DUNEDIN, Fla. – Like so many of his teammates Bo Bichette spent a lot of time in the off-season thinking about how the Toronto Blue Jays can take the next step as a team and deliver some playoff success.
“If you put it in a bubble,” the star shortstop said Tuesday before the club conducted its first full-squad workout of the spring, “it’s maturity, it’s professionalism, it’s preparation before games. Little things on the field, defence, baserunning, more competitive at- bats, all that. We’ve learned a lot and it’s probably time for us to take action.”
About five hours later, after a hearty round of drills and the first live batting practice sessions of camp beneath a pretty blue sky, manager John Schneider stressed the importance of what’s become mantra at the Player Development Complex.
During his introductory address to players, “the main messages were look around the room and look at what we’ve assembled here and it’s time to take the next step from a really talented team to a team that’s going to be really tough to beat every single night,” Schneider relayed.
“What does that entail? That entails running the bases correctly, taking care of the baseball and putting together good at-bats,” he continued. “It’s been a conversation that’s been going on throughout the off-season with myself and a few of the players already. They’ve heard the message. But just more like, OK, look around and it’s time for us to take the next step.”
Resonance of those words can be found in the zeal with which the Blue Jays have thus far engaged the mundane.
During one set of pickoff drills, for instance infielders cheered Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for picking an errant toss out of the dirt, while pitchers cheered Jordan Romano for a particularly crisp strike to Bichette at second, who drew praise for the way he applied the tag.
Asked what maturity and professionalism from his earlier comment meant to him, Bichette replied, “maturity as a professional.”
“At this point, I think we’ve been through everything,” he added. “We’ve not had expectations and gone past them. We’ve had expectations and not quite reached them, as individuals, too, not only as a team. We’ve been through the ups and downs and we’ve been through two full seasons now. It’s definitely time for us to get where we’re going.”
Part of that is the collective recognition that the path starts with habits and traits ingrained right now.
Kevin Kiermaier remembers how in the spring of 2019, after the Tampa Bay Rays finished third in the American League East at 90-72 to end a run of four straight losing seasons, he and his teammates discussed playing to win because they refused to watch the playoffs from home any longer.
The Rays lost a division series in five games to the Houston Astros that year, fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the World Series the next year and haven’t missed a post-season since.
“With our team, we saw it develop over the years. We were really good and we knew that and each spring training we had new goals, let’s take that next step, let’s do it,” said Kiermaier. “When I look at these guys in here, we have a ton of good players, it’s so exciting, and you need you need players who care and guys who want to win. I know come the eighth inning, if we hit a leadoff double, we’re trying to move that guy over. Those are team at-bats and those things go a long way. If we can do that with the personnel we have in here and the pitching and the defence, we’re going to win a lot of games and that’s fun to think about.”
While Whit Merrifield points to the need for an emotional level-headedness amid the inevitable swings of the season as a crucial step to progress, he also feels the Blue Jays are now at the point where attention to detail becomes a more natural focus.
Not that it doesn’t matter when a team is first turning the corner from a rebuild but when a team is largely young, “that detail somewhat goes overlooked because you’re concerned about other things – establishing yourself, doing things probably offensively that solidify your role, get to that paycheque that everybody’s looking for, things like that,” he explained.
“We have a group of guys now that have become established, know who they are as a player, what their future is probably going to look like,” Merrifield continued. “It’s easier to have that success in the big-leagues knowing you can play at this level and now the little things become more of an emphasis as opposed to maybe something that you weren’t so cognizant of before.”
An additional layer atop all that this spring is preparing for the pitch clock, a ban on infield shifting and expanded bases, three rule changes with the potential to dramatically alter the game.
The Blue Jays practised with the timer in play and coaches enforcing it, Schneider at one point calling a ball on Yusei Kikuchi during his live batting practice for letting the clock run out. Later, the lefty quickly disengaged from the rubber when he realized he wouldn’t make a pitch in time, asked if he was OK and was praised by pitching coach Pete Walker, who said, “that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“I thought Kikuchi did great with it,” said Rob Brantly, a veteran catcher in camp on a minor-league deal and positioned to be the first call-up if there’s an injury behind the plate. “We were relaying the signs early. His cadence was really good. If anything, we needed to slow down a little bit – it felt like hurry-up baseball. But after that we got into a really good groove.”
Danny Jansen felt similarly while catching live BPs thrown by Trent Thornton and Zach Thompson, the 29-year-old righty acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates to build out the organization’s rotation depth.
While he acknowledged that the current adjustment period is essential, “ultimately there’s only one way and that’s through it.”
The same goes for the Blue Jays as a whole when it comes to the bigger picture, as the one-game-short heartbreak of 2021 and Game 2 dagger against the Seattle Mariners in last year’s wild-card round still linger, reminders of the gaps to be overcome.
“Obviously after the bittersweet loss, you take some time to reflect,” said Jansen. “This team has really been talented, but it’s more talented now and this year it’s just the little things, cut-offs, attention to detail, especially now with the clock, you’ve got to be really on your game and ultra-focussed. That’s what we’re preaching early.”
Added Keirmaier: “Focusing on the little things matters. We have all the pieces on paper to lift that trophy at the end. But we’ve got to go out there and execute at a high level from a team standpoint, top to bottom. I know we’re going to complement each other really nice, as these guys have in years past. Coming over here in free agency, I want to take the next step with this group. We’ve got the guys to do it. Now it’s up to us and that’s a beautiful thing.”
