Tuesday, March 18

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Two months into 2024, it looked like Davis Schneider was going to be "that guy" forever. 

Fresh off one of the greatest starts to a career in MLB history in late 2023, Schneider carried an .824 OPS through the first two months of ‘24, perfectly representing that extra punch of power the Blue Jays desperately needed. Then, the rest of the season happened. 

Schneider hit .159 with a .499 OPS the rest of the way. It was overshadowed, at times, by the team’s dreadful summer, but there’s a reason the Blue Jays continued to trust in Schneider. He’s beloved within the organization, a favorite of coaches at every level and one of this team’s best development stories. Fans gravitated toward Schneider immediately, too. When the Blue Jays released their City Connect jerseys in 2024, Schneider’s was one of the first to sell out. 

This feels like a perfect time to reset for Schneider, who now finds himself competing for a job in camp. That started with some reflection, finding he was “getting out of his swing” last season and straying from what makes him good.

“I feel like I was searching for hits last year, trying to poke stuff instead of trying to get my best swing off,” Schneider said. “I wasn’t focused on doing damage. I was searching for singles and stuff like that. That’s not my game. Getting on base and extra-base hits, that’s where I hold value.”

To his credit, Schneider never hid from any of this. He spoke openly about his struggles through late 2024 and took them head-on.

“I learned a lot from what I did well and what I did bad,” Schneider said. “It’s about going back, seeing where I went wrong and making those adjustments in-season, not just in the offseason. You’re going to hit that lull, but it’s a matter of how long you’re in that lull for. The good players, they’re not in there for a long time. [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.], he could go 0-for, then the next day he’ll go off. They’re not long.”

The battle for roster spots this spring looks different than a year ago, which can be tied directly to the arrival of Andrés Giménez. Last year, second base was a revolving door, including 33 starts for Schneider. Now, with Giménez locked in there for 150-plus games, Schneider will need to cut it as a corner outfielder alone, perhaps providing some pop off the bench against lefties. However, with George Springer and Anthony Santander in the corners and No. 5 prospect Alan Roden on the way, Schneider will need to hit his way to playing time. 

We’ve seen him do that before, though. The Blue Jays have bet on Schneider plenty of times over the past few years, and with an excellent spring to date, he’s giving them a good reason to do it again.

Competing against 'your boys'

Joey Loperfido could be one player Schneider is competing against … and the two are roommates in spring, along with Ernie Clement. There was some of this element at play in 2024 camp, too, but the young Blue Jays haven’t let anything become awkward.

“You can’t root against anyone. That’s out of my nature and out of everyone’s nature here,” Schneider said. “It is weird, because at the end of the day you are competing for a job, but you can’t really worry about everyone else. The decisions aren’t up to us. They’re up to the guys up top.”

Who else is on the bubble?

This is where we get to “best fit” potentially holding more value than strictly the “best player” at the end of the Blue Jays’ bench. 

Take Leo Jiménez, for example, the underrated young shortstop. Manager John Schneider said earlier in camp that Clement would likely be the second option at shortstop in-season and Jiménez’s second position is second base, which is occupied by Giménez. There are clearly some barriers in front of the 23-year-old Jiménez.

On the other hand, take Addison Barger. His ability to play some third base could fit on this roster, and if he could crush lefties, that gives him some level of value off the bench. There’s still a raw element to Barger’s toolsy game, but this is more about finding the missing puzzle piece. Barger, like Schneider, is having an excellent spring at the plate.

Despite Guerrero's wishes earlier in camp for his extension negotiations to not become a distraction, we just keep hearing about them.

Here’s the latest on Guerrero’s negotiations with the Blue Jays, including how we got to this point. Expect this story to quiet down around Opening Day, but pick back up as Guerrero faces media in New York and Boston.

“He’s been good. I think the more people talk about it, the more he feels he has to talk about it,” John Schneider said. “In talking to him, he’s really just focused on this. I know that some things may seem otherwise, but he’s just focused on coming here and trying to win every day. I don’t know what it’s like to be in his shoes, but he’s handled it really well.”

The best news from this past week in Blue Jays camp? Erik Swanson’s visit to Dr. Keith Meister ended with a diagnosis of a median nerve entrapment, not something worse. 

The words “Dr. Meister” tend to send a chill up the spine when discussing a pitcher, but you can’t overstate how important this diagnosis is to the Blue Jays’ bullpen, given what a long-term Swanson injury would have done to the back end. 

It’s still likely that Swanson needs some extra time going into April, but if he can return soon alongside Jeff Hoffman, Yimi García and Chad Green, the Blue Jays should have little trouble improving from an ugly 2024 in the ‘pen.

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