MLB playoffs 2025: For the Blue Jays and ALCS Game 7 hero George Springer, advancing to the World Series is a family affair: 'This is extra special'

TORONTO — As soon as the trophy presentation concludes, the mad dash begins.

On Monday, it was the Toronto Blue Jays’ turn to participate in the rare postseason ritual. Having just defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in an unforgettable ALCS Game 7 to clinch the franchise’s first trip to the World Series in 32 years, Canada’s team stood together on stage for the formal postgame ceremony to celebrate their American League pennant and award the series MVP. It was the classic image of a team collectively basking in a postseason triumph. But what happened next carried even more significance to those on stage.

From the second the final congratulations were uttered into the microphone, the Blue Jays nearly jumped off stage in search of what matters most: their loved ones. With family and friends having filled the field around the stage during the ceremony, players embarked on a mission to reconnect with the people who have supported their winding journeys to get to this moment and the chance to compete on the biggest stage the sport has to offer.

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George Springer Jr. had watched his son make seven trips to the postseason before he helped power the Blue Jays to an AL East title in 2025. That unusual wealth of October experience includes two trips to the World Series with the Astros, which enabled the Springer family to enjoy this postgame sequence on multiple occasions.

But this time?

“Different,” the elder Springer said, beaming on the field as his son celebrated nearby with his wife, Charlise, and their two kids. “It’s different.”

Roughly 90 minutes earlier, George Springer III, a month removed from his 36th birthday and playing in his 77th career postseason game, delivered one of the biggest swings in Blue Jays franchise history: a go-ahead, three-run blast in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Toronto a lead that would hold to secure the World Series berth that had eluded the franchise for more than three decades. It was the 23rd time Springer has gone deep in a playoff game, tying him with Kyle Schwarber for third in MLB history.

Springer’s seventh-inning swat represented an epic reversal of fortune for a Blue Jays team that did not appear to be trending toward victory for the first six innings Monday. The teams traded runs in the first inning, hinting that the contest could be spiraling toward a parade of pitchers desperately trying to prevent runs. But Seattle starter George Kirby settled in after that, and Toronto’s at-bat quality diminished in the middle innings. Meanwhile, the Mariners’ two biggest bats delivered two humongous solo homers, with Julio Rodriguez taking Bieber deep in the third and Cal Raleigh going yard for the 65th and final time in 2025 in the fifth to give Seattle a 3-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Seattle turned to All-Star starter Bryan Woo in relief, a sensible if predictable Game 7 gambit. Woo wasn’t flawless, but he was effective enough to work through two scoreless innings that put Seattle nine outs away from its first World Series appearance. But Woo ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing a leadoff walk to Addison Barger and a single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa. After Andres Gimenez sacrifice-bunted Barger and Kiner-Falefa into scoring position, the lineup turned over to give Springer a chance to be the hero.

At that point, it was clearly the end of the line for Woo. The assumption from most observers before the game was that if Seattle held a late lead, manager Dan Wilson would turn to a combination of Woo and another starter, such as Bryce Miller or Luis Castillo, to bridge the gap to shutdown closer Andres Muñoz — who hadn’t pitched since Game 5 — for the final handful of outs. However, with the dangerous Springer coming up and two runners in scoring position, the most aggressive course of action — and a move that would’ve reflected the high-stakes nature of the game — would’ve been to call on Muñoz to face Springer in that moment, even if it meant figuring out an alternate plan for the ninth.

Instead, Wilson called on Eduard Bazardo, a lower-leverage reliever who enjoyed a breakout regular season and has shown flashes of brilliance this postseason but also threw two innings in Game 6 and certainly did not represent Seattle’s best chance at keeping Springer in the yard. Nevertheless, in came Bazardo for the highest-leverage moment of the Mariners’ season — and two pitches later, Toronto had the lead.

To Springer’s father, his son’s signature moment was the culmination of five years of ups and downs since he signed a six-year, $150 million contract to join the Blue Jays — and the ultimate payoff for an organization that has showered him and his family with love and support during his tenure in Toronto.

“We’ve really enjoyed our time here in Canada,” he said. “The Canadian people who have treated us extraordinarily well, the folks in Toronto, the folks surrounding the organization here, have always treated us very well. And it was something I really wanted, not just for my son, but I wanted it obviously for all the players and for the city and for the country, quite honestly, because he had such a warm, welcoming experience here.”

Said the Blue Jays’ star: “I spend so much time away from my own family … just to get a chance to experience this with them, this is what it’s about.”

The Springers aren’t the only ones who still cherish these moments even though they’ve ventured far into October before. Take 41-year-old Max Scherzer, whose remarkable outing in Game 4 helped pave the way for Toronto’s pennant. Watch Scherzer leap off the stage and navigate the crowd in search of his wife, Erica, and their four kids, and you might think he’d never sniffed the World Series before. But as he heads to the Fall Classic for the fourth time in his career, the emotions come rushing back.

“Oh my gosh, to see my kids so happy, my wife so happy — they work so hard,” he said. “They grind so hard. You go through the season, I’m gone … the kids, they really go through it as well. So to get this moment, be able to see your kids in that moment, there’s just nothing like it.”

And while veterans such as Scherzer and Springer have enjoyed these celebratory postgame moments in the past, the majority of Blue Jays players and coaches had been chasing this feeling for much longer. Perhaps no one standing on the Rogers Centre turf had spent more time working toward a Toronto pennant than manager John Schneider.

