OverDrive - Matheson on the Blue Jays' winning surge, the trade deadline keys and the roster's batting strength

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Blue Jays' winning streak, the foundation of success on the roster, the trade deadline perspective and essential adds, George Springer's incredible hitting, the lineup formation on the team and more.

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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 We're loading up at the trade deadline. Where are you on that? I Think that makes sense. It's that time of year guys and

The Blue Jays and Blue Jays fans are allowed to look ahead right now They're three and a half games up in the East. It's all about the trade deadline right now and that's why it's okay to be excited about this team. I don't care if it's July, this team has not been in this spot in years and yes there are still 70-some games left but there are only 20-some games left until the deadline which is what matters. That's when teams make a statement to the rest of baseball about a how serious they are and B how much they care how much are they going to push in with prospects and with money that's how you tell everyone else who you are and the Jays have an opportunity to tell the rest of baseball that not only are they good they're

going for it and that's got to be every conversation from now on guys if somebody rolls an ankle tonight it's how it affects the trade deadline. If somebody goes on a 20-game hitting streak, how does that affect the trade deadline? It's all about the deadline in an exciting way. Last year was a terrible way. It was a big sell-off. This year is what you want it to be. Well, they got nine wins in a row, and it's the most since 2015.

And that was a massive deadline that the Blue Jays had that was the year they went all in, traded for Tullo, traded for David Price. So like who would the Jays have to trade for this year to compare to that type of monumental deadline from a decade ago? That's pretty big. You're getting to that point. You'd be looking at a Eugenio Suarez ande ryan type of thing at that point and it's out there it's out there if the blue jays wants and like we saw back in 15 and 16 guys

money can be a factor in all of this as well and the blue jays farm system is good enough to do whatever they want they're not trading for shohay otani they're not trading for fernando tatties jr they have the prospects to do whatever they want. It'll be costly, but this has been a really good year for the farm system at a very good time. More importantly, though, guys, they have the money. And if you look around Major League Baseball, there are some smaller market teams who would be attracted to the idea of getting out from some bigger contracts.

And that can increase the prospect return for them as well. But the Blue Jays have that muscle that they can flex. We see where the payroll is right now, but look to next year guys, Bo Bichette, Max Scherzer, Chris Bassett, Chad Green, that's a ton of money off the books right away. And why wait a few months to spend it when you can start to spend it right now and go for it this year. Yeah Keegan we were just having this conversation about which direction you might want to go. Al's brother is making the point of you know assuming you're going to add pitching which we all assume they will. Do you want to add a power bat at a moment like this when you know you've gotten so

much great production from the guys maybe you didn't expect the bargers of the world the the Lucas's of the world and would you know adding a power bat maybe maybe risk messing with the chemistry that clearly is in evidence in that dugout right now it's a real conversation guys and you're going to have Dalton Varsho coming back who is by this team's definition a power back a guy who can hit 25 plus over a season Anthony Santander I I don't know who he's going to be the rest of the season I expect he'll be back I just don't know who he's going to be for this lineup I don't think that

you can bank solely on him being the big power bad at that point but if you're going to add a power hitter I think it makes sense for them to go after one who can do something really well. Is that crushing left-handed pitchers? Is that a right-handed platoon guy? Something that you can help max out. Because I don't think the Blue Jays are primarily going to chase a guy who immediately starts in right field every single day the rest of the way. If it lines up, sure, but we've seen how they've mixed and matched and chased platoon matchups pretty heavily. Now maybe there's somebody like a David Schneider who's developing back into being that and Ernie Clement, Addison

Barger, they have big platoon splits. If you play it the right way you get an advantage every single night, but that's where my mind would go and messing with the lineups a real conversation I didn't expect it to be but especially when Varsho gets back because that's going to bump at least one outfielder maybe two outfielders onto the fringes of this roster and the Jays right now they have what they have 30 32 big leaguers that can be on this roster it's just about the right mix so any bat needs to fix that mix I mean so many things are going right for this team you almost hate to mess with it at this point but

you understand that you know the the good vibes can't go on forever and at some point there's an evening out you know we go back to and we've talked about this last year we were told it was 20 2025 and here we are do you do you feel that this team will go for it at the deadline I think they need to and there's a couple of realities involved in that and one is just their placement in this league right now we saw last week who the Yankees are the rate beatable baseball team and the Blue Jays have a path the AL East the last few years guys and we see those postseason runs of 20 and 22 and 23, you're talking about the wild card. Sneaking in with a wild card spot that used to not exist and that has not gone

