OverDrive - Matheson on the Blue Jays' season looming, Gausman's Opening Day nod and Berrios' injury timeline

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joins to discuss World Baseball Classic, the close calls for United States and Dominican Republic, Kevin Gausman named the Opening Day starter, Jose Berrios' injury status, the team getting set for the start of the season and more.

If Bell 5 TV is now streaming, is it still TV? Is it still TV if there's no TV box? If I can stream all my favorite channels and pause and record shows, that's TV, right? A new era of 5 TV. It's streaming, but it's still TV. Well, glad that's settled. Bell, connection is everything. joining us live from Dunedin.

Our friend Keegan Matheson from MLB.com. Keegan, the idea of going to L.A. versus staying in Dunedden for another prolonged period. I'm sure that really appeals to you, correct? I'd go to the surface of the sun at this point, for all this goodness, what day are we on here? L.A. sounds okay. You must be getting close to the end now, right? I mean, how many days have you been in Dunedon? And when is your flight back to Toronto?

this is day 36 and at this time next week I'll be on my couch with a frosty Guinness. It will not be my first flying home next Monday. So it's been a good ride, fellas. I typically take a break in the middle, but I stayed down the full time this time. So it's been a long one, but we're getting there. You know, there's worse places to be too. I know that's not a sympathetic audience to complain to as I speak to people shoveling in the last few weeks. So it's been good.

But man, oh man, I cannot wait to get back to my kids. couch, and I cannot wait to cover a baseball game that matters because I've covered a lot of stretching and a lot of practice here for four weeks, so I'm ready to get back. Well, next Friday, the home opener, Kevin Gosman will tow the rubber for the Jays. We'll get to that in just a moment. But what does your intuition tell you about baseball at the Olympics in 2028? Because there certainly are pros and cons of playing in that if you are Major League Baseball. What do you think happens there?

Where my mind goes, guys, is you know how athletes want to be musicians? musicians want to be athletes, calling yourself an Olympian is that one more thing a great athlete can do. If you're Aaron Judge, you're Bryce Harper, if you're Vladdy, your Tatis, your Soto, any of these big stars, you can call yourself an Olympian now. And I think that's going to be too tempting for players. And I think that guys, these two things don't need to be rivals. I think that the momentum internationally can begin to snowball here. Because this WBC has been fantastic. Okay, it takes a lot to get me to watch baseball outside of my work, okay, because I'm at the ballpark all day. I don't typically go home and watch more baseball at night. That's when I like

to shut off. I can't stop watching the WBC. This is fantastic. You're getting people interested, people caring about it at an international level. Like we've never seen before, and I think that's momentum. I think that carries into the Olympics. Like you say, maybe it's a one-off. We'll see where that goes. But the opportunity to call yourself an Olympian is going to be real tempting for all these guys. Hagan, I got to say, I was with you. I was riveted to this WBC, and I'm wondering, was the WBC and what happened last night with the ending of the

great Dominican American game, was that the ultimate advertisement for the ABS balls and strike system? Sure was, man. If you have the classic case of one that needed a review, okay, nobody is trying to screw over a hitter. This is not complete malpractice. An umpire's job is hard, but there are moments where you need it. Okay.

And I think when a lot of people hear robot umpires, they're either picturing an actual robot or automatic balls on strike for every single pitch. This guys is why I like the ABS challenge system, where teams just have two or three that you save up and store throughout the game for major moments. Okay. I respect umpires and the job they do. I couldn't do it, okay? But for major moments, you need the ability to challenge.

and for it to end that way for the Dominican, which is the most fun I've had watching a baseball team ever. I mean, what a collection of talent, what a style of play that just celebrates their own skills and their own baseball culture. For it to end like that, damn, man, that is tough. So I hope that that's something that becomes normal across all forms of baseball,

but good Lord, just the biggest example you could imagine. Yeah, well said. Kegan Matheson, our guest from MLB.com, covers the Toronto Blue Jays, who return home next Friday night, hosting the athletics. Kevin Gosman will be pitching the opening day game for Toronto, which is no surprise, Keegan. But what was the surprise is the most recent status of Jose Barrios, where looked like he was good to go. And he has this insurance checkup on his elbow

before he was going to represent Puerto Rico. Did not go well. Now there's a second opinion happening today for Burrios. Does not look overly likely he's going to be ready for opening day. What do you think is going on with Burrios? And does that really make some sense as to why Max Scherzer, might be such an important part of this team going forward. Yeah, at this point with Jose, I'd be shocked if he's ready for opening day. I don't see that being realistic at all. But the information here has been interesting to track. I guess I'll say it that way.

