OverDrive - Matheson on the Blue Jays clinching a playoff spot, the division race and the playoff pitchers

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss the Blue Jays clinching a playoff spot, the celebrations around the team, looking to win the division, the team's overall season, the depth of the group, the pitching group for the playoffs and more.

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Here is from MLB.com, Keegan Matheson. Do you're picking up on booze, shrapnel in there? Like, what's the story? Fellas, I lost some brain cells, that's for sure. The beer and champagne, it's like it mixes together and forms this gaff in the clubhouse. And I felt like I had four nostrils guys. Like, I could breathe, it really clears you up. And I try to stay off the side.

You know, I go in, I give my video. I try to stay way off to the side. I haven't accomplished a damn thing. Get out of the way. But you do catch some strays. Kevin Gosman made sure I got nice and drenched. I'll be honest, fellas, I tried to hide behind a couple of other Blue Jays media members. And then I realized I'm a lot taller and wider than them, so it didn't help me much.

But it was messy guys. And then the dangerous part, the tricky part, is always getting home from those. I have definitely been asked to get out of taxis before in city. he's on the road. And in Kansas City, I was driving back to the hotel. So that was, I had to obey that speed limit, fellas. If I got pulled over, it was game over for me. And then

back to the hotel, I hung out in the lobby, trying to get an elevator by myself. And just as I was about to go up, a lady stuck her hand in and got on with me. And I have never seen someone look at me so disgusted in my life. I did not smell good. It was a bad scene, and you can't

explain it. So I just had to stand there and wear it for 19 floors. waiting to go up nothing wrong with that though kegan who was who you know it's it's a good story and it's it's actually you know something to celebrate but who was uh you know in the dress room who's leading the charge uh all of the celebrations i mean you know you could see we were watching some of the video in the live in the room guys were pretty excited but there always seems to be maybe one or two guys that just is over the top excited like who was basically the guy lead the charge.

George Springer, Max Scherzer, and Vladdy. I think Vladdy dumped out about 150 of those aluminum cans of Budweiser. I was up to my ankles

and beer at some points, guys. There was a lot of Budweiser that was wasted that day. I think some of it wet in people's mouths. I don't know how much. But George was right

in the middle of it. The man can dance. Let me tell you. He's probably still shirtless at this point. And then you have some guys off in the corner of

Jose Berrios walks by, drinking a bottle of water, which is just perfectly Jose Berrios. But, man, some of those guys were right in the middle of it. And I had the question, guys, that will they go full-on celebrate? And then I took myself back for a second. I mean, you're with your buddies. You're away from your families, your responsibilities,

and you've got an off-de-on Monday. Hell yeah, they're going to celebrate. I think that plane ride home was probably looked a lot like what we saw in the clubbos. So they leaned into it, and when they eventually clinched the division, or when they should clinch the division this week at home, I think they're going to burn that building down, man. I think that's going to be a major, major celebration.

Big time. That's the one that really puts it over the top, because then your job's done. Then the rest of the games are meaningless. You know you've got a long break. You're avoiding the wild card, right? You can break as many laws as you want after the division. Exactly.

Fire code, anything. Nothing matters. You're allowed to do whatever you want for like two hours. You get immunity from the law, I think. I agree. 100%. And then on top of it, you can imagine a World Series celebration. I mean, then it's like you have immunity for life, possibly, or close to it. Well, you know, listen, to their credit, they got it done.

It was dicey at times, even yesterday. They had lost four in a row. It was kind of teetering there. The Yankees aren't losing. The Yankees are off today. They got white socks and Orioles left in terms of their six games. But you said that, you know, somewhat matter of fact, in a matter of fact, way or fashion that you think this is going to happen they're going to win the american

league east um they have a big lead clearly two games but really it's three because of the wild card um why are you so confident that that's going to happen either against boston or tamp on the weekend they'd better guys if you if you botched this at the finish line that's a complete disaster um the blue jays need to be wrapping this up and the easy way to look at it for people listening is that if the blue jays go 500 go three and three, the Yankees would need to win their last six games. That said, the Yankees are not playing a tough finish to their schedule. They can easily go five and one or six and no.

So the Blue Jays need to still do this. They need to play some legitimate baseball. The Red Sox is going to be tough. Down the stretch, the race will not be as much, but they've got to lock this up, guys. They need to finish with a sense of momentum because really going back to that big stretch through June and July, when it felt like they, They were winning six games a week. They were the hottest team in baseball.

Since then, August through September, they've just been good. And you've got to be picky at this time of your good is not good enough. You need to be a great team, an elite team at this point of year. They've been good. They've been okay. But they need that sense of momentum. They need to really lean back into their identity as a team again. And we've seen this week what it looks like when they don't.

And I know guys that a lot of that gets wiped away as, oh, these streaks happen. Well, if those streaks didn't happen, we'd already be talking about a division. You know, I cover the games and call me old fashion, but I think the games still matter. I don't care what probabilities or anything else at this time of year. You've got to put this to bed. And if you can do it by Thursday or Friday, that allows you a couple of extra days, that weekend, then the buy to get Bovashet back, line up your rotation, see what you have and tray you savage you stack up advantages you get so many things in your favor if you can do it the easy

way we'll see if they can so kegan at the starting of this season and you know there was a lot of including us on the show we were not sure what we're going to get out of this team you know now we're almost at the finish line of the regular season what has been the biggest surprise for you from expectations to the reality of this group Oh, guys, we could go all day. I mean, next time I'm in studio, guys, we've got to bring up the ten dumbest things I've said on this show in 2025. A lot of them would be from February and March. And I can still picture, guys, I'd be normally when we talk in spring training, I'm standing off on the side practice field where it's quiet.