anywhere for them. But if they can get the division and get themselves into a best three out of five series, that's when this gets exciting. That's when you can settle in and really plan out a series and I think that would suit the Blue Jays. That's one big factor, just the context of the American League East. But at the same time guys, there are human beings involved in all of this who have big jobs and want to keep those big jobs and when you have an opportunity like this that can really change both how you're viewed in the future and the president in a city and if you're a member of blue jays front office it has to be incredibly tempting right now they've done a very good job to get to this point but look around

baseball it's no longer guys I think this is the important thing I keep coming back to it's no longer about just making the playoffs. That's not good enough. Qualifying for the playoffs, it's not a rare group anymore. You need to make a run and I think now is their time to separate and try to make an actual run, not just participate in the playoffs. Higgin, there was a lot of talk about George Springer being an all-star snub this year, but what about a guy like John Schneider? This guy's managing his ass off right now. It just feels like he can't make a wrong decision. It's amazing, man. I feel like he could call me in on the seventh and I would somehow

get through with some weak contact and pitch a scoreless in it. get through with some weak contact and pitch a scoreless in it. It's one of these great stretches we've seen and there's always going to be some credit given to players, which he does a very good job of. There's always going to be some luck involved in any of this. But it seems like everything he's touching right now is turning to gold. And a lot of the stuff he said in spring training is coming true. Every single spring training, I hear the same stuff and it's mostly fluff about how this year is better, the clubhouse is better, yadda yadda yadda. And I'm around the clubhouse enough, I mean probably too much if you

asked a lot of the guys in it, but to get a sense for that. And I've been around clubhouses that were fake good, that everyone said was good, but I don't see the advantage. This one I do and I have a very high bar for saying that but this clubhouse I see the value in it. I think it's a very good one a very beneficial one for everyone and What we're seeing right now is a coaching staff and a roster that are working together perfectly and They are bringing out the best in one another and for John Schneider guys I think a lot of this has come with taking a pretty honest look at how the last few years have gone.

He spoke about it yesterday and he has no problem saying out loud, listen, I screwed this up last year, screwed that up, could have done that better. That's encouraging. I like to hear that in a manager and not being too proud to admit that things have gone wrong

because things have gone the same way in this city with the Blue Jays for too many years. They've been good but not great. They've made the playoffs but not done anything. Something needed to change and I do think that's starting at the top and I think it's working right now. We talk about the coaching staff Keegan. I'm curious about how you feel the change in terms of the hitting coach from Guillermo Martinez to David Hopkins or sorry David Popkins has been a factor you know we heard a lot of reviews about Popkins approach in spring training he was using golf metaphors to describe the way he wants to teach hitting what have you observed on that front and to explain the way the Jays have had such a great offensive season?

Yeah a lot of metaphors and buzzwords fellas I tell you. There's new ones every year. I think I'm about at the limit of how many times I can hear the term a swing at this point. I take a shot every time we do but what I like about what players are saying about David Popkins, Luay Yannati, Hunter Mets and the hitting staff is that they're encouraging players to be a version of themselves, not trying to force them into a different mold. And I think Addison Barger and George Springer are very good examples of that. Barger especially, he's a guy who, you need to let him be himself.

You need to let him take big, wild, aggressive swings. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But last year, it seemed like they were trying to get him to hit singles the other way. That's not who he is. It's never going to be who he is, as a hitter or as a person, my God.

George Springer's another one. I think that last year he was trying to be someone else. Now they're letting him be naturally athletic and he's an incredible athlete at 35. And it's working. I think you see that connection and a bit of empowerment, really. That's what you want from a hitting staff.

You want them to empower hitters and you want hitters to trust them because the moment a hitter does not 100% trust a hitting coach, well, they have their own hitting coach. They have their buddy from college. They have their dad. They have a hundred voices in their ear. But this is the most guys in the last nine, 10 years that I have heard hitters go out of their way to praise the hitting staff. Not just fluff, not just saying that they're helping, but specific reasons that make a ton of sense and there's a lot of confidence with those guys right now.

