Hard to believe that 2026 is the Toronto Blue Jays 50th Anniversary season.
What’s even harder to fathom is that former Brock Badger Andrew Tinnish is entering his 26th year with Canada’s only Major League Baseball (MLB) team.
Tinnish has been in Florida for weeks already and said that spring training is a right of passage when it comes to baseball.
“I mean, honestly, it’s just getting outside after a long cold winter, actually short in a sense because of how early that we’re starting this year and how late we played into the year last year,” explained the 49-year old Tinnish, the Blue Jays Vice-President of International Scouting and Baseball Operations, recently on the Niagara Sports Report.
“It is just getting back together with the crew. This is that one time of year where basically an entire organization, not quite from top to bottom, but almost from top to bottom, are in one place.”
That brings us to the season ahead.
No more Bo Bichette (signed with the New York Mets) , no more Chris Bassitt (signed with the Baltimore Orioles), but the Blue Jays did land some significant names.
Starters Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce and infielder Kasumo Okamoto are the three big names signed in the off-season.
However, Tinnish thinks another name should be part of the conversation.
“Yeah, those three and (Tyler) Rogers who I believe have a chance to be very impactful signings,
Just look at (Cease), the four consecutive seasons of 200 strikeouts and logging a lot of innings and 30 plus starts, like having that sort of piece at the top of the rotation, is really exciting to have.
You know, Tyler Rogers, despite being 35-years old, is about as reliable as they come as a reliever. He leads relievers over the last four to five years in appearances and innings pitched.- it’s just obvious it’s a different look,” Tinnish said.
“I’m really excited about Cody and, and Big Oak because I think that they have a chance to be very impactful players.
Cody, he had a run in the big leagues and he was kind of just OK, he went to Japan for a few years and then really sort of figured something out.
Got a big tick up in velocity, added a kick change, which is a wipeout pitch for him, and had the best season in the history of the KBO last year, striking out close to 250 batters. He’s a different pitcher coming back here. And I’m excited to see what that looks like because it’s a lot of strikes, it’s a lot of weapons and it’s a big durable guy.
Okamoto, I’m very excited about him. Okamoto to me is a bat that fits the big leagues. And part of that is just like the positions he gets into with his swing, how he’s able to handle velocity, handle high end velocity at the top of the zone, damage that he can do to all fields and a very, very elite contact rate. He’s actually very much a Blue Jays style hitter. I look back at our 2024 team and obviously we didn’t have a great season, but we were still elite in the contact and zone control as a hitting group, we just didn’t do a lot of damage. I think that he fits into that category of a guy who can make a ton of contact while also doing damage with it.”
Looking to the future Tinnish, who continually travels the globe in his scouting position, mentioned one name in particular.
“We, a year ago at this time, had a really interesting signing class. We signed a kid named Juan Sanchez who went off and had one of the best seasons we’ve ever had in the Dominican Summer League. He was top three player in the league, had an OPS (on base and slugging percentage) over 1000, led the league or second in the league in extra base hits – just a physical specimen while also being athletic and elite mover. He’s in Florida now and we’ll start here in the FCL. (Florida Complex League)
I’m really excited about Juan Sanchez. He actually was on MLB Pipeline ranked as the 7th best third baseman in all of minor league baseball.” added Tinnish, who refuses to watch any highlights from last year’s World Series loss, but is optimistic the Jays have set themselves up for success for years to come.
” I think not that you ever take your foot off the gas in this game, but I feel like we’re all very motivated to get back there. And it’s so hard to get to the World Series, but I feel like we’ve done a nice job as an organization building a team that has a chance to get to the playoffs for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t mean it’ll happen, but I feel like we’re in a good position to do that. And this run last year will certainly, certainly prepare our players to be able to handle those types of situations, the stresses of facing an elite starter every day.
I mean, some of the things that our hitters did were just remarkable against the best pitchers in the game
I think we shocked the baseball world, but I don’t think it’ll be a surprise anymore.”
The Jays open their spring training schedule this upcoming Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Their regular season opener is Friday March 27 against the Athletics in Toronto.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
