Claim OwnershipDeep Left Field with Mike Wilner
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Longtime Toronto Blue Jays radio voice Mike Wilner hosts Deep Left Field, a baseball podcast from the Toronto Star. With great baseball coverage, opinion and analysis, Deep Left Field has everything you need to know about the Jays, specifically, and baseball in general.
239 Episodes
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Guests: Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis, hitting coach David Popkins, Vancouver Canadians 1B Peyton Williams Spring training is over and the Blue Jays are back home in Toronto, coming off their Grapefruit League title, getting set to open their season on March 27 against the Baltimore Orioles. We go over the season-opening 26-man roster for you, which includes a few surprises, then hear from last year’s breakout star, Bowden Francis, who has to wait until March 31 to make his first start of the season. The Jays revamped their hitting department over the winter, and you’ll meet new hitting coach David Popkins, who has the players buying what he’s selling, at least so far. Also, they call him The Iowa Meat Truck – we chat with up-and-coming young slugger Peyton Williams.
Guests: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jordan Romano, Blue Jays pitcher Nick Sandlin Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro held his annual spring training session with the media and we take you through what he had to say in painstaking detail. His confidence that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would re-sign with the Jays, despite their failure to make a deal all winter, the state of the farm system, whether players like Daulton Varsho, Andres Gimenez and Alejandro Kirk need to hit better for the Jays to succeed and much more. Also, we head over to Phillies camp to check in with “the one who they let get away.” Jordan Romano is thriving in his new digs. And meet the new guy – Nick Sandlin!
Guests: Blue Jays outfielder Alan Roden, starter Max Scherzer, top pitching prospect Trey Yesavage Deep Left Field is back in Dunedin as the Blue Jays move into their final week of spring training leading the Grapefruit League with a 14-9-1 record! This week, we talk to the story of the spring – young Alan Roden, who is trying to hit his way onto the team and doing a spectacular job so far, batting .409. We also hear from Trey Yesavage, the Jays’ first-round pick in 2024 who made his pro debut in this weekend’s Spring Breakout game with two shutout innings, and starter Max Scherzer, whose spring has been derailed by thumb soreness.
Guests: Toronto Star baseball columnist Gregor Chisholm This week, Gregor and I crack open the mailbag and tackle your Blue Jays questions submitted by email, on Bluesky and here at thestar.com. We touch on the leak of Vladdy’s contract demands, the broken promises of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, a Jays’ fan’s existential crises and much more! One submission was pretty much a plea for Vladdy to get off the writer’s lawn! Your questions answered on this episode of Deep Left Field!
Guest: Ellen Harrigan, current Los Angeles Dodgers VP of baseball administration and Blue Jays front office member from 1981-1995. This week, we’re joined by Ellen Harrigan, who is about to begin her 45th season working in baseball. She started out with the Blue Jays in Exhibition Stadium in 1981, as part of a skeleton-crew front office, and will receive her fourth career World Series ring next month (Blue Jays 1992-93, Dodgers 2020, 2024). Harrigan shares her story, from the quirky way she landed that first job with the Jays out of high school, to working for the modern-day Dodgers of Betts, Ohtani, Freeman and Sasaki. She was the first woman ever to be the general manager of a professional baseball team and has been a mentor, teacher and pioneer for women in baseball for decades.
Guests: Former Blue Jays Communications Director, current Niagara Ironbacks owner Mal Romanin With spring training games underway, many Blue Jays fans are still having a hard time getting the taste of a rough winter out of their mouths. The failure to lock up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Roki Sasaki debacle will be the biggest stories of the Jays’ off-season, and have just added to the fury of the fanbase that seems to be close to boiling over, if it hasn’t already. Mal Romanin, who was a member of the Jays’ communications team from the J.P. Ricciardi era through the 2015 resurgence and into the beginning of the Mark Shapiro-Ross Atkins regime, joins us to talk about how baseball’s public relations teams deal with crises, whether they’re generated by the front office or the players, and shares stories of some of the fires he had to try to help put out when he was with the team.
Guests: Toronto Star Baseball Columnist Gregor Chisholm Spring training is underway in Dunedin, Florida, and Gregor Chisholm has been there since the first day, which means he was there when the news broke that the Blue Jays had failed to come to a long-term contract agreement with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Gregor joins us to discuss all the goings-on from camp, first and foremost the how and why Guerrero is moving into a walk year that nobody wanted. Aside from the Vladdy story, we talk about what he’s seen and heard during the first week of spring. Baseball is back!