Keegan, as you know, the most engaging part of this story is, you know, who's going to be the hero tonight? So let me just rhyme off here the starting lineup for the Jays in tonight's game. Lucas, Lidoff, Springer, Guerrero Jr., Bichette, Barger, Kirk, Loprofito, Ernie and the stash in left field i kinda like that you're you're sort of moving as you see the name you know he's gonna do it tonight you don't know but but you're you can't wait to figure out who it's gonna be it's amazing and if you if you had shown me a lot of these lineups

back in february and march in spring training i i would have said yikes this is not going well and that completely changed i i i like what they've done especially at the bottom of the lineup guys where they are finally allowing themselves to chase a little bit of offense because this team is going to be good defensively no matter what all the time they're going to have good defenders in the field the short version of the way i look at it is that last year guys they were

looking to put together the best defensive lineup this year they're allowing themselves to take a bit more often and it's working immediately and you see that with guys coming up like shiner low-perfido the last couple of days even triple-a all year adison barger started the year in triple-a and even when he got to the big league his first two or three weeks weren't good

but they're betting on the right guys. And that is absolutely something that rolls into one another. It does energize. I think this lineup and if you're Vlad or if you're Bo, if you strike out, it's okay. You're not the entire offense. And I think everyone can exhale a little bit. Nobody has their shoulders up their ears trying to be the hero because when that happens everything screws up but it's uh amazing and more than anything guys surprising i didn't see it going this way this season whatsoever well speaking of the lineup card something that has become you know more evident over the last few weeks here is is you

know they like george springer in the dh hole like is he kind of carving out that role there like do you expect even when santa and there comes back will we continue to see springer there or is that when they'll have to kind of change things up i think he would play a little more outfield but you don't mess with happy you don't mess with at this point then george actually invented a new buzzword which i think i'll tolerate for another year so but it's the OP, the offensive player because

he believes that a base running is part of this so he's rejecting the DH moniker and he is going by OP which I'm sure will catch on here across baseball but he's nailing that and it's keeping him fresh and most important of all guys he's embracing it some guys just don't like the DH. Vlad, he does not like the DH. I think he's someone who likes to stay involved and mentally engaged in the game. George, my presumption is that he just has so much energy that even when he's in the dugout,

he's pretty locked in regardless. He is a wired guy on any given day here. So he's leaning into it. And he's accepting that it's helping him. I think he sees those results and at 35 it's keeping him fresh. He's not banging into walls and diving on the turf every other night. It's working so far and there will be a little change, a little bit of a change, but I think you need to keep him there as much as you can. Hey Kagan, news about Alec Minoa who's expected to throw two

simulated innings today in Florida aiming for a return in August. I mean, what's your sort of Jerry's percentage on the chances Minoa could be a factor in the stretch run? Yeah, so if he throws two today, his next outing will either be his first rehab game or he'll do this one more time. So let's say very roughly by the middle of this month, he'll start rehab games. From there, it's what the Blues have a calling kind of a spring training style ramp up where you make five or six appearances. Given that it's Tommy John, I'd probably call that six or seven. Even if it's Tommy John, I'd probably call that six or seven. This to me, guys, feels like something that's aimed more towards early September instead

of the August 1st that had been targeted. That was always an optimistic target. Nothing has gone wrong. By every account, he has nailed this entire process. If he is back for September, I don't think the Blue Jays can plan on him to play hero in any regard, but it's a very valuable insurance policy for now. If the Blue Jays, even if they add at the deadline, injuries can always happen, performance, maybe you need an extra day. It's good regardless to have Manoa coming back,

but I still view that as more of a next year thing. If he can come back, prove he's healthy, huge success. That's good because you have Scherzer, you have Bassett leaving Gosman one year left next year. Having Manoa back will be good, but I don't think you can be betting on him to be a guy in the post-season run. That's a little risky. You just treat anything you do get as a bonus. I'm kind of disappointed with that answer. I mean, everything's worked out and we couldn't have predicted any of this. Come on, go get a little positive action here. Yeah, there had to be something bad, Daddy. Come on now.

I'm feeling a little unnatural myself saying all these good things here. This is not how we normally do it. I was saying that that's the true test if this is a magical year. If Manoa can come back and shove, this is truly a magical season in Toronto. That is the litmus test. can shove this is truly a magical season in Toronto that is the litmus test he would want to embrace that so bad too we know he would love that role that narrative coming back and his boy Hanshin Ryu did that a couple of years ago remember he best with TJ he came back in August so a little earlier but he made 10 or 11 starts down the stretch helped him into the postseason Ryu and Manoa have always been very close and

my god Manoa would love to do that. So maybe it works out. A couple things might need to bounce in a certain direction for that to happen but goodness he would love that. Keegan thanks very much enjoy the game tonight. You got it guys take care. Keegan Matheson mlb.com Blue Jays reporter. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.