TORONTO -- George Springer once represented the beginning of something big and new. Now here he stands at the end.
It felt like the reality of this -- perhaps even the finality -- hit Springer in front of his locker on Sunday afternoon. He grabbed a fistful of the white jersey hanging beside him as he talked about it. A bat signed by his teammates leaned on the chair in front of him. One of his young sons buzzed around, weaving in and out of the crowd.
Six years after Springer signed the $150 million deal that announced the Blue Jays to the rest of baseball again, it’s his final day in this uniform.
The Blue Jays had just landed Hyun Jin Ryu a year prior, but Springer was this organization’s first blockbuster signing in decades, stretching back as far as Roger Clemens in 1997. That moment really meant something.
Six years later, Springer feels like an essential piece of this organization’s history.
“It means the world to me,” Springer said. “I told [general manager] Ross [Atkins] when I first signed that I will give you everything I’ve got, every single day. I will give you 100 percent of whatever it is I have. It doesn’t matter if I’m hurt, sick, it doesn’t matter. For me, what’s so cool is that I’m going to leave a locker room with friendships that I’ll have forever. It’s not just friendship; this is family to me. I love this place. I love it here. I’m so thankful.”
Tears were in Springer’s eyes as he said this, his voice cracking at the very end. We’ve so rarely seen this emotion out of Springer, who is an 8-year-old kid carrying a driver’s license that says he’s 37. He’s the biggest, loudest voice in that clubhouse, the life of the party on good days.
That’s the baseball world, though, where it’s easy to remain a kid. Reality has finally come knocking for Springer, who has 13 big league seasons and a World Series ring with the Astros. He doesn’t know if this will be his final game, and although there will surely be interest in him as a veteran DH this offseason around the league, Springer needs to decide whether he’ll carry on.
He and his wife, Charlise, have three sons now. Springer has taken a beating from this game, too. He’s insisted on playing out the stretch, but he’s battling just to get up the first-base line lately. He’s played this game in fifth gear for years, which takes its toll.
Asked to think how it might feel to walk out these doors later tonight, the emotion takes over again. This always felt so distant for Springer in his playing days, but it’s here now.
“It will be happy-sad, if that makes sense,” he said. “I have nothing but good things to say about this organization and the guys that I’ve played with over the last six years. I owe [president and CEO] Mark [Shapiro] and Ross a huge hug and a thank you for allowing me to be here. This has been a blessing for me. I just cannot say ‘thank you’ more.”
There were good years and bad years, great moments and challenges. With some distance, though, every conversation we ever have about Springer will begin in the same place.
With the Blue Jays down, 3-1, to the Mariners in the seventh inning of Game 7 in last year’s ALCS, Springer delivered one of the biggest moments in this franchise’s history. His three-run shot to left field gave a new generation of Blue Jays fans their very own version of Jose Bautista’s bat flip. The scene was iconic, Springer bouncing up the first-base line with his fists down at his sides, screaming up into the sky.
That World Series run fell inches short in Game 7 against the Dodgers, but baseball only creates so many of those moments. Springer owns one now, and we’ll be seeing it played for decades.
“He’s changed the trajectory of the organization,” manager John Schneider said. “He said he wanted to do that when he got here, to leave it better than when he got here. I think he’s done that. He’s meant a lot to me.”
Over and over again on Sunday, Springer kept coming back to how grateful he was. It was pouring out of him.
He reached back for a favorite memory, late in 2025, when he came back to Toronto about a month after the World Series run. He remembers fans stopping him not just for photos or autographs, but to thank him for what he and his team had done.
“I should be saying ‘thank you’ to them.”