What We Can Learn From The Toronto Blue Jays

SportLeadershipTeam DynamicsPerformance PsychologyCulture and Mindset

Oct 30

The Toronto Blue Jays are one win away from their first World Series Championship in 32 years. That win happened 4 years before I was born. After a few more playoff appearances in the 90s, they went 20 years without making it back. In 2015 and 2016, a new generation of Blue Jays fans got to experience playoff success. Those two teams were incredible, with elite hitters and a great pitching staff. They were great individual players who happened to be on the same team. Big personalities that all seemed like they wanted credit for the success. There’s something different about this current Blue Jays team. Let’s dive into what makes them special.

The core of this Blue Jays team has made the playoffs before, getting swept in the Wild Card series in 2020, 2022, and 2023. These losses caused the front office to make some substantial changes. They wanted to focus more on contact, defence, and versatility. In 2024, this plan failed in spectacular fashion. At the start of the season, the Jays were projected to make the playoffs. By the mid-point of the season, they were sellers, moving off of multiple players and bringing in prospects, and by the end of the season, they finished last in their Division and had their first losing record since 2019.

At the start of this season, the vibe around the team was at a new low. Vladimir Guerro Jr. and Bo Bichette were both unsigned and looked poised to hit free agency this winter. The front office and Vladdy seemed far apart during contract talks, and fans were turning on them. Not much felt different this season, outside of the addition of Jeff Hoffman, Andres Gimenez, and Anthony Santander. But behind the scenes, something special was happening, something that would help propel the Blue Jays to where they are now.

Let's focus on three things outside of sport that the Blue Jays did this season to get to the position they are in now, and what we can learn from them.

Role Clarity

Role clarity in sport is the clear understanding an athlete has of their specific duties, expectations, and position within the team structure. It enhances team cohesion, confidence, and performance by ensuring each athlete understands their specific responsibilities, expectations, and contributions to the team’s goals. If you have paid attention to the Blue Jays this season, you have likely heard people around the team talk about role clarity. The most common way this is talked about is their 9 v 1 mentality. In Baseball, it may seem like each play is 1 v 1, a pitcher facing off against a hitter. The Blue Jays' management really wanted their players to focus on beating a pitcher as a unit, not as an individual. This strategy was bought into by their star players and fed down to their role players. They got their A swing (a big swing trying to do damage) off until 2 strikes, then battled just trying to put the ball in play and force the other pitcher to throw more pitches and put pressure on the defence. Now, this strategy is great in theory, but it doesn’t work unless everyone understands their role. The manager of the Blue Jays, John Schnieder, made sure that everyone knew the plan for any game; even if you didn’t start the game, there was a good chance that you would come in later in the game, for defence, running, or pitching. Every player bought into their role and only focused on being the best they could be at that particular task. Miles Straw is perhaps the best example of this. Not known for being a good hitter, the team didn’t want him to stress about this. All they asked of him was to play elite defence and to make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches. He bought into this fully. Not caring about personal stats, just doing absolutely anything that the team needed.

Team Cohesion

Team cohesion is the degree to which team members stick together, trust one another, and stay united in pursuing shared goals. It’s important to a team’s success because it enhances communication, motivation, and collective effort—leading to improved performance, stronger relationships, and greater resilience under pressure. This puts a scientific definition to what we’ve seen since mid-February: this Blue Jays team is as tight-knit as they come. Everyone is excited for each other's success, and they are constantly bouncing ideas off one another. A lot of this stems from the players coming up together from the Minors and inviting new players in with open arms. Rookie Trey Ysevage is a great example of this. He worked his way up from the lowest level of professional baseball to being thrust into the final 2 weeks of the season in the midst of a division race. The Blue Jays made sure to make him feel at home. The starting pitching staff gave him advice, but also took advice from him. They made sure he knew that the whole team trusted him, and yesterday he delivered the greatest pitching performance by a rookie in the World Series and quite possibly the best-pitched playoff game by a Toronto Blue Jay of all time.

Focus

In sports, focus is a team’s ability to direct attention toward immediate priorities—executing roles, reading the game, and ignoring distractions. It’s crucial to sharpen decision-making, consistency, and composure in pressure situations. This accurately describes the Blue Jays this season. After last year’s ups and downs, the 2025 team arrived with renewed focus—not on external pressures or individual stats, but on controllable elements like pitch selection, defensive accuracy, and disciplined at-bats. Their poise under pressure is evident in late-game composure and rapid recovery from mistakes. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette exemplify this disciplined mindset, leading the team with focused preparation and purposeful at-bats. This collective commitment has powered their return to the top, demonstrating that staying locked into the process consistently drives results.

Let’s see how this weekend plays out: Let’s Go Blue Jays!