And we were talking about a team that was going to be boring and was going to be 500 maybe. Maybe they'd be bad. Maybe they'd be good a few games in either direction. I didn't sense much excitement from this team, and I can't pretend I did in hindsight. I think George Springer jumps to my mind first, though. This guy's going to get MVP votes, top 10 MVP voting. I would have called you crazy. I thought that at this point of the year, we were going to be talking about, like,

what do you do with this guy next year? One year left, can you roster him? He has been indicative and emblematic of every single thing this team's doing right. the clubhouse culture, the offensive strides they've taken, how they run the bases. Like when I think of the 2025 Blue Jays guys, I think we've said this before, but I think of George Springer going first to home on a double

and just hauling it around third base, all efforts. You know, I think he has really been at the forefront of so much of this. It's a season where everything's gone right. And this is the type of season that only happens once every 10, 15, 20 years for most organizations. More often than not, we're talking about surprises that went wrong. But everything is broken right for the Blue Jays. Some of it by luck, some of it by them controlling it.

But man, oh man, I did not see this coming for George Springer. Nothing close, because he was bad last year. And then remember guys, the spring training he had, he was like one for a million. He looked terrible in spring training. And he has bounced back to be one of the best stories in all of Major League Baseball. It wouldn't surprise me if he finishes 5, 6, 7 range in MVP. voting it's been that good oh i think he deserves to be absolutely i mean he he's look at his numbers his stats have been off the charts and you know we know it's we know who it's going to be big

dumper and it's going to be judge and maybe scoobles number three but beyond that i think springer should be right in that conversation and he's earned that um and you were not alone with that the jays would have been thinking the same way there's no way rossackins thought he was getting this out of george springer this year no chance and you know again the idea that Santander has brought nothing to the table this year. The fact that, you know, Scherzer and Hoffman, their stats are not very good. Those were the big additions, for the most part, last offseason, and they haven't really been, you know, they haven't brought much.

Garcia has been hurt, you know, like a lot of their additions just have not factored in. The amazing thing is it's been internal improvement. Like that's what is crazy to me, Keegan. It's that term that we roll our eyes at every year, you know. Yes. And now I feel like this takes away my right to mock that term for the next decade. That's a terrible loss for me. Every time that Ross Ackins or whoever runs this team down the road says internal improvements,

I'm going to have to look at this season because Santander wasn't just bad. He's negative value. Jeff Hoffman, at many stretches, has been blowing saves. He's had a high for ERA. Scherzer has been around league average. When you look at that number, ERA now worse than league average. It's like, this is not added value in any way. And you're talking, like, I'm writing stories about guys, like Miles Straw and Tyler

Heidman and Bernie Clement and Nathan Lucas, man, it genuinely, it worked out. A lot of the stuff that I got to admit, I rolled my eyes at in spring training, oh, we're going to put the lineup together in different ways. What? But it's working. Something about it is working. And guys, that's why I think a lot of credit does need to go to John Schneider, who I think should win manager of the year and as coaching staff.

Even for me, I'm around this team as much as anyone. It's hard, it's really hard to see what value a manager or coaches have day-to-day because it's so cluttered. There's a thousand coaches, but I think you're seeing what that actually looks like when you get a coaching staff, a clubhouse, and a front office that are on the same page. Like last year, they weren't even in the same book, I don't think. They're on the same page this year. With Kegan Matheson, MLB.com, and, you know, you look ahead now.

where Scherzer gets blown up in his last start. He can't get out of the first inning. His ERA in the first inning is like over eight. Bassett's on the IL. They've already shifted Burrios to the bullpen. So I think it's safe to say Gosman and Bieber are pitching in the playoffs or starting in the playoffs. Who else is going to start games?

Or who starts game three, in your opinion? Looks a lot like you savage at this point, guys, which has happened quickly. And he was better than his line was the other day. I don't say that often, but I legitimately think he was better than his pitching line said. A couple of those hits didn't make it out of the infield. There was that weird marshal catch or no catch. It was a catch. But I think it's you savage in game three.

And at that point, you probably have Chris Bassett or Eric Lauer or somebody ready in the bullpen just in case because he's still a rookie. That'll be what? His fourth starred in the big leagues. If he is walking a few guys in the first inning, you pull that parachute quick. But I think it's you savage. And then who do you go to in a game four if you need one is even trickier. It's not Brillo's at this point, guys. The stuff is just not there anymore.

That's going to be an interesting conversation going to the next year. But he's in the bullpen just because that's where you've got to go. I don't think he's going to be used down there. It's an awkward spot, but probably Bassett if I had to pick it today. And you're going to have Lauer or someone else down there. Shurser maybe available out of that bullpen. But Shurzer, guys, I know the career is incredible. The name value is incredible, and I respect the hell out of everything he's done.

But it's what have you done for me lately? And there's been a lot of home runs, some bad short outings recently. So I might be more interested seeing him really maxed out in a bullpen role, which we've seen in the past worked. Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. I mean, that'll be an interesting conversation, though. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for Schneider sitting Shrews or not want to tell the guy. You might get put through that wall.

Yeah, exactly. At the same time, I think he'd understand. He knows how this game works. and he's come out of the bullpen on short rest in the playoffs in the past and one world series doing that and I think he can really crank it up a couple more times if you ask him to

all right well it's a beautiful thing we're talking about this that means the Js are going to the playoffs and we'll see if they end up wrapping up the ALE East like you I think they will very very soon and then the party starts back up again and Kegan you'll be right there right in the middle of it great stuff

buddy appreciate you doing this you got her fellows take care we'll talk soon Gigan Matheson, MLB.com. The newest tracks and the next big thing. Look what we found. And your first place to hear it all is IHeart, new music. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh finds, and tomorrow's bangers. Updated daily.

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