OverDrive - Schneider on the Blue Jays' season, the World Series experience and the team perspective

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Blue Jays manager John Schneider joined OverDrive to discuss his perspective on the incredible run for the Blue Jays, the World Series experience and the atmosphere for the roster, the group camaraderie, the famous interaction with Max Scherzer, turning the page and more.

That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah.

Way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Here's the manager of the Blue Jays, John Snyder. Do you rebound quickly, John? Absolutely, boys.

I'm boxing out. I'm rebounding with the best of them right now. It took a couple days. It took a couple days, but, but man, on to the next thing, you know what I mean? It was an unbelievable series. I think that every single player played the right way and literally an inch or two short,

but on to the next thing, and we're excited for the, for 2026. So how were the emotions, Snides, like balancing being proud of what you accomplished and also having the understanding that it was so close and not accomplishing the ultimate goal and still having that kind of fuel you going forward? yeah that was the hardest part you know i mean obviously a really close-knit group and when you're

in it you know and when the players are in it you're just kind of in it you know and when it ends i mean it hurt it hurt for a while it hurt for you know i'd be lying if i said not you know a week or so but you know days you know it it hurts it still hurts you know but i think you get past it and you kind of look back and you reflect on what we accomplished right and i think if anyone said us and spring training, hey, you guys are going to win the American League East and win the American League and be in the World Series. Yeah, right, you take it. But to be that close, it really, really, it sucked, you know.

So probably just now we're getting back and we're saying, okay, here are the things that we really did well. Here are the things that pushed the organization, the team, our standards forward. And, man, it's just such a hard group to ignore. Individually, collectively, what we did was just phenomenal. You grabbed everybody in the city and in the country for that. matter, like, have you thought about having to just bottle that and continue that moving forward? Because all you heard about is how the players loved each other, and there was

tears, and they all wanted to stay, and they all want to come back. Like, how do you bottle that moving forward? Not just for the chemistry in the clubhouse, but to equate to wins and good performance moving forward. Yeah, you try to, you know, and I think we're going to have a good number of guys coming back. You know, there's obviously free agency, but we're going to have a good number of the same guys and you tried to really yeah you do you try to bottle it I mean it was it's not very often you get a group of you know professional players that kind of felt the way we did and I'm talking about the players the staff players wives kids that became close you know front office it was like total alignment and everyone was kind of pulling the same

direction and it doesn't happen very often so you want to say okay what did we do to help harbor that environment it happens organically most of the time but I feel think that the players did a really good job of just kind of understanding each other, understanding what everyone was good at or what we were asking of them, and they kind of just embraced it and they kind of just snowballed from there. So you want to bottle it up. You understand that every team and every year is different. But I think that we definitely showed that when you have a cohesive unit, not just players, but when you have a cohesive unit from staff and front office and fan base, you know what I mean?

It can be a pretty dangerous thing. With John Snyder, and you always hear from people like, oh, you played in a cup final, you know, before you get to the final stage, you don't really know what it's like, and then mostly, you know, people afterwards say, man, it was bigger than I ever could have expected. Now that you've lived it, would that apply to you?

Like, how much bigger did the World Series feel than maybe you thought it was going to feel like? Yeah, it was a little bit. more than what I expected. And it's mainly from its immediate standpoint, to be honest with you, you know, I think that, you know, our prep and the game, when you're in the game, you're in the game. You know what I mean? You're not thinking about how the game is going to be documented years down the road

or the series is going to be documented or talked about years down the road when you're in it. You're just trying to win. But looking back on it, yeah, man, it was awesome. You know, I tried to set aside a minute or two each day to kind of be a baseball fan. you know those minutes add up quite a bit about the whole postseason but you take a minute or two each day to be a fan and appreciate what you've accomplished and where you are

and then you go to work you know so I think looking back at it now I haven't looked back at all the plays and all the I haven't dissected the series yet you know what I mean I don't think I'm ready for that yet I sometimes wake up thinking about game three or game six but I think when I dive back into it I'll kind of

appreciate what an epic world series it was but it was everything I had hoped for. Just the outcome was wrong. Right. And in terms of that, like you're, it sounds like you're eventually planning on doing that. And you mentioned you tried to kind of allow yourself to be a fan,

at least, you know, once or twice a day, journal World Series. How will you approach going back and reviewing it? Is it, will it be the fan, John Snyder, and thinking, man, I'm ready for the ups and downs? Will it be as a manager? If so, is it more technical, more analytical? If you watch it, are you trying to learn from it?

