THE AA-TEAM
They are in a different baseball life stage now — John Schneider in the early days of his second full season as Blue Jays manager, and Gil Kim the team’s spring training lieutenant, field co-ordinator and director of player development. Back in 2018, they were two of the men directly responsible for assembling, then steering, one of the most star-studded minor league teams in franchise history.
Tucked away in remote Manchester, N.H., at quaint but spartan Delta Dental Stadium, the double-a Fisher Cats were about to launch a devastating offensive assault that led to an Eastern League championship.
There was Vlad Guerrero Jr., whose batting average topped .400 for so much of the season that he finally had to be promoted to triple-a Buffalo in late summer.
There was the ultraserious and supremely driven Bo Bichette, who had just exited his teenage years and continued his ascent to eventually become one of the most influential players on the current incarnation of the big-league Jays.
There was Cavan Biggio, whose breakthrough season not only earned him Eastern League MVP honours but propelled him closer to Bichette and Guerrero in the fraternity of Jays prospects who are offspring of accomplished major-leaguers.
And there was more: The closer of today, Jordan Romano, was an at-times struggling starter, while utility man Santiago Espinal — who was traded to Cincinnati on March 20— and now-former Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. were on their own journeys to become impact players in the big leagues.
“We joked it was like we were a boy band with these young superstars and sons of fathers who were famous baseball players,” Schneider said in a recent interview at the Jays player development complex in Florida.
“There was a lot of media following for a double-a minor league team, and that taught them how to handle a different type of exposure and pressure. There was always something going on. The guys handled it really well.
“Even on the road, people following our buses, people being at our hotels at three in the morning to get an autograph. It was not the normal minor leagues at all.” No, it most certainly was not.
In his role, Kim made regular trips to New Hampshire to monitor those valuable organizational assets and was in daily contact with Schneider, who was already identified by the organization as one of its top coaches and managers. That career arc — and the success he had steering the young studs through their prospect years — eventually landed him the big-league managerial job in 2022.
Vladdy, Bo, Cavan, Romano, Schneider — they all bonded on the legendary 2018 double-a Fisher Cats. Now they're bringing it to the big league as superstars with the Blue Jays
ROB LONGLEY IN DUNEDIN, FLA.
“There was a lot of trust in the manager and that staff that was there, and that made it very easy,” Kim said. “There were times when we'd allow ourselves to have the conversation that the 2023 or 2024 Blue Jays championship was depending on this right now.
“There is detail and focus and passion and the drive that sometimes can get lost when you are in the minor leagues. And we channelled that focus into what we were doing each day with (the thought) it would hopefully impact a World Series championship in Toronto down the road.”
What followed was a season many in the Jays organization acknowledge cemented the groundwork for establishing the franchise as one with a bright future.
On their way to a 76-62 regular-season record, the Jays' precocious prospects mashed a league-leading 706 runs, 41 more than their closest pursuer.
Biggio was named rookie of the year and MVP, the latter a title that would surely have been Guerrero's if he wasn't promoted with close to two months remaining.
Schneider was named manager of the year, and after a 6-0 run through the abbreviated post-season, the Cats clinched an Eastern League title with a victory over the Akron Rubberducks.
“It was a year that we really found out more about ourselves individually and as baseball players,” Biggio said. “From the get-go, that team was obviously very special.
“It was fun going out there knowing that we were the better team and knowing that we were going out there and not just try to beat you, but put up a lot of runs and beat you pretty bad. Whether it was me, or Bo, or Vladdy, we knew we had the right players and the better team.
“We had a great group of guys and it was the beginning of our journey.”
And it was a chapter that brings a flood of fond memories to those on the front lines, recollections they share with enthusiasm six years later as they embark on another season in a much grander, higher-stakes baseball playground.