So the MRI that happened first, it's because he wanted to go to the WBC. To do that, you've got to pass insurance, that's the only reason an MRI happened. Jose hadn't been feeling anything. He hadn't been wincing on the mound or any of that. he actually looked good. His velocity was back. He looked confident that this was the burrios that the Blue Jays traded for and extended. It was a damn good pitcher. Okay. I know the last year wasn't good. That's a damn good pitcher. And now this pops up. And now he's going to be going to get that in-person visit with Dr. Ella Trash or Dr. Meister, sorry, the other guy. Players do not visit him for fun. Okay. This is ideally routine and the Blue Jays think this is just part of the process. But pitchers don't visit him for fun. So if you're the Blue Jays, you've got to hope this is just inflammation that you slowly get out of there. But the important part, guys, is that John Schneider said this is different inflammation from last year.

So for 10 years, Jose Berrios was the Iron Man. Okay, you could not get this guy off the mound. It was his thing. Now, in back-to-back years, in about a six-month period, he's gone through a bit of a dip in performance. He's had one type of inflammation. now two types of inflammation. These things tend to happen this way. They build up and build up.

Going to be really interesting, guys. This is going to be a big news update here, the next couple days that we get from the Blue Jays. But opening day, I think, has got to be out of the question by now, even if this is good news. And the lazy answer all along, guys, has been that the Blue Jays rotation would take care of itself. Always does.

It's done that again here. Max Scherzer slides right in. Well, that's the question. I want to ask you, I mean, we know from experience, Kagan, that opening day doesn't mean that much. Last year's opening day starter was Brrios. He was the opening day starter three of the past four years. The other guy in there, Alec Manoa, no longer around. So this is kind of a ceremonial thing about who's ready on opening day. It really doesn't matter who starts. It matters who finishes.

But given the fact that you got Scherzer at his advanced age, you got Bieber with an uncertain health situation, you got Tray I Savage being, you know, handled with, you know, vigorous care. let's say, in spring training. I mean, what looked like a massive surplus isn't really that massive anymore, and how do you sort of make sense of it? I like vigorous care. He is being aggressively cared for in spring training. This surplus guys has come back down to a spot.

I didn't think it would be at already, okay? The Blue Jays are fortunate they have Eric Lauer in there as a number six, essentially. But if this season starts, let's say everything goes well. Berrios just needs a bit, but he's not quite ready. You have that Gosman-Cece Savage-sur-Ponts. Okay, that's a good start. But if Trey Savage is only going to throw 50 or 60 pitches his first couple of times out, you probably need Eric Lauer to piggy back off of that.

This gets thin pretty quickly, okay? And you are hoping for a lot of things to go right. Now, I trust Gossmann, I trust Dillon Cs fully completely. But Trey is Savage, there's the workload component to that. That's going to be a factor. Max Scherzer says he is beyond his thumb, and I have not one to question Max Scher, never would, because I'm too smart to do that, but he's got a history. We'll see. And then Cody Ponce is coming back to the big leagues after rediscovering himself in Japan and Korea. Love the signing, really excited by the pitcher, but there still needs to be some prove it there as well.

So this has really gone from a massive strength and a problem of where the hell do these pitchers go to what looks like a normal rotation, what other teams are dealing with, where you're one bad news. away from this getting a little risky again. So luckily the Blue Jays had that depth, but they need the rest of this to go right. Long enough to get Berrios back, long enough to get Shane Bieber back. That's going to be the big news this week, guys. If Bieber gets off the mound, okay? This has been slow and drawn out longer than I thought, frankly. If he gets off the mound this week, cool. He's probably six weeks away from being back. You're probably set. But if that's a little longer, then it's just too many questions, too many things we're talking about. Well, it's wild because it wasn't long ago.

We looked at Max Scherzer and we tried to figure out why is this guy want to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays. There's no way he's going to start games at any point soon. And just a couple weeks later, he becomes a very important cog to a rotation that has a lot of question marks. Kegan, thank you for doing this, buddy. Best of luck over the final week down in Dunedin.

And that Frosty Guinness will taste delightful when you return home next week. I see the light, fellas. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Thank you very much. That is Keegan Mathis and joining us here on Overdrive. Unmistakably Canadian.

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