shopping list with less than a month to go until the deadline? I think they should be aggressive, number one.

This is the year to do it. You look at the Yankees leading the a l e their rate here the right there for the blue jay to take a run at the division not the third wild card not just being happy to be invited to the party but the division the legitimate way to get into the playoffs at the division it's right there there's not a lot of powerhouses in the american league this

year this is the year to be aggressive and the chase have the prospects to do that unless you're trying to trade for show heo tani they have the prospects that's not going to be a problem ross ackens highlighted a right-handed bat and i think that makes a lot of sense maybe a guy they can chase some more platoon advantages with you're gonna see the normal bullpen tinkering probably an arm added there the big question guys is rotation depth.

Now three weeks from now, who is Max Scherzer? We'll see. Is Alec Manoa getting closer to coming back? We will see. But they need to make sure that they're not an injury away from disaster. And they've been there a couple of times. Eric Lauer has saved them. Man, I cannot give him enough credit.

They need to make sure that there's nowhere on this roster that one injury would screw it all up. And I think the rotation is probably a place to pad that. The spot that interests me the most guys is beyond this year. When they added Jose Barrios back in 2021, he had a year remaining. They were getting ahead a year on business i think that makes sense this year they're gonna be losing sure there losing back it got into your way if they can add a guy with some control swing even bigger uh... this is the time they've got the money that got the prospect what up

who would some of those prospects be that would have maybe the potential to bring back a top-notch player of the deadline Keegan? Now top end of the system you're looking at guys like Archand Amala, Trey Yassavage, they're big right-hander. That's only if they're swinging big big big. Now if you're looking at our list I think Arrebus Martinez is still listed number three. He's gonna plummet down pretty soon. He's losing a lot of that

stock. But the good news for the Blue Jays is that when you look down through whether it's Kendrick Rojas, Cal Stephen, Johnny King, Landon Maroudis they're finally having multiple success stories. The past few years for this farm system were bad period they were not good too many injuries not enough breakouts it seems like all that karma is coming back around all in one gear here guys and the top-end names like Namalas, like you savage Johnny King I think is in that group for me right now, the young lefty. That's only if you're talking about a big franchise changing move, a guy who's going to be

around for a while. But what's encouraging if you're the Blue Jays is that they've built up the middle. The guys you'll see ranked between number 8, number 15, number 22, those guys are a lot better than they were a year ago. And if you're shopping for a reliever or a depth starter, those are the guys you'll be looking at. And there's also a lot of this fringe group that you've seen, Leo Jimenez, Will Robertson. The Jays have 5, 6, 7 additional big leaguers around this roster. fringe group that you've seen lao and that is will robertson the chains have five six seven additional big leaders around this roster

that they can move so there's a lot of ways they can do this and most importantly got that money they have money this year they have money beyond this year to certainly take on and that put them in a a pretty small class of teams fired up for tonight man it's been a blast seeing this team in action

against the Yanks and hopefully on their dub down at the Dome. You'll be covering it for MLB.com. He is Keegan Matheson. Thank you for the time. Enjoy the game. You got it, fellas. We'll talk soon. Take care.

All right. Thank you, Keegan. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Gl that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Gloria Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado.

Made in Canada. The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeart Radio app.