TORONTO — It was the sort of managerial mishap that has ruined men with greater reputations, with major league player pedigree to fall back on, with bigger contracts and longer leashes.
Yet John Schneider has survived 24 years in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, has grown into a leader his veteran players follow, and has banked enough equity in their clubhouse that Game 5 of the American League Championship Series was not going to define him.
Oh, it was bad: Schneider going with inconsistent lefty Brendon Little in the eighth inning, the ALCS tied 2-2, the Blue Jays holding a 2-1 lead, Cal Raleigh erasing the advantage with one swing and Eugenio Suárez putting Toronto on the brink of winter with a go-ahead grand slam.
For two days, the move was dissected and destroyed, and Schneider’s eternally ruddy face seemed to bear the brunt.
“It felt like I was in a washing machine that just would never stop rinsing and spinning. It was a lot, you know what I mean?” Schneider tells USA TODAY Sports. “You’re always trying to do what’s right by the guys. You’re always trying to let them decide the outcome of the game. I tried to just really stay focused on that and learn in real time and think about what’s best for the team.
“There’s been things I get scrutinized for. You learn to live with it. And the more you do it, the quicker you can move onto the next thing, the easier it gets.”
Oh, there’s little that’s easy about this game. Yet Schneider is proof that redemption is never far: The Blue Jays came home to win Game 6 and Schneider painted his masterpiece in Game 7, deploying two starters in relief, coaxing a third inning in two nights from closer Jeff Hoffman and then, the baseball lifer was granted the just dessert many believed he deserved.
George Springer’s go-ahead, eighth-inning three-run homer vaulted the Blue Jays into their first World Series since 1993, a span in which Schneider was in their employ as a poor-hitting minor league catcher, a coach and manager buried deep in their organization until his methodical rise resulted in him taking the managerial reins in the middle of the 2022 season.
This was not Aaron Boone, going straight from broadcast booth to the Yankee dugout.
No, this was a guy who managed franchise cornerstones Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero many moons ago – not in Toronto, but in rookie league Dunedin, in 2017, when they were teenagers and both players and manager were four levels away from the big city.
This was the organizational grinder sticking around to finally sit in the hottest seat in the organization – and surviving in it long enough to see Game 1, 2025 World Series, Oct. 24 against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s easy to play for John because he’s been a player and coach for so long. He’s coached guys here in the minors. He’s basically another player on the team,” Blue Jays set-up man Louis Varland tells USA TODAY Sports. “But he’s the manager. He still maintains that respectful separation between player and manager.
“John is the exact guy you want in that position to deal with it all. He’s the face of the team. He has to answer all the questions. What he does is not easy. But he does it very well. And we are all so happy and prideful to play for him.”
Started from the bottom
At 45, Schneider is just four years older than his most senior player. Yet in this, his fourth season as a big league manager, he made a vow to himself that the gut punches and second guesses and Maalox nights when the best relief options weren’t available would not take him outside of himself.
“My goal coming into the season was to try and be my authentic self. Every single day,” he says. “Not that I wasn’t in the past. But I think you need some time in this job to get good at that. “I’ve tried to keep that in the forefront and set the tone of not wavering if things are bad. And not wavering when things are good and getting too high.
“I feel like that’s resonated with the staff and the players and that’s why we’ve responded the way we do. I’ve learned from past successes and failures to not get lost in it and not get lost in the emotion of it and move on to what the next important thing is.”
So authentic, it is.
After their ALCS Game 7 triumph, Schneider took the liberty to drop a handful of f-bombs on the live mic in Rogers Centre, broadcast live to the nation, as well.
Yet even those words were carefully considered.
“This is (expletive) unbelievable to me,” he said to longtime Blue Jays broadcast reporter Hazel Mae. “This is my 24th year with this organization, and I (expletive) love it here.”
Later, he expanded on that notion, beer dripping off his hat as his players poured Budweiser on their manager.
“It’s such a fulfilling job because you have an entire country hanging on every pitch and I do, too,” he says. “I feel like I’m part Canadian.
“I love drinking beer, I like Tim Horton’s, I’m one of ‘em, you know what I mean?”
OK, so he’s technically a Jersey guy schooled at the University of Delaware. But wear a maple leaf on your hat long enough, and you definitely pass.
Especially when you can stay cool in the most uncomfortable moments.
The Blue Jays led the major leagues in comeback wins this season, so Schneider knew what to do when the seventh inning of ALCS Game 7 came around: He sat down next to hitting coach David Popkins, their customary, silent alignment when a rally was needed.
Perhaps it was just coincidence that Springer delivered. But guide your club to 94 wins, and seven in 11 postseason games, and you earn the regard of those around you.
“I saw someone who was able to get to the next game, get to the next pitch, and really lead and not show an ounce of panic on his face. Everyone feels that,” says Popkins. “It’s easy for managers sometimes when stuff like that happens to really start to panic. They might not want to show it, but they are. They’re showing it on their face.”
Popkins read Schneider’s expression on that suboptimal flight back from Seattle after the Game 5 loss, into the next day. And saw a manager ready to turn the page.
“I think Schneids took a day to talk about it, to feel it, and then after that he was the same guy the next day,” says Popkins.
Says future Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer: “This clubhouse is really tight. And he’s a part of it. Our coaches are in sync with our players. He’s kind of adopted the personality of us, and we of him and we’re a very good team.
“We did lose Game 5 in a very heartbreaking way. Yeah, it stung. We’re humans. But we knew, going back on the flight, we can flip the script. We knew we can play with anybody in this league. We’re a great team. And we did. We flipped it.”
‘Kind of a surreal moment’
They rebounded to win Game 6 behind rookie Trey Yesavage and won the pennant a night later. It was a culmination of what so many veteran Blue Jays say was a potent clubhouse combination, a tight-knit multi-cultural group loving their time in Toronto.
Scherzer, 41, says he had an epiphany the other day: He’s closer in age to Schneider than his eldest Blue Jays teammates. He’s seeking his third World Series ring, his most recent won under four-time Series champion Bruce Bochy.
In Schneider, Scherzer sees a leader but also a semi-peer with whom he can convey the clubhouse vibes.
“It gives me runway where I do have a more personal relationship with a manager. I’ve been around the block. I know how to run a race. This is what I’ve seen,” says Scherzer. “Been in many organizations. Seen how teams operate. And just kind of have the conversation with him, how he’s thinking about the team and the game and seeing it.
“Or, frankly, sometimes, a manager needs to know exactly what the clubhouse is thinking. That can be a very important bridge to make sure everybody in the front office knows as well. It’s a two-way street of communication. He’s been great about it.”
Schneider will now aim to join Cito Gaston as the lone managers to guide the Blue Jays to a World Series championship. Gaston’s name is forever on Rogers Centre’s Level of Excellence, right in between Davie Stieb and longtime exec Pat Gillick.
Perhaps Schneider needs multiple championships, like Gaston, to get memorialized up there. But 24 years in an organization certainly counts for something.
If nothing else, it bought him the equity to maneuver through the tightest of spaces, this postseason cauldron that saw the Blue Jays emerge, ready to host the defending champions in their own, raucous barn.
And now this career .206-hitting catcher has bested Boone and Mariners manager Dan Wilson, a former All-Star catcher, in this postseason. Another playoff legend and two-time World Series winning manager Dave Roberts awaits.
“I know there’s scrutiny and second-guessing that comes with my job. I get it. That’s OK,” says Schneider “But I will do everything in my power to do right by this organization and this entire country.
“For me, it’s kind of a surreal moment now.”