#MLBVideos: How did the Toronto Blue Jays make it to the World Series? | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

How did the Toronto Blue Jays make it to the World Series? | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

What’s gonna win in a World Series? The team that doesn’t strike out or the staff that strikes people out. This is a completely different matchup than last year’s World Series. Toronto. These guys are going to challenge you to play the game. They’re supporting cast players stepped up for sure. From mlb.com. This is the Morning Lineup podcast. I’m your host, Matt Mogan. Today is Wednesday October 22nd. And how about those Blue Jays? A Toronto is dancing in the World Series for the first time since 1993. That’s 33 years. I was six years old. Glad Junior was negative six years old. It’s quite the accomplishment from a team that was really on nobody’s radar before the 2025 season started. Check the mlb.com preseason picks. The Blue Jays are nowhere to be found, great job by us. So how did they get here? How did they piece it together? Where did they find Ernie Clement? We’ll break down how six key characters, some stars, some on the verge, some barely known. We have led them to the fall classic against the Dodgers. Let’s get to it first. Well, we need to talk about the pitching and we need to talk about the newfound ace, Ice Trey Trey, your savage. The 22 year old has spent time in every single affiliate this season, single a high A AA AAA. And finally, at the end of 2025 3 games in the majors, the team’s number one prospect was eased perfectly through each level in the system, transitioning into a star at the exact right time. His postseason debut, an 11 strikeout hit this masterpiece against the New York Yankees will go down as one of the best ever swing and a miss strike 311 in five hitless innings for Trey Savage. He had a rough outing in game two against the Mariners but gave up just two runs with seven K’s over five and two thirds innings in game six. Manager john Schneider knows he’s found something special at the right time of year and that he’ll be a key factor this weekend against the Dodgers. Tough to put in to put into words, you know, um kids started in a ball this year and just did that against that lineup. What we were looking for were command poise, all that kind of stuff that was there. Um, swings were evident that stuff was good anchoring the rotation. There’s the wily veteran, the three time Cy Young winner, future Hall of Famer, a 41 year old with the kind of experience and at times insane energy, a winning team needs. John Snyder always says if I run out to the mound, I haven’t made up my mind and he just jogged out to the mound to talk to Max Scherzer. Let’s go. Scherzer said I got this. Let’s go. How you doing, Max? He goes, I’m great. Get back in the dugout. I think Max made his feelings known very clearly to john Schneider. That’s awesome. Mad Max Scherzer has battled injuries over the last few years , only starting nine games for the Rangers last season. Fans and teams wondered if he’d retire before 2025 although nobody ever really asked him to his face for fear of him screaming back at them. Still Toronto signed him to a one year contract. He made just 17 starts because of more injuries putting up an er A over five. He wasn’t even on the A L DS roster, but in the CS, he was nearly vintage. Max pitching a brilliant five and two thirds innings with five strikeouts and two runs allowed in a game four win out of the bullpen. There’s the guy who wants the ball every single day, Louie, I’ll pitch until I’m blue in the face. Louie Varland, Varland was acquired at the last minute in a trade with the Twins on July 31st this year. Experts said the deal came at a steep cost dealing some of their top prospects to Minnesota GM Ross Atkins said it wasn’t your quote traditional deal, but most agreed a 27 year old reliever, unleashing fireballs off the mound would bode well and it has , including during the postseason, he got him stuck with the curve in the dirt. Lo Varland punches out two in a 123 inning. Varland has been a workhorse pitching in 10 of the Blue Jays 11 playoff games and mostly coming in with runners on in dire situations. He’s put up a 3.2 70 in 11 innings with 13 strikeouts and just one walk. Hopefully he’s not too tired because the Jays will need him to continue picking up big innings in the World Series. Here’s Kevin Gossman giving his pitching mate praise earlier this October Louis Varland versus anybody right now. You know, I would, I would take him. He’s just, he’s so electric. That was one of the greatest trades we’ve ever made coming up. You also need to have some offense to get this car and the Blue Jays have a lot of it. We’ll talk about three of their key hitters after the break. Ernie Clement. It sounds like a kid who lived next door to you growing up a classmate in elementary school. Hey, Miss Clement, can Ernie come out to play today? But no, Ernie Clement is a postseason monster ready in with a flat D Clemente at 4, 29 in 11 games, 18 hits and 42 at bats, 10 runs, seven