Davis ‘Babe‘ Schneider’s introduction to the major leagues has been an unmitigated success.
On Sunday, the 24-year-old became the first player in MLB history to record nine hits and two home runs in his first three games — and so far he has a .692/.733/1.154 line to his name. That wasn’t empty production, either, as he helped his team sweep a close rival in the American League playoff race.
In short, Schneider has been remarkable at the sport’s highest level out of the gate. What might be more extraordinary is that he made it to that level at all.
Six years ago the Toronto Blue Jays selected Schneider in the 28th round out of a New Jersey high school well-known for producing football players like Logan Ryan, Chris Canty, Eli Apple and Tom Flacco, with no such track record for baseball.
The combination of inconsistent results, and a 2020 campaign wiped out by COVID-19, meant the newest Blue Jay didn’t get to start a season above Rookie ball until 2021, when he was 22. It took excellent results at three levels over nearly two years to get him to Toronto.
Guys like Schneider almost never make it this far — and yet his story isn’t as much of an outlier on the Blue Jays as it would be on most other MLB teams.
It’s difficult to conceive of Toronto as a team of underdogs who weren’t expected to break through when the club has often been marketed around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, two sons of MLB players.
Earlier in the team’s current run Cavan Biggio was a prominent part of the Blue Jays’ branding as well, and a bunch of second-generation youngsters doesn’t scream ‘unlikely path to the bigs.’
While Guerrero has been considered a special talent since long before his MLB debut, it’s worth remembering that serious doubts about Bichette’s unconventional swing made him available with the 66th overall pick — and Biggio projected to be an org player until a double-A breakout at age 23.
Beyond that group, there are plenty more stories that mirror Schneider’s. Kevin Kiermaier was drafted even later than the Blue Jays rookie (941st overall). Like Biggio, he broke out at the double-A level at the age of 23 to get on the Tampa Bay Rays’ radar.
Whit Merrifield didn’t crack the major leagues until he was 27 after working his way up the Kansas City Royals’ ladder as a ninth-round pick. Brandon Belt was drafted in the 11th round out of high school as a pitcher — switched to a first baseman in college due to shoulder issues — and fought his way to the bigs as a fifth-round pick.
Chris Bassitt was drafted in the 16th round, didn’t see the majors until he was 26, and managed to top 100 innings at the highest level for the first time in his age-30 season.
You can look at any MLB roster and find players who beat the odds, but the Blue Jays have a preponderance of players whose production outstripped their pedigree.
In Sunday’s 13-1 win over the Red Sox, as an example, Toronto used 10 players who entered the league through the MLB Draft with former unheralded international free agent Alejandro Kirk as the only exception. That group’s average draft position was 290th.
The team’s catching tandem includes a 16th-round pick (Danny Jansen) and Kirk, a guy with a nearly unprecedented body type who signed for just $30,000 in 2016. That tandem was arguably MLB’s most productive last season. Not a soul in the bullpen was drafted higher than 105th overall (Jordan Hicks). That group might be the team’s greatest strength.
On the flip side, Kevin Gausman is the only former top-10 pick on the team and just three others came off the board in the top 30 (George Springer, Alek Manoah, and Matt Chapman).
None of this is a value judgment.
It’s not more or less valid to build your team around undeniable talents or diamonds in the rough. A Baltimore Orioles club with former first-overall pick Adley Rutschman at its centre is doing just fine.
Schneider is the Blue Jays’ biggest story at the moment, and rightfully so. From a narrative standpoint, it’s tough to beat a guy who’s both an underdog and a historic producer, even if it’s just for a few games.
His rise to prominence is unique, but he’s also not alone. This Blue Jays club has plenty of players who’ve been where Schneider is now. Toronto’s clubhouse is full of guys who had an uphill climb to reach the majors and needed to fight to prove they belonged while enduring skepticism borne out of the prospect status they never had.
It’s far too early to know how things will play out for Schneider at the major-league level, but he’s found himself on a team largely built around guys who have something in common with him.
