Blue Jays are ready to chase out ghosts of World Series loss

TORONTO -- The old dome is still full of ghosts.

Nothing has happened in there since Game 7 of the World Series, when confetti fell on the Dodgers. Renovations and tours aren’t enough to chase the ghosts out -- only baseball can do that.

On the eve of Opening Day, it was so quiet inside Rogers Centre, that same dead silence that hung into the early morning after the Dodgers were done celebrating. Outside, it was still gray and cold, too similar to those days in late October and early November. How much time has really passed? Has any?

“It feels like we never left, to be honest,” Kevin Gausman said. “It feels like we’re getting ready for Game 8. Obviously, there’s no Game 8. It’s kind of a nostalgic feeling. I threw my bullpen yesterday, and it was weird for me to play catch before that. Going up the steps to the bullpen, I was just remembering the last time I did this.”

Friday night, while the Blue Jays raise a banner they wish read something else, Gausman will be warming up, first in left field and then in the Blue Jays’ bullpen. Somehow, he’s supposed to keep warming up while the video montages play, while those old memories play on the biggest screen in the city and while fans thank these players once more for what they gave them.

Even Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who rarely admits to looking anywhere other than the next 24 hours, says he’ll allow himself to look back. He’ll be emotional, he expects, then he and everyone else in the third-base dugout will need to flip a switch. All offseason, they’ve wanted to flip that switch, but only another baseball game allows that. They’ve all been waiting for another baseball game.

John Schneider is still having trouble sleeping some nights. It’s a manager’s job to be obsessive, so call this a professional hazard.

“Baseball guys, we suck. We’re so weird,” Schneider said.

Even watching batting practice through the spring and recent days at Rogers Centre, he’s found his mind drifting. Why couldn’t that swing have come in Game 7? That voice comes from the devil on his shoulder, not from his own mind, but it’s still there. It still woke him up in the middle of the night for months, Game 7 replaying in his mind.

“My wife hated it. She was screaming at me like, ‘Go to sleep!’” Schneider said. “Until you get back there and until you win one, it’s just part of you. What I’ve realized is that it’s not going to define us. It’s not going to define me, Vlad, anyone. Last year will not define us. What will is how we handle ourselves, how we play and what that does for us going forward. That should be what we take out of 2025. Was it fun? Hell yeah. Did it suck? Hell yeah.”

This is the way forward.

Expectations haven’t been this high since the World Series years in the early ‘90s. The Blue Jays have captured the national attention and imagination again. Down the street in Toronto, the Maple Leafs are a mess, set to miss the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2016. Everyone is waiting for the Blue Jays, who will own the spotlight.

“The expectations from everybody else are very high. For us, it’s just the same,” Guerrero said. “We’ll go out there and keep working very hard, trying to do everything to win every game. Our expectations are the same.”

The Blue Jays will look to their manager, who’s made it clear since Day 1 of camp that the Blue Jays aren’t defending a damn thing, they’re chasing something again. They’ll look to Guerrero, the superstar who never blinks.

The only way out of this is to play baseball. The game moves quickly, and the rest of the league won’t care about what still lingers from the Blue Jays’ 2025 season.

“Go play. Go win,” Schneider said. “It’s not going to be easy, and people are going to give us their best shot. That’s great. We were the top dog in 2025, but right now we’re a half-game back from New York. It happens that quick. We have to play our game and understand what our game is. We do know what that is and we know that it matches up against anyone on the planet.”

Tonight, around 7:07 p.m. ET, Kevin Gausman will throw the first pitch of their 2026 season. It’s been 146 days since that final out in Game 7. Finally, it’s time to stir up the ghosts again and chase them out.