RBIs and a homer. He has just two strikeouts. The colt postseason legend, every team dreaming of world series glory needs back in March 2023 Clement was dropped by the ace entering, as he said, quote , a real low point in his career. The Blue Jays took a chance on him, signing the former high school hockey player to a minor league deal. Since 2024 Clement has become one of the hardest players to strike out in baseball, one of the best defenders in the game and a fan favorite. How could you not love Ernie? Just look at what he said after his home run in the A L DS to Blue Jays beat reporter Keegan Matheson. Quote, I don’t remember anything totally blacked out. I have no idea what I was doing. Probably looked like an idiot. Then there’s, of course, Mr Clutch, the man who lives for October George George George of Toronto swinging a fly ball left field and deep. Arozarena turns Springer digger in 78 postseason games. George Springer has 23 homers, 47 RBIs and 883 OPS. He’s now tied for third all time with Kyle Schwarber and playoff homers. Four behind former teammate Jose Altuve and six behind leader manny ramirez. Springer was signed the Jays to a massive 100 and $50 million.06 year deal. Back in 2020. The now 36 year old had two of his worst seasons in 2023 and 24 at one point last season, he was the worst qualified hitter in baseball, but this year he bounced back to have his best season since 2019, hitting 32 homers in just 100 and 40 games. And in the playoffs, he’s helped to carry his team in the biggest of moments even after fouling a ball off his knee and limping off the field, including hitting one of the biggest home runs in franchise history to get his team to the World Series. Nothing will stop him from getting a ring. I’m so happy for our team, our fans, our city, our country. I’m so happy right now. Exactly. Moment. Finally, of course, there’s the native son, the child of a Hall of Famer who seems to be growing into a Hall of Famer himself. We all watched him blast baseballs on Dominican Sandlots as a teenager, we saw him rise to the number one prospect in baseball and now he’s taking the only team to likely ever be on to a World Series swing and a laser left field deep sinking to the ballpark. Vladimir Guerrero Junior. Vladimir guerrero Junior was first signed for the Blue Jays 10 years ago at the age of 16. He was a CTA in the minor leagues like nothing we’ve ever seen before and has continued his reign in the majors after some back and forth negotiations on a contract extension in early 2025 at times seeming like Vlad would enter free agency this winter. He agreed with the Jays on a 14 year five million dollar deal and boy, are Toronto fans glad he did. Flatt has been otherworldly during their playoff run. The best hitter on any team this fall. He has six homers and 12 RBIs in 11 games slashing at a 4 42 5, 10, 930 clip. His six dingers in one postseason are tied for the most any Blue Jays hit in their entire postseason career. The MV P shows no signs of stopping in the next round. Mlb.com Blue Jays beat reporter Keegan Matheson says this iteration of the Blue Jays roster finally has the ingredients to win it all. Even against the mighty Dodgers , the Blue Jays are a big market and a big budget team but still not quite the Dodgers. So this has been a combination of every corner of roster building coming together all at once. It’s what the Blue Jays have been trying to do for years but struggling to do now. It starts of course with the big money with Vlady, the $500 million man. It starts with Kevin Gossman and George Springer and some of these big deals the Blue Jays have handed out. They’ve done great with those. They haven’t really missed, have not been stuck with that Albatross contract lower down on the roster. You have players like Ernie Clement stepping up Addison Barger, Myles Straw, Nathan Lucas and Then I think the real kicker for all of this is player development. That’s what was missing the last few years, but you have some internal player development coming up for position players who have helped, but Freya Savage is the real star of all of this started out in single A now he’s in the World Series. He’s going to be part of the Blue Jays pitching plans against the Dodgers and with big money spending with bottom roster depth and player development, the Blue Jays have finally aligned all of those stars. That’s all for today’s morning lineup. World Series game one isn’t until Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox, but we’ll be here to keep previewing every single part of it. The Great Mandy Bell will be back with you tomorrow. As always, please don’t forget to leave us A R in the review, share this podcast with the baseball lovers in your life and enjoy your, uh baseball less day today.

All of the important storylines from 10/21/2025 across MLB including: The Toronto Blue Jays have made it to the World Series, and there is a key group of players that had an integral role in the club securing an American League pennant for the first time in 32 years.

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