Drafted by the Blue Jays in the 13th round of the 2002 MLB Draft, Schneider spent six years in Toronto’s minor-league system as a catcher before he hung up the spikes and transitioned to coaching. After serving as a hitting coach in the complex league in 2008, he spent the next nine seasons managing at five different levels in the Blue Jays’ organization, including stops in Dunedin and New Hampshire, where he managed a young phenom named Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Although Schneider never made it to the majors as a player, his passion and knack for coaching enabled a steady rise through the ranks that resulted in his hiring as the big-league manager in 2023.

“It was all matter-of-fact for him,” said John’s wife, Jessy, three days removed from their 10th wedding anniversary. “It was always like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be a big-league manager one day.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ But here we are. And you know what? He’s unbelievable. He can still do everything that he does today and still be an exceptional husband and father.”

“Besides my wife and my kids and my family, this organization means everything to me because it’s what I live for besides them,” the skipper said, soaked in champagne, after the celebration moved indoors. “I mean, they’re first, but I mean, this is all I’ve ever known.”

As satisfying as it is for Schneider to be front and center for a Blue Jays trip to the World Series after decades in the organization, this magical run would not be possible without the help of some fresh faces who are still in the earliest stages of understanding what it means to be a Blue Jay.

Asked what they knew about the Toronto franchise when their son, Trey, was drafted 20th overall in 2024, Dave and Cheryl Yesavage laughed and admitted: “Not much!”

Fast-forward 15 months, featuring a supersonic run through all four minor-league affiliates, a September call-up and three postseason starts, and the Yesavages speak as if they’ve been coming to Rogers Centre their whole lives.

“We know how great the Blue Jays are,” said Dave, who somehow got hold of a champagne bottle before the team started partying inside. “We knew they were gonna get the job done. We said it in the hotel room: ‘We’re going to the World Series!’”

Said the 22-year-old right-hander while celebrating with his teammates: “My dad’s been getting some fame from all the time he’s been on TV. He’s getting recognized out in public. But they’re handling it great, just remembering that we’re all people. I’m their son — not only a baseball player to them — so being able to just be a mother and a father to me is all I could ask for.”

“It’s the best fan base in North America by far,” Dave added. “And we couldn’t ask for a better fan family and the support that Trey gets.”

If Yesavage’s Toronto tenure has felt like a whirlwind, consider the path for fellow right-hander Shane Bieber, who started Game 7 on the mound for the Blue Jays after turning in a brilliant performance in Game 3 to help secure his team’s first victory of the series.

Bieber began the season with the Guardians, still working his way back from Tommy John surgery that wiped out nearly all of his 2024. The former Cy Young Award winner decided to re-sign with Cleveland last offseason in hopes of completing his rehab with the only organization he’d ever known, but the season unfolded differently, with Bieber becoming a prime trade chip just as he was readying to return to the majors. Toronto jumped at the opportunity to bolster its rotation at the deadline, acquiring Bieber and sparking an unexpected adventure for the right-hander and his wife, Kara, who welcomed their first child in March.

“The support system that I have is second to none,” Bieber said in a moment of calm amidst the raucous party surrounding him. “But then you fast-forward, and you have a baby, and then you get traded midseason with a 4-month-old baby — not just further away but to another country. And, you know, my family specifically stepped up big-time. And I think everybody’s family here has done that in similar ways, and they deserve to be celebrated.”

Tyler Hoffman remembers being thrilled when his older brother, Jeff, was drafted by the Blue Jays in the first round of the 2014 draft because of the relative proximity to their hometown about 400 miles east in upstate New York. But that vision of driving north of the border to watch his brother pitch was derailed almost immediately, as Hoffman was traded to the Rockies the following summer, before he reached the majors.

A decade later, a homecoming was in store when Hoffman signed with the Blue Jays as a free agent to reinforce a shoddy bullpen that almost single-handedly sunk Toronto’s 2024 campaign. And after a roller-coaster regular season of tremendous highs and troubling lows for Hoffman, there he was on the mound in the ninth inning of Game 7, striking out the side to send Toronto to the World Series.

“I’m just so proud of Jeff because he went through a lot to get here,” Tyler said. “It’s a great team. I love everybody on this team, I love watching this team. So to watch my brother come in, shut the door on three straight strikeouts — you can’t write it any better.”

And in the celebration afterward, Tyler couldn’t hold back his emotions.

“Once Jeff got down, I was fine, and then once he came up to me, I just started bawling my eyes out. I just started crying,” he said. “I have no words for it — I wish I had words for it right now. I’m in disbelief at this point.”

Whether they’ve been a Blue Jay for four months or forever, everyone involved in this long-sought-after AL pennant speaks glowingly about what it means to be part of this organization. But as an extremely emotional Guerrero made clear shortly after the final out, this remarkable story is far from over.

Four wins against the rested and resplendent L.A. Dodgers separate Guerrero’s Blue Jays from an even higher level of glory as World Series champions. Having won one more game than the Dodgers in the regular season, Toronto holds home-field advantage as the Fall Classic gets underway Friday, which could prove crucial in their quest to topple baseball’s Goliath. It’s a daunting proposition either way. But for now, for at least this one night, the Blue Jays and the entire nation behind them earned the chance to soak in the glorious satisfaction of having made it this far.

And for the father of the player who ensured this opportunity would be possible for the Jays, this Game 7 victory will endure as one of his son’s most impactful and memorable on-field achievements.

“I always appreciated every opportunity that George had in the postseason, knowing that there are guys that spend their whole career — 12 years, 15 years — and never get to a playoff game, let alone an LDS or ALCS, or have an opportunity to go to the World Series,” he said. “Now that he’s 36 years old, this is extra special, because the opportunities for this to happen are diminishing, to be frank. So at this point in his career, to see him experience this moment …

“Extraordinary.”

MLB playoffs 2025: For the Blue Jays and ALCS Game 7 hero George Springer, advancing to the World Series is a family affair: ‘This is extra special’

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