Like, what do you anticipate that experience being like yeah great question for one it'll be as a manager you know what i mean i think that that's just you know how i look at things um you know how you get accustomed to looking at things so you try to be critical of yourself you try to be critical of decisions you try to be critical of players you know so hopefully they you know there's a learning opportunity for somebody somewhere you know there's a million of them probably just those seven games um but when i when i do kind of look back and dive in and um you see kind of snippets here and there highlights that you know or on TV and things, and you're like, oh, yeah, man, that was that inning.

Holy crap, yeah, that's right. And you can kind of say that about every game, which is crazy. So I'll look back as a manager and try to see what we can get better at. I don't know that sounds really, really corny, but I've had enough time to kind of, you know, think of it as a fan and you've got to go back to work. In that moment, you stepped up to go take Max Scherzer out, and I'm guessing, did you know what his reaction is going to be? you have a sense of what it's going to be, and then you walked up,

and he's like, whoa, like, there's so many great moments. But that's one to me that I'm like, I love this team. I love the way they're going. So maybe take us through your thought process. You're stepping out of the dugout at how you thought that might go, that interaction with a pretty intense competitor. Pretty intense is an understatement. So I tell all my pitchers, I tell all my pitchers, starters and relievers.

If I jog out to the mound, I haven't figured out. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I may leave you in if you talk me into it or I may take you out. If I walk out, you're coming out. So I've talked to Max, you know, probably a half a dozen times, you know, since that game in Seattle. I had no intention to take him out. Maybe like a half a percent if he said, hey, I'm gassed.

I kind of wanted to get him pissed off, to be honest with you. Just knowing the guy, you know, and I kind of wanted him to have a moment, you know. So if you look, I mean, I started walking, and then I was like, oh, yeah, my rule. So I start jogging even before I got to the foul. line. And that's where the the whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, came in. And, you know, you can't, I wish I could repeat what was said. You could

lip read. But I think it was awesome. It was exactly what I expected him to say. And, you know, he strikes out of Rosarena, gets out of the fifth, and then the best interaction was in between the fifth and the sixth. You know, Pete and I are sitting there talking, and you're kind of shooting for five innings out of

your starter in the postseason, right? That's kind of like you're having your cake and eating it, too, if you get into the 6th. And I thought our starters were amazing all postseason to get deep into games. And so I go into the tunnel with Max, and he's, you know, sweating. He changes his jersey every inning, his hat every inning. He's just a madman. And in my mind, I was like, okay, that's good. You know, that's five innings, and we're going to go to the pen.

And he looked at me, and I can't really repeat what he said, but he basically said, what are you doing in here? And I said, that's good. And he said, I know that was good. And I said, no, that's good for today. And a few exchanges after that, I went into the dugout. I said, hey, Pete, he's going back out. And Pete just started laughing.

Okay. And he went out. I think he struck out Julio, got on the route. And he ended up walking Polanco, I think, and I yanked him. But he's so determined and confident in what he's trying to do. And for a guy that's kind of done everything in the game, he still prepares like an absolute animal, and he's really, really transparent on the front of how he's feeling every single start

and every single day, so you kind of know what you're going to get. Well, it's interesting, like throughout the playoffs, you know, you would run out there and take starters out who were having great nights. Now, that game was on the road, but I was in the building game two against the Yankees when you had to go get you savage. Oh, man, that was the best booed I ever, the most fun booing I've ever had. I knew it was coming, right? I was telling everyone.

I was telling Seabass. I was telling Gaws, Max. I'm like, watch this. I'm not going to get run out of the freaking city right here. That's got to be surreal because it's positive booing. You can appreciate that. It's like not really getting on your life. It's just the ride was so great with you savvy.

And the game was out of hand too because your offense has shown up. I think it was 12, 11, nothing, whatever it was. Right, exactly. And it was like, all right, we're trying to save him pitch count if we need him to pitch later. the series and let's let him go out and you know pete and i were talking i was let's go out touch the sixth inning and get it out i mean if the if i forget who it was it might have been wells popped up or somebody popped up the shore i think and um you know that that hit he could have went deep and i was taking i just wanted him to get recognized off the field

and not just have a clean inning to where you know the fans that were there that were witnessing a historic performance by a rookie couldn't show the appreciation for him so he was facing one hitter no matter what. And, you know, I thought it was the booze turned in the cheers in a hurry, which is pretty cool. Yep, they did. Chenide Ross, during the run, said that one of the reasons for the success of the team is that top to bottom, the organization is aligned as far as what everybody's doing. Does that stay true as far as off-season personnel moves?

