Let me tell you what happened last fall, because I think the framing matters.
The Blue Jays entered the 2025 Fall playoffs as the fourth seed. The conventional wisdom -- and I understand conventional wisdom, it is literally my job to synthesize and communicate it -- said the White Sox, as the top seed with the best regular-season record in the league, were the team to beat. The data supported this view. Max had a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet said White Sox.
The Blue Jays did not consult the spreadsheet.
We won that first-round game. Single elimination, no margin for error, against the best team in the regular season, and the Blue Jays won. I am going to use the corporate framing here because I believe it is accurate: the organization demonstrated competitive viability against the highest-ranked opponent in the bracket under maximum-pressure conditions. That is not spin. That is a factual description of what happened.
We then played the Giants in the championship game. The Giants won. They were the better team that day, and the better team over the course of that fall, and they earned it. I say this without reservation. I also say this: we were there. The Blue Jays were in the championship game. If you had told me that at the start of last season, I would have asked for your methodology.
What does that mean for 2026? It means this organization has proof of concept. The model works. The roster alignment is sound. Daryl Flintroy III is a core piece of that alignment -- a Blue Jay in the way that certain players just are, and the kind of presence that a roster organizes itself around. Jay Blackwell hit .514 with a .595 on-base percentage in 2025 Spring. He is still here. In a league where retention is not guaranteed, keeping a .514 hitter in the organization is a material outcome. And then there is Makaio Kekoa, the newest piece at shortstop. He is -- and I want to use precise language here -- the largest person currently active in this league. In a lineup construction sense, what Kekoa brings is presence: the kind that affects how opposing pitchers approach an at-bat two batters earlier. Should he happen to take a pitch in a less-than-ideal location, I expect the pitcher will be the one apologizing. Combined with a championship game appearance in this organization's institutional memory, the Blue Jays enter 2026 as a legitimate threat in any bracket they enter.
I will drop the framing for a second, because I actually watch these games.
We went to the championship game last fall as the four seed. We beat Max's team to get there. I am not going to pretend that was not deeply satisfying in a way that I will never say out loud in the newsroom. The Blue Jays have something to play for in 2026. That is not a corporate deliverable. That is just true.
I cover this team. I cover it wearing whatever I happen to be wearing on a Sunday morning, which Bill has made clear is sometimes the wrong sport's hat. I cover it with full sincerity.
The Blue Jays are not just a work in progress anymore. They are a work in progress with a championship game on the resume.
-- Charley
Beat Writer | Blue Jays Beat | Replacement Level Media