OverDrive - Pillar on the Blue Jays' roster, the pitching depth and World Baseball Classic

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Blue Bird Territory Host and Former MLB Outfielder Kevin Pillar joins to discuss Canada and USA at the World Baseball Classic, the legacy of the American players, the Blue Jays' starting pitching depth, Jose Berrios' injury, Trey Yesavage's approach, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. carrying momentum from the playoffs and more.

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Visit a bell store or bell.ca. slash blue dot days for details. Bell. Connection is everything. There he is long time. Blue J. Long time. major leaguer he's got a podcast out now there's kevin paula what's happening kevin are we doing we're doing well do you do you see this as david versus goliath tonight or what i wouldn't say quite david versus goliath but i think team canada has a definite uphill battle

to to beat team usa i think um i think italy surprised obviously the world right and obviously surprised Team USA and I think them given that second life is going to really, really motivate them today and I expect them to kind of take care of business pretty easily. Don't get mad at me. I love Canada. I love what they've been able to do. Obviously they won their tournament, or their pool play, but the U.S. is just so deep. It's only a matter of time. When you have that much talent on a roster, it's only a matter of time before it just clicks. What does they need, Kevin? Like, is Is it a, did they need just a masterful pitching performance or against that lineup? They must need somebody to go out here and just be a heater for a long time out there in the mound.

Well, I think, I think the roadmap to victory was shown with what team Italy did. I think you kind of just got to chip away and try to score some runs early in the game. And then the pressure kind of amounts on Team USA. I think that's something that people aren't really understanding too. when you're that heavily favored and you go down in a game like that, every individual player on that team starts to feel the pressure a little bit. And that's what Team Italy did. They put some pressure on them.

They added on. Obviously, Team USA, you know, with the amount of talent they had, were able to make that game a little bit close late in the game, but it was a little late for them to make a comeback. So it's going to take a little bit of some heroic from the pitching side. Fortunately for them, they do have a guy in Michael Soroka, who's got, obviously, he's a, bona fide major league pitcher he's not like a guy who's going to be scared of the moment he's he's

familiar facing these guys um you know it's not like you're asking a guy who's in double a last year to go up against team usa this is a guy who has the utmost confidence in his ability to get these major league hitters out he's got to go out there he's got to put up some zeros team Canada has to score early and then allow the pressure to kind of mount on team USA especially given they were given this gift to even get into this, you know, second part of the tournament. Right. Well, like Mark DeRosa, who we've had on a bunch.

He's a great interview, you know, and he was a blue jane a pass. He's been with MLB Network for a long time. He has taken some heat and, you know, about whether or not he knew they were getting through or they could get through or possibly be eliminated. And then he came out and said, no, I always knew, which I'm not sure is accurate whatsoever. But in terms of legacy with the Americans, like we've tried to figure out what this WBC means to a lot of countries. You know, it seems to be pretty big in Japan. It seems to be pretty big, certainly in the Dominican and Puerto Rico.

And, you know, it's growing to an extent up here in Canada, although they're finally out of the group stage. So tonight would really put it on the map. But if the U.S. wins tonight and ends up winning this tournament, in your opinion, what kind of value is placed on that? What does Aaron Judge get legacy-wise? What does Mark DeRosa receive legacy-wise? What does this tournament mean if the Americans win? Well, I think all will be forgotten for Mark DeRosa in terms of him potentially speaking out of turn. And I obviously played with Mark when he was in Toronto and I was just a young kid.

And throughout my career, I stayed in touch. And even more so now that I've kind of entered the media world, he's been nothing but great to me and gracious with his time and, you know, been a resource for me. And it's very unfortunate in today's day and age when you miss speak or you miss, yeah, you misunderstand maybe the rules a little bit, you know, something he's never really going to be able to run away from, you know, and it's very difficult. The rules of this tournament are a little bit confusing. And, you know, it's a shame because it's going to follow him the rest of his career. And I don't think that's a fair thing.

So, you know, as a fan of Mark DeRosen, obviously an American, I'm hoping that they can win this tournament and all could be forgotten for Mark DeRosa. But when you were talking about that, I don't know if you guys had seen the quotes of Julio Rodriguez coming out and talking about what it would mean for him to win a WBC tournament playing for Dominican. And he said something along the lines of no offense to Seattle. I love my time in Seattle and I want to bring a championship back. But the epitome of winning for me is with his country.

