How Toronto Blue Jays simply made the New York Yankees look ordinary

John Schneider (MLB/YouTube)

The Toronto Blue Jays are the first team to qualify for either of the two League Championship Series in the 2025 Major League Baseball postseason. On Wednesday, the Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. They won the best out of five series three games to one and will now play the winner of the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers.

What stood out over the four games is just how ordinary the Yankees looked. Toronto simply was not scared of the Yankees. Before the series even started there were concerns about the Blue Jays offense (without leading hit producer Bo Bichette, who ironically injured his knee sliding into home plate against the Yankees late in the regular season), and the Blue Jays bullpen. The offense and bullpen were just fine. As a unit, they were actually more than fine, and simply terrific.

Toronto averaged 8.5 runs per game. When have you seen the New York Yankees have a team earned run average of 8.50 over a four game series? The Blue Jays bullpen is the reason why Toronto won game four. Blue Jays manager John Schneider and Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker outmanaged/outcoached the Yankees. Schneider used eight Blue Jays relief pitchers (none for two innings or more). It was simply was a masterful display of a manager using analytics to perfection.

The Yankees got a great series from Aaron Judge, but only Aaron Judge. Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, outfield Cody Bellinger, infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., leadoff hitter Trent Grisham, and first baseman Ben Rice were collectively awful as they had a combined batting average of .137. They only had 10 hits combined in 73 at bats. These five Yankee batters were making a combined total of over $40 million this past season.