Davis Schneider has spent a good chunk of the 2026 season bouncing between Toronto and Triple-A, but he’s not treating those trips like the end of the world.
That’s the angle Schneider gave Lindsay Dunn on the 6ix Inning Stretch podcast, and it cuts against the usual reaction to a demotion. Instead of framing Triple-A as a punishment, he leaned into the simple fact that he still gets to play.
“When you’re playing in AAA.. people say oh it’s suck that you’re in AAA, but I don’t know, you still get to play baseball and you’re paid a lot of money just to go out there and have fun with your boys,”
It’s a straightforward, pretty unvarnished view of a part of baseball that usually gets painted as a failure. Schneider has every reason to want to stay in the majors - that’s the goal for any player - but he’s not letting the shuttling between levels erase the bigger picture.
For him, the time in Buffalo also comes with something useful: regular at-bats, a chance to keep working, and a clubhouse full of teammates grinding toward the same call-up he’s chasing. That’s not nothing, especially for a player trying to sort out his place.
And Schneider knows the big-league production wasn’t enough. From the start of the season through May 24, he put up a .295 OBP with a 57 wRC+, which led to his first trip down. After that, he kept getting called back up every month, usually for short stays, before finishing the year in the majors.
His final seven games in September were a wild stretch: a .182/.438/.727 line with two home runs, a 25% walk rate and a 25% strikeout rate. If he trims the strikeouts and puts a few more balls in play, there’s a path for him to stick on the Blue Jays bench again in 2027.
If that doesn’t happen, Schneider has already shown he can handle the grind without letting it eat at him. That kind of outlook matters in a sport that keeps handing out setbacks. Baseball is full of them - demotions, promotions, benchings, trades, cuts - and sometimes the difference is how a player carries himself through the churn.
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Blue Jays Have A Bullpen Reunion Option Fans Will Notice
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Now Chicago has to sort through what comes next, while Gausman's own future remains uncertain. Reports have suggested he may not continue his MLB career, though a return to the Blue Jays is also on the table, adding another layer to a story that already looks messy from the Cubs' side. For Toronto, it's a reminder of how quickly a familiar arm can move from one club's deadline bet to another's offseason question. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Face One Costly Infield Decision This Offseason
The Blue Jays are heading into an offseason with plenty of moving parts, and the infield may be the part of the roster that gets the sharpest look. With several high-profile contracts expiring, Toronto could create significant payroll flexibility, and that matters because the club also has a long list of arbitration-eligible players to sort through before it can fully map out its winter spending.
Even with room to maneuver, the front office still has to decide how aggressively to address a group that needs help in the middle of the diamond. The Jays have been linked to names such as Brandon Lowe, Ketel Marte and Teruaki Sato as they explore ways to plug key holes, but the bigger question is how much of their available money gets committed before the market even opens in earnest. [Read more 🡒]