Deep Left Field with Mike Wilner

Guests:Blue Jays outfielders George Springer and Nathan Lukes, pitcher Easton Lucas

Coming off a sweep in Houston where Blue Jays hitters were almost completely shut down for three games, we go over an agonizing week that was, one in which the Jays only won once and one that finished on a tear-your-hair-out frustrating five-game losing streak. One of the only players on the team who is hitting at the moment is the resurgent George Springer, and he joins us to discuss his unexpectedly hot start as well as his charity bowling event in support of The Stuttering Association for the Young. We talk to Nathan Lukes, who welcomed a new baby boy last week, though he wasnt able to make it home to Arizona for the birth. We also chat with left-hander Easton Lucas, the day before his second straight rough start got him optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Guests: Blue Jays reliever Yimi Garcia, catcher Tyler Heineman, Atlanta 3B coach Matt Tuiasosopo

We celebrate the 250^th episode of the podcast with the first-ever 1-on-1 interview with Yimi Garcia in English. The big, scary set-up man with the 0.00 ERA turns out to be a gentle giant off the mound! We also check in with back-up catcher Tyler Heineman, who is off to a sizzling start to the season, both at the plate and behind it, and since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has officially signed up to become a Blue Jay for life, we wanted to chat with someone who was a Blue Jay for about 20 minutes once upon a time –current Atlanta third-base coach Matt Tuiasosopo joins us.

Guests: Blue Jays icons Pat Hentgen and Vernon Wells

With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. putting pen to paper on the second-largest contract in baseball history, one that will keep him with the team until 2039, when he’s forty years old, and could very well make him the first “Forever Blue Jay,” we are joined by two of the greatest players in club history. Pat Hentgen, who won 19 games for the 1993 World Series champs and picked up the team’s first Cy Young award in 1996, was a Blue Jay for 10 years and in the organization for 15. Vernon Wells, who is in the top five of almost every offensive category in the Jays’ all-time record book and still holds the team’s single-season record with 215 hits (2003), spent 12 years with the Jays and was in the organization for 14. They’ll talk about what it means to play in Toronto for a long time, to be stars here, and what the future could hold for Vladdy as a fellow iconic Blue Jay who will rewrite the team’s record book and may well be headed for Cooperstown by the time he’s done.

Overnight, the news broke that the Jays and their superstar slugger have agreed to the second-largest contract in baseball history. Guerrero will be a Blue Jay through his age-40 season with a 14-year, $500 million (U.S.) deal that kicks in beginning next season. We threw down a special bonus episode of Deep Left Field for you, sharing our thoughts about what this means, why it happened now and who could have been behind the final push to get a deal done nearly two months after Guerrero’s deadline passed. We also took your questions and comments on Bluesky!

Guests: Blue Jays second baseman Andres Gimenez, outfielder Alan Roden, pitcher Jacob Barnes, Orioles/Baseball Canada outfielder Tyler O’Neill

This week in Deep Left Field, we talk to the clean-up man, record-setting slugger Andres Gimenez, who has 60% of the Jays’ home runs so far. Rookie sensation Alan Roden catches us up on his first week in the big leagues and we’ll also meet one of the new, but also not so new, guys in the Jays’ bullpen, Jacob Barnes. As well, we talk to Burnaby, B.C.’s Tyler O’Neill, who extended an incredible major-league record by hitting a home run on opening day for the sixth straight season.