TORONTO — For the past couple of months, rookies have featured prominently throughout the Toronto Blue Jays’ lineup. That regular playing time has not only afforded those players valuable experience against major-league competition but, manager John Schneider says, it has given the first-year players an opportunity to absorb key information about life in the major leagues.
As the season comes to an end, Schneider hopes his rookies have learned “what we deem acceptable and what we stand for” as members of the Blue Jays organization.
“It’s easy to say guys are young and mistakes are going to happen, I think it’s how you come out of that. You always want to learn from it,” Schneider said. “A lot of these guys have been here long enough to where it’s OK to say to someone that’s not up to par, you know, that’s not up to our standards, and that’s up to me, staff, older guys. But I think just building off of experience and what they and we need to do collectively as a group, going forward.”
The Blue Jays’ manager hopes that’s the overarching takeaway, but every individual will have a unique perspective on what they learned through their first tour of the majors. As such, The Athletic spoke to several Blue Jays rookies and asked them what their biggest takeaways were from their first MLB season. Below are their answers.
Leo Jiménez, IF
“Other than the relationships that I’ve made with my teammates and all that, I want to say, the work ethic — how you have to come every single day, ready to go and ready to prepare yourself for the game.
“Up here is more about who can stay focused and you got to make sure that you have to perform. That’s the whole point of it, perform. And you got to be professional, you got to be a big-leaguer, and that’s, I think, the biggest difference compared to the minor leagues.”
Addison Barger, IF/OF
“The number one thing for me would be just keeping a steady mentality and the whole, not get too down or too high, because it’s a long year, and a lot of the veteran guys do that really well, so that’s something I’ve taken from them, and I think it’s super important.
“I don’t know exactly when (I absorbed the lesson), but for sure, at some point, just being up here and learning and getting comfortable, it was something that I took away.”
Joey Loperfido, OF
“I would say what I learned most this year is that you can’t put a price on just your own competitiveness, like at the end of the day, I think whether your body feels good, or your mind feels good, or swing feels good, or things are going your way or things aren’t going your way, I think you have to be able to show up and step in the box and know you can beat the guy that’s on the mound.
“And I think I lost sight of that a little bit this year just thinking, ‘OK, I got to take good BP, my body’s got to feel this kind of way. You know, mentally I got to stay positive, and do all this stuff,’ but at the end of the day, I think, if you can resort back to just finding a way to win and find a way to grind out good at-bats in good days and stack them on top of each other, I think that’s probably my biggest takeaway.”
Vladdy and the rookies ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/RPRwJFM0Av
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 27, 2024
Spencer Horwitz, IF
“Losing isn’t fun, no matter where it is, whether it’s in the big leagues (or not). Because you always think, ‘Just get to the big leagues, get to the big leagues,’ and then, yeah, it makes a lot of things better, but doesn’t make losing any more fun. Being up here for a little bit last year and getting a taste of September baseball and being in the playoff chase, it definitely made me appreciate it way more.
“(It) does motivate me and push me to be better. And yeah, people would say I had a good year, but I was like, I feel like I need more because when I came here, whatever the team’s record was since I’ve been here, it’s not enough. And I got to figure out a way to be better, and if I play better, that should help the team.”
Brendon Little, RP
“One of the bigger things is that it is a really long season, so (it) definitely makes it a lot easier to kind of move on from bad outings and not let stuff linger. I think that’s probably the biggest thing.
“I saw Christian Yelich was on some podcast, and someone told him this, but it was like, ‘It takes a long time to have a good season and it takes a long time to have a bad season.’ And I just remember him saying that, and now just seeing it all play out. The seasons are really long, and it kind of helps going through the ups and downs.”
Steward Berroa, OF
“I would say (learning) how to prepare. I had that before, but (learning) how here every play matters — every second matters. And I feel like in the minor leagues, we fail to learn instead of here, it’s more about you have to be able to do the stuff.
“Being around veteran guys, they always mentally are ready to do whatever it takes to win games. For me, that’s the biggest thing, even (coming) from the bench and seeing the game like I’m playing. During the first, fifth or sixth inning, being able to be locked in mentally (so) when I have to go in for defence or pinch-run, I feel like it’s not new. I feel like I’ve been in the game.”
Jonatan Clase, OF (via team translator Hector Lebron)
“You got to be disciplined and consistent. You got to be consistent all the time.”
Yariel Rodríguez, SP (via team translator Hector Lebron)
“It was a great year (and) experience for the future. I learned a lot — a lot of new things, not just on the field, off the field for me, and it helped me to grow in terms of working on me — physically, mentally, my game, and all those little things that are going to make me better for next year to help the team win.
“(I learned about) preparation — like the routine. In between outings (and) every fifth day. I’m trying to focus on that — getting better at that. To be more consistent. And of course, recovery after the outing. That’s something that I really have to be focused on next year.”
Luis De Los Santos, IF
“I learned a lot from those guys, Vladdy (Guerrero Jr. and) George (Springer), how they prepare for the game every day. That’s unbelievable. In the minor leagues, I didn’t see anything like that. Those guys prepare in the minor leagues, but here it’s more focused. … That’s what I learned the most here. Every guy has his routine, do the same thing every day. Mentally, you’re ready for the game every day. That’s something that I learned when I got here.
“And listen to (your body). I’m the kind of guy that I go to the field every day, I take groundballs every day. I’m hitting on the field every day. And then I talk with those guys and Vladdy, especially, he says, sometimes you have to save your body for the next day. Be smart with what you do. You have to work every day, but be smart, because the goal is getting ready every day for the game.”
(Photo of Loperfido, Barger and Berroa celebrating a win: Kevin Sousa / Getty Images)
