After the Toronto Blue Jays won the American League pennant and booked their trip to the organization’s first World Series in 32 years, Morgan Rielly made some comments that should give fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs some hope.
“There’s a small part of you that you’re envious of them. You’re a bit jealous of what they’re doing, just because of Toronto. You watch it firsthand, you’re obviously happy for them, it’s a great moment for the city, but we want to be able to do that and have a run like that.”
Leafs fans should love to hear that this was a key takeaway from a core member of their team. You want your team inspired by what the Jays are doing.
Make no bones about it, what the Jays are doing is inspirational, and can provide some key pieces of guidance for this year’s Leafs in terms what they need to do to have success.
Here are five takeaway lessons that should work as a crossover between the two Toronto clubs.
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The season is a journey
On May 23 of 2025, the Toronto Blue Jays had played 50 of their 162 regular season games. They lost 3-1 that day to the Tampa Bay Rays, which dropped their record to a dead even 25-25.
I spoke to some pretty knowledgeable baseball guys right around that time, and I’ll be honest, they had the Jays dead to rights. They gave them just about no shot the rest of the way. They were simply not good enough, there was some buzz that Bo Bichette might get dealt, and it looked like it was all going to come crashing down.
Three months later, they finished 94-68 and won the AL East in a tiebreaker.
Like the Jays, the Leafs have some great core players capable of breaking games wide open. The Jays stuck with it, found some wins, a better energy and, in turn, an identity. Guys took advantage of the opportunities they got, and that allowed the Jays to add a couple players at the trade deadline, which made them better still. There’s no reason the Leafs couldn’t scuffle for a bit while searching for their own identity and find themselves in a much better place than how things feel today. You’ve just gotta keep striving to get better every day.
About part of what I mentioned above…
You reward your depth with opportunities when they excel, and make them important
I got tired of talking about the Leafs being Team A and Team B in the past and, fortunately this year, the plan was to be more balanced. Nic Roy, Dakota Joshua, and Matias Maccelli were added. Easton Cowan has played a few games, Calle Jarnkrok got healthy, and it seemed like the Leafs would have more potential players to do what Bobby McMann has done – take a spot, excel, and force the team to elevate his status.
If you look at the Jays, they’ve got some journeymen big leaguers who are thriving. Ernie Clement was waived by a bad team two years ago. Nathan Lukes spent about a decade in the minors. It’s a pretty long list, actually. But those guys played well enough to get their confidence going, they earned more playing time, and they became essential to the capital-T Team.
If the Leafs, in the post-Marner era, are in fact going to be more balanced, they need to give a few of their own journeymen depth guys the chance to be important, and then it’s up to those guys to grab the opportunities. You don’t have to be what you’ve been in the past. Give Roy that chance. How about Lorentz gets some run higher in the lineup? They’ve got decent skill in their bottom-six, and don’t have to keep trying the same things.
As players establish themselves in the league they can still improve, fit a team’s puzzle better, and sometimes there’s still more juice to be squeezed.
But of course…
Your best players gotta be your best players
That doesn’t mean every night, but it sure should be most nights. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won the ALCS MVP by being nearly impossible to deal with just about every time he stepped to the plate. He was rock solid in the field. The $150 million man, George Springer, hit the biggest dinger of them all.
This is a tale as old as time for the Leafs, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant. Yes, you can get big moments in the form of a base knock from Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the seventh. Yes, Max Talbot can score two goals in Game 7 to pull Sidney Crosby through. The depth needs to be important.
But at the end of the day, guys like Matthews and Nylander need to be an absolute headache for opposing defences.
Related to that…
Want the ball, want the moment
You didn’t think we’d get through this without talking about the fire of Max Scherzer did you? That’s a guy right there who loves the game, wants to compete, and wants to go right at you. He wants to be in the biggest moments, so when he gets that chance, he’s ready to eat your heart out.
John Schneider told a story about texting Springer about his bad knee to check in on his availability for Game 7, and Springer told him to stop texting him because he was going to play regardless. They talked in person that day, and Springer told him to leave him alone. He was playing, and he wanted that moment.
It’s about Kevin Gausman saying he couldn’t wait to get in Game 7, and Chris Bassitt ready to thrive in his big moment.
There have been some times when the Leafs came up against big moments, and absolutely shrunk. They’ve hesitated, they’ve balked. Injuries are unfair and unpredictable, but there’s no doubt they’ve popped up at bad times.
Still, the Jays have done this without Bichette. You’re allowed to win when a big player has to miss some time.
If you’re not playing for the big moments and winning, then why are you playing? And if the answer to why you are playing is something other than that whole “winning” thing, it’s probably not going to go great.
And, lastly …
No quit, next man up
I mentioned that the Jays went from 25-25 to finishing 94-68. They’ve now won over 100 baseball games this year. They’ve come from behind more than any team in baseball, 51 times in total between the playoffs and regular season. That’s over half their wins where they were trailing at some point.
That to me is so much about energy and the “team” concept. When you fall behind, do you start to flag and pout and point fingers? Or do you stay resilient, dig in, and get ready to throw your next best punch?
The Leafs don’t have the offence to play bad and come from behind as easily without Marner, and so they’re going to need more of a group effort that uses several skaters. It can be someone different every night, rather than putting all the pressure on a few guys.
At just 3-3-1, people are looking at the Toronto Maple Leafs and asking justifiable questions. What’s their identity? How are they trying to play? Heck, what are their lines?
The Jays were almost a third of the way into their season before they started to find some answers. The Leafs still aren’t even 10 per cent of the way through, and they’re trying to figure things out, too.
But it is time to start finding some answers, whatever they are, so they can start to put forth a better version for themselves.
And if they’re looking for a recipe, a shortcut to get a few of the answers they’re so desperately seeking, it wouldn’t hurt for them to look across the street at the Blue Jays, and take a page from that very good neighbour’s book.
