What the Toronto Blue Jays’ run means to the Vancouver Canadians

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Consider this a vote for the Vancouver Canadians’ promotions next summer to include a John Schneider bobblehead.

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Schneider leads the Toronto Blue Jays up against the New York Yankees Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre in Game 1 of the best-of-five American League Division Series. He’s is in his fourth season as the Blue Jays manager, and the 45-year-old from Princeton, N.J., steered them to a 94-68 record in the regular season this time around, which was the third-best mark in the majors this season and a 20-win increase for Toronto from a year ago.

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The C’s have been a Blue Jays’ farm team since 2011, signing on with Toronto that year after previously being an Oakland Athletics affiliate. The first manager Toronto assigned to Vancouver was Schneider, then a 31-year-old former minor league catcher in the Blue Jays system.

Schneider took a leave from the job for family reasons partway through that campaign, but Toronto assigned to Vancouver again 2014. It was the first of back-to-back seasons for Schneider based out of Nat Bailey Stadium. He worked his way up the Blue Jays coaching staff and in July 2022 he was named interim manager, after there team cut ties with Charlie Montoyo. The “interim,” tag was eventually dropped.

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Blue Jays success is bound to be good for C’s business, and especially when you can attach a familiar face like Schneider’s to it.

“He’s always been a big, big supporter of the team in Vancouver,” said C’s general manager Allan Bailey, who’s been with the club in some capacity since 2007 and became GM in 2018. “He’s just a great guy and was a great member of the staff when he was here.

“One of the things I was thinking about is that you see the players move their way through the system and get to the big leagues, but Schneider is proof that you also see managers and coaches do it as well.”

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Schneider was a guest speaker for the C’s annual Hot Stove Luncheon in January 2020, and talked then about how “Vancouver as my jumping off point as a manager has been very important for me.”

His first game report to Blue Jays brass led off with how loud the fans at Nat Bailey were.

“You’re dealing with big crowds, you’re learning how to win in a place where there’s an expectation of winning,” he continued in 2020. “It’s an important spot for our players and their development. That’s where they first learn that, with the Blue Jays, you’re not just playing for a city but for an entire country. You see the people at The Nat and how much it means to them.”

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Toronto doesn’t have to finalize their 26-man roster for the series against the Yankees until Saturday, but it’s expected to include the former C’s contingent of third baseman Addison Barger, infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider, left-handed reliever Mason Fluharty and righty starter Trey Yesavage.

Yesavage, 22, especially helps to hammer home the connection between the Blue Jays and C’s, since his last appearance with Vancouver was just on June 6, in a road game against the Tri-City Dust Devils.

Yesavage got into four games this summer with the C’s, who are the Blue Jays’ high-an affiliate in the Northwest League. He had one appearance at Nat Bailey, pitching four and one-third innings in a 1-0 win over the Hillsboro Hops. He struck out five and didn’t give up a hit.

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It was a part of Yesavage becoming just the 10th player across baseball since 2005 to pass through all four full-season tiers of the minors and then debut in the majors the same year. He was a Blue Jays’ first-round pick (No. 20 overall) in the 2024 MLB Draft.

For Yesavage, this season was seven games with the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, the four games with Vancouver, eight games with the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the six games with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons before his inaugural Blue Jays game on Sept. 15.

Right now, it looks like he’ll start Game 3 against the Yankees in this playoff set.

“He’s a special person,” Bailey said. “To see him have his success in such a short time is something else.”

Promotions are a staple of the C’s season and bobblehead giveaways are among the fan favourites. This past season, Davis Schneider, who spent time with Vancouver in 2019, 2021 and 2022, and was immortalized with a bobblehead, along with former C’s Steward Berroa and Dasan Brown. Davis played 113 games with Vancouver in total.

@Seveves

SEwen@postmedia.com

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