Deep Left Field with Mike Wilner

Guests: Blue Jays relievers Tyler Rogers and Chase Lee, shortstop prospect Arjun Nimmala

This week in Deep Left Field, we dive into Canada's Pool A victory at the World Baseball Classic, the first time Team Canada has ever advanced beyond the first round of the WBC. Their reward is a quarter-final win-or-go-home match-up against a humiliated Team USA on Friday the 13th.

Then we introduce you to a couple of new Blue Jays:

Taylor Rogers, the submarining right-hander signed to a $37 million (US) contract in December, has been one of the best set-up men in the game for the past five years. Now his home ballpark has his name on all the trash cans.

Chase Lee was acquired in a much more below-the-radar transaction, a December trade with the Detroit Tigers, but he's someone you'll want to get to know. A sidearm righty who didn't make his college baseball team as a freshman but had a 1.098 WHIP as a rookie in the big leagues and also has a degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics.

Also, meet Arjun Nimmala, one of the top-100 prospects in all of baseball and the Jays' first round pick in 2023!

All that, plus the mailbag at [email protected]!

Guests: Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Team Canada pitcher Michael Soroka, Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Russell Martin

This week, Deep Left Field comes to you from spring training once again and we present an all-Canadian episode!

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) joins us for his first-ever Deep Left Field conversation without an interpreter. We talk to Vladdy about the Jays' magical playoff run last season and what he thinks of his team going into 2026 as his half-billion dollar (US) contract kicks in.

With Team Canada having played a pair of games to prepare for the World Baseball Classic, which begins (for them) Saturday morning in Puerto Rico, we get the inside scoop on their attempt to finally break through and make it out of the first round of the WBC.

Michael Soroka (Calgary, AB) will start that first game against Colombia. He and former Blue Jay Russell Martin (East York, Ont.), who will be coaching first base for Canada, fill us in on everything you need to know about the red and white!

Plus, we open up the mailbag at [email protected]!

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Guest: Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman

In this special bonus episode of Deep Left Field, from Blue Jays' spring training in Dunedin, Florida, we look back at the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series with the man who was on the mound for the Jays and gave up the first-ever ninth-inning game-tying home run in World Series history.

Jeff Hoffman said that day that he'd cost his teammates a World Series ring, and he reflects on that moment in an open, vulnerable and candid conversation - the first such interview he's done since last year's crushing loss.

We open up the mailbag at [email protected] as well, for your comments and questions!

Guests: Blue Jays outfielder Myles Straw, shortstop Andres Gimenez, infielder Leo Jimenez, outfielder Eloy Jimenez

Deep Left Field returns to Dunedin, Florida for Blue Jays spring training and this week we present a confluence of *imenezes, each of whom has been making news in the early days of camp, but first, a chat with Myles Straw about the Jays repatriation of Max Scherzer, who agreed to a one-year deal early Thursday morning.

Andres Gimenez will be the Jays' starting shortstop this season. It's a move back to his original position, and one he played very well in the absence of Bo Bichette down the stretch and into the playoffs. Gimenez talks to us about shifting back to the other side of second base and what he needs to do to improve his offence.

Leo Jimenez is out of options, and in a make-or-break position to break camp as the back-up infielder or be put through waivers after a lost 2025 because of illness and injury. We catch up with the youngster, who was solid for the Jays in 2024, to talk about how he's dealing with the pressure.

And we play "meet the new guy" with Eloy Jimenez, a one-time top prospect who exploded onto the big-league scene with 47 home runs over his first 173 career games before running into the injury bug - hard - for five years. Here on a minor-league contract, he's off to a sensational start to the spring.

All this plus the mailbag at [email protected]!

Guests: Former Blue Jays catcher and broadcaster Alan Ashby; Toronto Star baseball columnist Gregor Chisholm

This week in Deep Left Field, we head down to Dunedin, Florida as the Star's Gregor Chisholm wraps up his week at Blue Jays spring training. We check in with Gregor about what he's seen from the Jays and get his thoughts on, among other things, how Kazuma Okamoto has been looking, why Anthony Santander didn't have his shoulder surgery much earlier and how Eric Lauer feels about being overlooked for a spot in the Jays' rotation once again.

Also, we get into the wayback machine as the Jays get set for their 50th anniversary season and talk to Alan Ashby, who caught 124 games in the Blue Jays inaugural season, 1977.

All that plus a dip into the mailbag at [email protected]!

Guests: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2026 Inductees Stubby Clapp, Kate Psota, Paul Runge, Bill Stoneman, Devon White

This week in Deep Left Field, we speak to every living member of the just-announced Class of 2026 for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. They will be inducted in a ceremony in St. Marys, Ont. on June 20.

Devon White, the greatest centrefielder in Blue Jays' history.

Stubby Clapp, perhaps the living embodiment of the Canadian national team player.

Kate Psota, one of the first superstar women's players in modern history.

Bill Stoneman, who threw the first of his two no-hitters for the Montreal Expos in the ninth game in franchise history.

Paul Runge, a St. Catharines, Ont. native who spent a quarter-century as a major-league umpire, including working the 1993 World Series between the Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies.

All those immortals of Canadian baseball, plus your thoughts in the mailbag at [email protected]!

Guests: Toronto Star baseball columnist Gregor Chisholm, former New York Post baseball columnist, now journalism professor and author Ken Davidoff

This week in Deep Left Field, we talk labour. Baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement expires this year and the stage is set for another off-season lockout, just like we saw five years ago. There's no question that the 2026 season will be played, but questions about 2027 loom large and we have convened a Deep Left Field panel to try to answer them.

What do the owners want? What about the players? How united is each side? Will there be a work stoppage - the first since the 1994 strike - that delays the start of the 2027 season or worse?

My Blue Jays beat partner Gregor Chisholm and longtime Yankees' columnist Ken Davidoff, author of the new book "101 Lessons From The Dugout" join me and we try to figure things out.

All this, plus your thoughts and questions in the mailbag at [email protected]!