MINNEAPOLIS — Bases loaded and two out, Tyler Heineman swung at a first-pitch sweeper heading up and in from Taylor Rogers, lofted a lazy fly to left field, barely jogged to first base, paused at the bag after the ball was caught and then sulked back to the dugout.
By the time the Toronto Blue Jays catcher got there, Brandon Valenzuela was hastily strapping on his gear to take over behind the plate in the inning’s bottom half.
“Just manager's decision,” John Schneider said after a frustrating 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
What prompted that manager’s decision?
“I'll keep it manager's decision,” Schneider replied.
“Heinie's in there,” he added, motioning to the clubhouse.
Inside, Heineman sat at his locker, ready for questions.
Was it the approach in a pivotal at-bat?
“Just situation, everything that's been going on, and I just didn't get it done,” Heineman answered, before echoing Schneider’s words. “Manager’s decision. I stick by it. One of the best managers in the game, the best manager I played for. He has a reason for everything he does. And I fully support him.”
What did he mean by everything that’s been going on?
“That at-bat was pretty trash,” he said. “I popped up on a pitch I should have drove. I've been pretty crappy the last, I don't know, 10 games or so. Probably saw something that he shouldn't have saw or that I did wrong and he made his decision.”
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The decision became the latest example of Schneider delivering a public rebuke to a player, and perhaps by extension to the rest of his team, which fell to 16-18 by dropping a winnable finale to a Twins team that took the season series between the clubs 4-3.
Heineman, thrust into larger role when a foul tip fractured Alejandro Kirk’s thumb back in April, is hitting .176/.222/.176 in 21 games and over his last 10 outings, he’s 3-for-31 with 10 strikeouts. Still, in the sixth inning Sunday, Schneider showed confidence in him by letting him hit, rather than putting in Valenzuela, who hit a three-run homer Saturday.
The Blue Jays have stressed taking swings with intent early in counts on pitches over the heart of the plate and in that sixth inning, with Rogers in trouble, Heineman had the right idea on a ball in the wrong location. Combined with a poor effort up the line, in a game that started at 11:45 a.m. local and demanded players take the field with energy, that was sure to not sit well with Schneider.
Though he usually makes a point of protecting his players, such actions aren’t out of character for the manager, who is deliberate about what he says publicly so that he communicates to various stakeholders what he wants them to hear.
Just two weeks ago in Phoenix for example, he took to task Eric Lauer, Monday’s starter at the Tampa Bay Rays, after the left-hander, who had just pitched bulk behind an opener, said he hated the concept and preferred starting.
Schneider met with Lauer the next day, “a few on a few,” to say that “if you don't like your role, like, come talk to me, come talk to Pete (Walker, the pitching coach)” but that ultimately, “you pitch, I decide.”
“I respect everyone's opinion,” Schneider added then. “I know the end of his quote was, it's above my pay grade and it definitely is above his pay grade as to how we use him. We're trying to win, you know what I mean? My job is to put him in spots to try to have success. That's what I try to do. He's aware of that. He gets that. Anyone who's been bounced around a little bit, he wants to start, I get it. But he's on board with us just trying to win and, go out and execute until we take the ball from you big fella, and do it again the next time.”
Back in 2022, Schneider controversially pushed a slumping Bo Bichette down to seventh in the batting order while, more subtly, discipline could be occasionally disguised as a day off for a player.
This time, there was doubt Schneider had decided to act, feeling the matter was urgent enough that it had be done in public, even if he left to conjecture what exactly prompted him to do so. Regardless, as the Blue Jays try to dig themselves out from a bad start amid a spate of injuries, he isn’t tolerating slips of the team’s standards, a message delivered to Heineman and sure to have been received more widely.
