Six players to watch in American League Division Series

Let’s leave aside the numbers – including Aaron Judge’s six career bombs against Kevin Gausman, the 21 homers in 57 games at the Rogers Centre, and the whole question about his tepid career post-season stats.

The increasingly combustible relationship between Judge and the Toronto Blue Jays figures to be front and centre Saturday when the teams open their best-of-five American League Division Series at the Rogers Centre.

Judge is from all accounts a quality guy, as polite with fans on the road as he is at home. But there’s a bit of a ‘thing’ between him and the Blue Jays, whether it was his side-eye peak into the Yankees dugout in 2023 — looking for stolen signs or pitch location — or what my colleague Kevin Barker refers to as he ‘pterodactyl arms’ waving motion at second base in relaying pitches from Max Scherzer three weeks ago.

These sides have gone at it in recent years, whether it’s manager John Schneider calling somebody in the Yankees dugout ‘fat boy’ during a tense game or pitching coach Pete Walker getting into it with third base coach Luis Rojas, who has an allergy to staying within the confines of the third base coaching box.

There were comments from broadcaster Buck Martinez that Yankees manager Aaron Boone felt moved to address Friday. At least nobody showed up with a broom.

A skeptic might suggest the Yankees are in the Blue Jays heads. But then, watching the Yankees boot around the ball at the Rogers Centre and thinking of that four-game sweep over the Canada Day weekend that knocked the Yankees out of first place in the AL East … well, you wonder whether the Blue Jays home ballpark is in the Yankees heads.

They made 11 errors at the Rogers Centre, losing six of seven games. Could shortstop Anthony Volpe be this year’s Elvis Andrus?

Of course, that was before the Yankees acquired third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies, a move that Boone says has improved their defence “quite a bit,” since the Yankees last ventured into Canada.

“I mean, obviously Anthony (Volpe) is playing really well over the last couple months,” said Boone. “What Mac (McMahon) has brought … Jazz (Chisholm Jr.) being full time at second base now … we have a good club. We have impactful defenders. The times we were here in the summer, a couple times wasn’t at our best and we were still working through some things.

“Contrary to some thoughts up here, we’re a really good team.”

Heh-heh. I’ll bet old Boonie’s been waiting a while to take that shot. Fair play to him. But I’d take that as a challenge, folks. Be loud. Be rowdy. Force Jazz Chisholm, Jr., and Volpe to make decisions and let’s see where it goes.

In the other series, let’s see if the Detroit Tigers can continue to rewrite a season that saw their historic collapse begin with a July sweep at the hands of their ALDS opponents the Seattle Mariners. That started a 28-40 skid that contributed to them frittering away a 15 1/2-game lead to the Cleveland Guardians – who they vanquished in the AL wild-card series.

Here, then, is our six to watch – non MVP category - in the AL Division Series:

Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Yankees:

I smell chaos coming. ESPN analyst Hunter Pence told us Friday on Blair & Barker, he saw a little more “savagery” from the Yankees in their ALDS win over the Boston Red Sox, whether it was Fernando Cruz’s chest pounding or Chisholm’s wild run from first to home in Game 2 after Boone benched him for Game 1 against left-hander Garret Crochet. The Blue Jays figure to go with right-handed starters, unless they do something funky with Eric Lauer, and their main left-handed weapon out of the bullpen — Brendon Little — has had the kind of wobbles that might make Boone think twice about pinch-hitting. The Blue Jays have handled Chisholm well this season and he has looked lost at times at the Rogers Centre. The question is what will find him most often: the ball or the moment? If it’s one and the same, well, buckle up.

Jeff Hoffman, RP, Blue Jays:

Six to watch? More like six to — watch out! Even with Bo Bichette’s injury, it’s a safe bet that if you polled 100 Blue Jays fans about their biggest concern it would be their homer-prone closer. Hoffman recorded 33 saves in his first season as a full-time closer and his September was better than you think: four saves, 0.77 ERA and an opponents average of .167. But he only struck out nine while walking seven and averaged 18 pitches per outing, throwing 48 pitches combined in his last two outings. His velocity was down, and at some point, it all became about ‘sequencing’ pitches instead of stuffing opponents to death. John Schneider is a more astute manager than the guy who pulled Jose Berrios out of that game in Minnesota and I really wonder what his Plan B and Plan C is for the ninth inning. Hoffman gave up 15 homers this season. Don’t look now, but that’s how many the Yankees hit in the ninth inning this year.

Alejandro Kirk, C, Blue Jays:

All right. Uncle. I’m on the Kirkie Express. It’s true that George Springer has been the Blue Jays renaissance man and most valuable player. It’s true that there’s been a lot of Ernie Clement/Myles Straw/Nathan Lukes going on in 2025 and that we are all lighting candles for a signature moment or two from Vladdy. But … c’mon. That was some finishing kick from the Blue Jays catcher and while a skeptic might wonder about the impact of the week lay-off on Blue Jays' hitters, well, it would be a whole lot of fun to see Kirk go on one of those deadly two-strike rolls. I’m also giving a nod to his defence because we all know that the Yankees are capable of bone-headed baserunning and that defence in general could be the biggest demarcation point between these teams. And defence starts behind the plate.

Julio Rodriguez, CF, Mariners:

The votes for Most Valuable Player are already in, but that doesn’t mean the ‘I told you so’ folks won’t have fun comparing Judge and Cal Raleigh this post-season. But keep an eye on Rodriguez, who hits behind Raleigh and who was the second-half team leader in batting average, OPS and wRC+. Rodriguez has been a better second-half performer throughout his career, with a .902 OPS compared to .737, and his numbers this season reflected that trend.

George Springer, DH-OF, Blue Jays:

There’s not a tremendous amount of post-season pedigree on the Blue Jays, but what there is comes in the person of Springer, who has 19 career playoff homers, an .875 playoff OPS and was of course the World Series MVP in 2017 with the Houston Astros. Springer won’t nudge aside either Judge or Cal Raleigh in MVP voting but he was one of the best offensive players in the Majors, with the third-best wRC+ (at 166, behind Judge’s 204 and Shohei Ohtani’s 182 and ahead of Raleigh) and he had a strong finishing kick, posting a second-half average of .369 and an OPS of 1.211. He hit .348 with six extra-base hits and 12 RBIs in games between the teams. While we’ve all been waiting for Vladdy to hit and Bo to heal, Springer has continued to carry this team. He’s been frisky on the basepaths, too, and he’ll be ready to challenge Judge’s balky arm.

Riley Greene, LF, Tigers:

Maybe Tarik Skubal can go full Madison Bumgarner and carry his team to a World Series title. Maybe the Tigers can again use small ball to confound the Mariners the way it did to the Cleveland Guardians. Nah … not likely. The Mariners ranked third in the Majors in homers and were 10th in OPS despite playing in a ballpark that is a pitchers' heaven. So, the Tigers will need to hit, and Greene needs to step up after a wild-card series that saw him pinch-hit for on the heels of a September that saw him hit .195. Yet, this was the Majors' best offence in the first half, and Greene was the second player in Tigers history to reach 30 doubles, 30 homers and 110 RBIs in his age 24 season, joining Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. He does strike out a lot — 30 per cent of the time, in fact — but that’s par for the course with the Tigers, whose team strikeout rate was the fourth-worst in the Majors behind the Los Angeles Angels, Colorado Rockies and Baltimore Orioles. The Mariners strike out three batters for every walk. Still, the six runs the Tigers scored in Thursday’s clincher is the most they’ve run up since Sept. 10. Baby steps?

Predictions

Blue Jays def. Yankees 3-2

Mariners def. Tigers 3-1