Or do you get, like, surprise emails, or are you heavily involved in personnel decisions as far as additions and stuff? Yeah, we're kind of in lockstep, you know what I mean? It sounds so basic, but, you know, I think we've done such a good job from, you know, from Edward to Mark to Ross on down, the baseball ops team to staff, players. Like, this goes back a year ago, really, to where more than a year ago where we were finishing a crappy season in 24, and we started talking about, all right, what are we going to do to kind of get back to where we know we can get to, or what are the things that are

not working right now? So it was really fulfilling to kind of get to that point. We didn't think it would happen this quick, you know, but it was building, right? And there's still work to do, but yeah, man, I'm on the phone with Ross and the entire team basically daily, you know, if not multiple times a day talking through, you know, what our needs may be, what we're expecting at a certain guys after, you know, a deep run into the World Series and what are they going to need physically? What are they going to need for a recovery standpoint? We're all talking about it. And it's not just me, you know, it's all of our coaches, you know what I mean? It's Pete, it's Pop, it's DeMarlo, it's me, it's Carlos, it's Bud.

You know, we're all kind of talking through it together, so we're going to continue to do it that way. And it just took us a little bit of time to get there, myself included, you know what I mean? But I think it's just so cool that we all kind of understand what is best for us as a team. And I think the more you do that, the players just, I think the players really understood what was being asked of them, year and what was best for our team to win every night. So I think that kind of lead to some wins. A lot of chatter from the fan base about which watch you'd be wearing for which games.

So if you fought ahead to while they might play that out next year? You're adding new ones to your collection? Yeah, what's with the red band and the blue band? How do you decide which one? I know. All right. So I was lucky enough to get hooked up with this shameless plug here. Orest Watch is they're based out of Connecticut.

and Derek Shelton, buddy of mine, actually hooked me up with this group and you get a good handful of watches and I was, you know,

other managers wear it and a booney wears one. I think Mendoza wears one. Shelty has one. But I was just superstitious, man. I tried to match a uniform a little bit,

but at the same time, and if we were riding a eater, watch was staying on. And if we were playing, if we lost, I would change it. And I think it was pretty, It was funny, you know, the blue one I was wearing in the ALCS,

it actually stopped ticking during game six that we won against Seattle. They're going to love that you said that. It's actually a great story. It's a great story. It stopped ticking during game six, and we won. So I had to wear it for game seven, and I just set it to the start time, 807, whatever it was, and it didn't move. But I called the, they called the rep the next day.

I was like, hey, man, blue guy stopped, and he was like, new ones on the, and he over and ended a new one. So maybe I should have wore the broken one or the World Series. I don't know. I'm kicking myself, but it's, uh, I just go up to superstition, and, um, I hook Pity up with one, too. He, uh, he wore one all year. So we'll see where the off season leads in terms of colors, but, you know,

hopefully they're, uh, we got some, some fresh looks for 26. Absolutely. That's a good hookup, man. It's a good look. I'm a big, I'm a big watch guy, too. If you put, like, good watches or some shoes in front of me, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, like a kid in a candy store, you know what I mean? So I'm, uh, anything I can get my hands on, I'm all for it.

How's a golf game looking before we get you out of here? Not bad, you know, for a long layoff, really. Um, but out a couple times, uh, played Pelican over here in St. Pete for the first time. I'll tell you what, walking a course, not nearly as fun as a golf cart. So I walked the course, my feet were killing me for about a day and a half. Did you play in that onica pro-am? No, it was, I went the day after, um, that, that was, uh, the, the, uh, the, tournament was done i went monday but it was on sunday so it was like putting on a you know a hockey

rink yeah but i help i held my own held my own went out with my wife uh and my buddy and and miguel cairo he's actually a member over there so uh another baseball buddy and um held my own so hopefully golf game can get a little stronger in a shortened off season and i can keep up with the likes of ernie clement and uh and jeff often yeah clement man he could swing it dude oh man He's just carrying the hot streak of the postseason into the golf court. Oh, yeah, right to where was he in Vegas, wasn't he? We saw a shadow Craig playing with him and Joe in Vegas. Hurry, man.

If you ever get a chance to play with Ernie, just don't bet him any money because you'll walk out of there with an empty wallet on the golf course. All right. We'll avoid that sandbaggers. Are that what you're telling us or he's just too good? A little guy, and he's like, I can't hit it that far, and he's walking out shooting the 71, and he's laughing all the way home. Yeah, I know those guys, very familiar with those guys.

Well, listen, John, congrats on a great, great run, man. It was an incredible season. Thanks so much for joining us, and we'll do it again in the spring. All right, awesome. Thanks, fellas. It's always good, catch it up. You got it. There is, John Snyder.

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