and I think we had seen that with the Latin American countries. I think we've obviously seen it with the Asian countries, especially Japan, how important it is to them. And I think especially this year, going out and getting the best players that America could get, you're really starting to understand how much it means to the entire world to just kind of have those bragging rights and being the best baseball country in the entire world. with Kevin Pilar the podcast is Bluebird territory and you're a big part of that podcast and obviously in the media world

longtime player longtime Blue Jay I want to ask you about the Jays because the Burrios news came out today that he's gone to Houston to meet with a specialist and you know you hear Tommy John associated with it doesn't mean it's going to happen doesn't mean that that's necessarily the road

it's going on or going down but it is out there it's surrounding him in terms of what's going on with him right now so Burrios, you know, not currently in camp. You got Beaver who still isn't even thrown off a mound. They're going to take their time with you, Savage, which has been their plan, and they've been pretty clear with that. You know, where do you stand on the rotation with the Jays

and the expectation of, you know, how this might play out the first month or two of the year? Well, I think it's making some decisions a little bit easier. I mean, you know, if you would ask me the same question a couple of months ago and you're like, okay, the Cody Ponce signing, and then you sign Max Scherzer, you know, you take Eric Lauer in arbitration, he wants to be a starter. They say he's a reliever, he's going to work as a starter.

It looks like a very crowded and messy starting pitching room, but that's the reason you go out and acquire depth in the starting pitching department, because, you know, on our podcast, a couple weeks ago, too, with Ricky, I think he talked about the number of starting pitchers that Dodgers used last year in order to win the, the World Series and it was like 20-some guys started games from last year. So it's important to have depth.

And I love what they're doing with Trayy Savage this spring training. I know it's hard for Blue Jay fans to kind of understand what they're doing. And there's obviously got to be a level of concern if you're not fully aware of what they're trying to accomplish with him. I mean, this is a kid who was pitching in the minor leagues last year, not very far removed from college, the amount of workload he had on himself last year. not just the workload, but also the intensity of the games that he was pitching in. It's going to be the best for this kid's career in the long run.

Allow him to come along a little bit slower in spring. I truly do believe that he'll probably be ready for, he won't be delayed. I think he'll make his first scheduled start. Will he be on a little bit of a pitch count at the beginning of the year? I think so. But boy, does that Max Scherzer signing look even a little bit more enticing right now. especially with what he... No, I think we got...

Lashes of the velocity being back and, you know, ultimately going out and throwing four no-hit innings. It's going to take a lot of guys to get through the season this year. I think the Blue Jays have done a really good job of going out, you know, signing guys like Max Scherzer, Cody Ponce, but, you know, also keeping guys up until this point,

Berrios and, you know, Lauer happy as well, too. But, you know, I don't want to overreact until he gets there because they said it was inflammation and it could be more than that but I think you've got to allow him to go see the doctor which I'm actually right down the street from where he's at so maybe I'll try to get down there and get a little inside scoop on what's going on I'll get the breaking news I'll go into Meister's office and be like what do you got out of what I'm hopefully it's not Tommy John hopefully it's like he said it's just a little bit of inflammation something he can you know miss a star in spring

training and then allow himself to kind of build back up but the Blue Jules just have a bunch of very interesting decisions they have to make of who's going to be those five guys that break camp that are going to start are they going to go six-man rotation because I know they're opening the season with seven straight days. Do they piggyback allow her and Trey Yassavage to kind of cut down on Yassavage's workload? But I think it's never good to hear one of your guys going down, especially from everything I had heard he had been throwing the ball pretty good. So Kevin, outside of

what's going on with the pitching staff, Vladdy had an unbelievable second season last year. Now Bo's not here. What do you expect or what is your expectation for Vladdy this season coming in? He's obviously the man, he's got the contract, but what would be

reasonable for expectation for him this year? I think he's going to build off of what he did in the postseason last year. I truly believe that he is going to take the next step in terms of the power department and being a little bit more of a home run hitter. And it's difficult because he's such a pure hitter. You know, he's a guy that you expect to be right around that 300 mark. You know, he has the ability to hit the ball the other way.

He has the ability to take hits and hit tough pitching. But I think with Boba Chet not being in that lineup, I think he's going to be asked to do a little bit more in terms of the power. So I do expect maybe the average to come down a little bit. I do expect the power to get up there a little bit more. I do expect him to be kind of in that 40 home run mark. But a lot of that's going to be relying on who's going to step up in the absence of bow. Is it going to be Addison Barger?

Is it going to be Alejandro Kirk? Because the guy hit it behind Vladdy in this lineup is going to have the weight of the world on his shoulders early on in the season protecting Vladdy. So a lot of that's going to be dependent on who's hit behind him and who gets hot. And, you know, who could kind of step up. as that guy that Bo was for the last couple of years for Vladdy. Well, we're a couple of weeks away from opening day. It's quick, man.

I saw you down at the dome. It was three months ago, and here we are again. It's happening again quickly. Prior to that, though, we got the WBC and Canada, USA tonight. It's going to be a fun one this evening. Enjoy it. And again, your podcast is the Bluebird Territory. You, Ricky, I think Mitch is a part of that with you, so that's awesome.

And we appreciate you doing this, Kevin. We'll do it again down the road. All right, sounds good. There's Kevin Pilar. The newest tracks. Let's go. New music. And the next big thing.

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