AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: MARINERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 12, 2025

John Schneider

Rogers Centre

Toronto Blue Jays

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Seeing that Max and Chris are on your roster, just wondering if you could sort of outline how you expect to use them.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: However we see fit, really. They kind of know that. Probably Chris out of the pen, and Max if we need it. Kind of want him to be somewhat available for Game 4, but he knows how to do the postseason. If we need him today or tomorrow, if things happen like they did back in Seattle, he'll be ready to go, too.

Q. So both Chris and Max could be available today if things were to go certain directions?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, mm-hmm.

Q. Did Bo reaggravate his injury running yesterday?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: No. And didn't set himself back, which is a good thing. I think, if anything, kind of just showed him and us that there's still a little bit of uncertainty there and didn't want to put him in a compromised position.

I feel for him because it's been a long three weeks physically and mentally. He wants nothing more than to be out there. But he's going to keep himself ready and trying to get ready. Hopefully, we advance and hopefully he can kind of check off the boxes that we need him to check off.

Q. Right up until that scenario that we saw yesterday, was he a deep consideration for a spot on this roster?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, definitely. I think we were kind of heading down a tough decision. It's going to be tough no matter what. I think that just kind of put a little bit of clarity in a not good way to it.

Q. Bassitt takes Nance's spot, it looks like. Is he going to be deployed in a similar way, or do you have ideas about how you might want to use him out of the bullpen?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It could be similar, yeah, for sure, in certain spots of the lineup.

I think looking at a difference between a five-game series and a seven-game series kind of how useful can he be. Again, you're always planning for everything to kind of fall into place, and if everything falls into place, it's probably a limited role.

But if things do not fall into place, you want to have some flexibility with a guy that we obviously trust. We still think Chris is a damn good pitcher. It was kind of a matter of opponent and circumstance for the last series, so it could be anything really.

Q. This is one of the dumber questions that I've ever asked you --

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Love it.

Q. -- but I want to hear it from you. What is it that makes Trey the right choice to pitch tomorrow?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: You've been here. I mean, I think pitching here, I think watching how unique his stuff can be, especially against teams that haven't seen him, and his demeanor has been really damn good, so it was a pretty easy choice just by watching how he's conducted himself and watching what he's doing on the mound.

Q. On Trey, he opened up his presser just now addressing online hate towards his family. Just wonder if he spoke to you about that and if you have any thoughts on that.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah. No, he didn't. I give him a ton of credit for a guy that is 22 and just arrived in the Big Leagues and understands that he has a really, really good support system that is around him and has a platform to talk about it.

It kind of just adds to him and his maturity level, I think. It wasn't a lot of hate there; it's just kind of saying -- this is new for him, obviously, but I think him kind of protecting people that are close to him. I commend him for saying that.

It's unfortunate that that's a reality. I think the more that you do it, the more accustom you get to it. I commend him for saying what he said and for backing up the people that love and support him.

Q. Seattle is a pitching staff that really loves to pound the zone. They're very open about how aggressive they are. You guys put the ball in play a lot. How does that match up maybe in your favor, maybe not? How does that dynamic impact the Blue Jays?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Again, we're aware of it, obviously, and I think that -- I don't want us to try to do anything that we're not good at, for one. Certain situations are going to call for contact, certain situations are going to call for hopefully some slug or damage. I think that we have a unique 1 through 13 that can do a little bit of everything.

It's being ready to hit. It's understanding kind of what their tendencies are and staying convicted to what our approach is, really. It's a tough pitching staff for a variety of different reasons.

But I think we've kind of shown over the course of the year that we can do some different things. We can score in different ways. These guys are real good at understanding the situation and kind of adapting accordingly.

Q. When Trey was in here, he was talking about how he was a bit of a decoy in New York.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah. Sorry.

Q. How much do you enjoy that sort of managerial gamesmanship?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: I mean, not a lot. I think if the situation was a little bit different based on his performance in Game 2 -- playoffs is a little bit different, obviously. I don't know if it affected anything that New York was going to do, but you never know really where the game was going to head.

Kev was probably more of a viable option than Trey if that game got to a certain point. But players have to go execute; you know what I mean? I'm a big believer in that. I like to do simple things right.

So that was a little bit of taking into account what he had done in Game 2 and adding a little bit of theater to it all.

Q. We understand Bo is not in. If he was in, there was the possibility of him DHing. With him out, you've got George, you've got Tony. Both can play the outfield, both can play DH. What goes into the decision who plays where?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It depends on the day, really. It depends on a lot of different things, who's on the mound for us, who's on the mound for them, how we like to kind of run our roster in terms of swapping out defense for offense, and it kind of changes every day. They're both aware of that. There's going to be times where George is in the outfield this series, I'm sure. But it kind of just changes every day, and they kind of know how they run it.

Q. Do your thoughts or approach on facing Cal change this year as opposed to three years ago when he was batting .200, now he's .380 in the last series?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Well, for one, that me as a young interim manager saying what I said to try to fire up my team, which I obviously shouldn't have said. Yeah, I think that you have to understand the kind of season that he's had, and you have to be aware of where he is at all times.

I've got a ton of respect for him as a player and where he's taken him game to both at the plate and behind the plate to do it as well as he's done it and to catch as many games as he catches.

Again, I know where you're going with that, and I know the things that were said back and forth, and I don't want that to be a narrative in this series at all. I think he's a phenomenal player, and we're definitely going to be aware where he is in the lineup.

Q. You've rightly spoken about the Jays being Canada's team and having support coast to coast. What's your message to fans in British Columbia who might have a soft spot for the Mariners?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: You know, I don't know. I think that fans in British Columbia, I hope, are Blue Jay fans before they're Seattle fans. I think we feel that. I think we feel that when we do travel there, too. So I guess my message is try to get some tickets and meet us out there.

Q. When you look at Springer's success this year, it seems like a lot of it can be traced back to the role that he's had. He's talked about how his body feels great this time of year because of the DH days. Was that part of the original plan in Spring Training?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, that was part of the original plan for sure, kind of monitoring the number of games he played, and then when he started off the way he did offensively, it was tough to take him out of the lineup.

I remember going back to when we signed him, talking about when you get to this part of the contract, there's going to be some more DH days built in. It was hard to do that for him the last couple years based on where we were in the standings, based on who else we had on the roster.

But I think, yeah, the DH spot has really helped him physically, for one, but I think it's allowed him to stay really present with what he's trying to do offensively. It's not going out to right field or left field or center field and grinding on your last at-bat, being able to leave it behind if it was bad or build off it if it was good. We definitely wanted to monitor it, and he's really kind of fallen into a real liking for it.