Blue Jays ready to turn the page on 2025 World Series loss and focus on this season

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider tells reporters about the team’s plan for the 2026-2027 season ahead of tomorrow’s opening game.

TORONTO — When the Toronto Blue Jays raise their 2025 American League Championship banner to the rafters of Rogers Centre on Friday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is going to give himself a moment to let his feelings come out.

After all, Toronto came within a hairsbreadth of winning the Blue Jays’ third Major League Baseball championship before a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Oh, definitely. I mean, the emotions are going to be there,” said Guerrero through translator Hector Lebron. “They’re going to be great emotions, especially when they see that banner unfurling, it’s going to be great.

“We didn’t finish the way we wanted to, but that’s the part of the game.”

But once the umpire yells play ball and Toronto starting pitcher Kevin Gausman throws the first pitch of the game against the Athletics in both teams’ season opener, the Blue Jays’ 2025 season will officially be in the past. Guerrero, Gausman and the rest of their teammates will be focusing on the new season.

“The expectations are for everybody else, they’re very high for us,” said Guerrero on trying to replicate last year’s success. “Just the same thing: go out there and keep working very hard, trying to do everything to win every game.

“Our expectations are the same.”

Gausman, who will be the Opening Day starter for the first time in his five-year tenure in Toronto, was philosophical when asked about his expectations.

“There’s really only so much you can control,” said Gausman. “Once the ball leaves your hand, you can get over and cover first base and make sure that you’re backing up a base if you need to.

“But once it leaves your hand, you don’t really have too much control on the outcome.”

Although the expectations may be the same, some major changes were made to Toronto’s roster in the off-season.

All-star shortstop Bo Bichette and veteran starting pitcher Chris Bassitt both signed elsewhere. Japanese star third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, Cy Young Award runner-up Dylan Cease and reliable journeyman pitcher Cody Ponce all joined the Blue Jays as free agents.

Right-fielder Jesus Sanchez was acquired via trade with the Houston Astros for outfielder Joey Loperfido during spring training.

General manager Ross Atkins said on Thursday that “without a doubt” this year’s Opening Day roster is better than 2025’s.

“We can understand why our fans don’t see it quite that clearly because of the subtraction of Bo Bichette, who is a very good player, who will continue to be,” said Atkins at a news conference. “But in bolstering our pitching, first and foremost, was a very clear goal, one that we feel, that we accomplished in a significant way.

“Then the addition of Okamoto is something that we’re very excited about with the experiences and the growth of the players that we’ve been talking about.”

Manager John Schneider said he still wakes up in the middle of the night to go over the decisions he made in Game 7 of the World Series that Toronto lost 5-4 in 11 innings. But Schneider also said that he’s ready to move on and that the Blue Jays can’t dwell on last season.

“My expectations are for these guys to show up every day, be great teammates and be obsessed with winning. That’s it. If we do that, we’ll be just fine,” said Schneider at his news conference. “Yes, you acknowledge the past, you talk about the precedent, you work, you’re working on your process and right now the past, the past is gone, right?

“Now it’s just the present, it’s process and be productive. I think if we do that, we’re going to be just fine. We have the talent, we have the people, and we have the experiences to do that.”

Atkins said that how he judges what a successful year looks like might not be a common or even popular definition.

“You’re not going to love my answer, but it’s to compete and to control what you can control, because it’s just too hard to say that if we don’t win the World Series, that it’s a failure,” said Atkins. “There’s so many variables and so much at stake. It’s certainly our goal, but just as we ask our players to focus on things they can control, and take it one pitch at a time, we think that we would be talking out of both sides of our mouth if we said anything different.”

It’s a belief that comes from the top down, with Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro telling reporters on Thursday that “it’s a dangerous thing” to think momentum can be carried over year to year.

“There is no such thing as running it back. This year is this year,” said Shapiro in a Rogers Centre board room. “We’re shaped and formed by our past, but we have to organically be a new group of players pursuing a new goal this year, and have to let that transpire, naturally as well.

“There’s only one thing that’s certain heading into every Major League Baseball season, and that is that something unexpected is going to happen along the way, and how we adapt and adjust to that will define this group.”

Luis Severino gets the start for the Athletics on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2026.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press