Guests: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 Inductees Jose Bautista and Greg Hamilton This week, we celebrate the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame as it announces the newest honoured members who will take their place among the immortals at the Hall on Induction Day, June 7 in St. Marys. Jose Bautista headlines the class and he joins us to talk about his career with the Blue Jays, from the beginning to the BatFlip and beyond, and to reflect on becoming a Hall of Famer. Greg Hamilton, the Director of National Teams for Baseball Canada for a quarter-century, also stops by to talk about his career, his impact on baseball in Canada and his well-earned recognition from the Hall.
Guests: Aaron Abrams, star of CTV’s “Children Ruin Everything,” plus clips from Max Scherzer and Ross Atkins’ news conference and we bring you clips and analysis of that news conference. Scherzer talks about his health, the hows and whys of his coming to Toronto, his motivations in finally coming to the AL East and his feelings about baseball’s data revolution. Ross Atkins avoids a question about a possible contract extension for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Also, TV star and huge Jays fan Aaron Abrams joins us for a Jays vibe check as they get set to head to spring training.
The Blue Jays Add A Hall of Famer A busy January on the free agent front came to a close with the Blue Jays snagging Max Scherzer, the 40-year-old eight-time all-star who will bring his three Cy Young awards and two World Series rings to town with him. With five trips to the injured list in the past two seasons, and only having been able to make nine starts in 2024, what does Scherzer have left to add to a decent Jays rotation? Can he stay healthy, and if he does how much should be expected of him? Does the big right-hander help the Jays in their quest to get back to the post-season?
Guests: Blue Jays 1B coach Mark Budzinski, former Baseball Canada slugger Scott Thorman Not too many people in the Jays’ system know their new acquisition, Anthony Santander, better than Mark Budzinski, who managed Santander at two levels of the minor leagues. We get the goods on the new guy from his ex-skipper, who is very excited for the reunion. Also, we catch up with Cambridge, Ontario’s Scott Thorman, a Baseball Canada standout and Joey Votto’s inspiration growing up.
The Blue Jays introduced Anthony Santander, their first major offensive acquisition in four years, and we bring you clips of his media availability and interpret Ross Atkins’ attempts to sidestep criticism for the Roki Sasaki debacle and the Jays’ failure (so far) to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a contract extension. We examine the Cooperstown Class of 2025, as well as those who fell just short in the voting, and talk to Ayami Sato, the greatest female baseball player of the modern era, who will become the first woman to play pro ball for a Canadian team when she suits up for the Intercounty Maple Leafs this summer.
Only days after the Roki Sasaki debacle, the Blue Jays finally added a significant power bat, the first time they’ve done such a thing in four years. Anthony Santander, a switch-hitter who clubbed 44 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles last season, got a five-year deal worth a reported $92.5 million to come to Toronto, and his slugging stylings are desperately needed for a team that finished 26th in the majors in home runs last season. The addition of Santander bolsters a lineup that only had one hitter with as many as 20 home runs last year, and was definitely a significant enough move to warrant a special bonus episode. Finally, some good Blue Jays news.
There’s no shame in making an aggressive attempt to sign a coveted free agent but falling short, and the Blue Jays have done that several times over the past few years, whether it was with superduperstars Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto or mere mortals like Corbin Burnes, Justin Verlander and Xander Bogaerts, but the way the Jays mismanaged the pursuit of Roki Sasaki required a special episode of Deep Left Field. Not only did the Jays miss out on the 23-year-old Japanese phenom, who pings the radar gun at 102 mph, they quite literally threw away $11 million (U.S.) in doing so. This one wasn’t disappointing, it was infuriating.
Guests: Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman, Canadian Women’s National Team shortstop Mia Valcke The Blue Jays re-introduced Jeff Hoffman to the Toronto media this week, bringing the right-hander back as a free agent 11 years after drafting him and 10 years after trading him to Colorado in the Troy Tulowitzki deal. We bring you highlights of the conversation with Hoffman, including his comments about failed physicals with Baltimore and Atlanta and whether he will be the Jays’ closer in 2025. Also, the Baseball Canada Ashley Stephenson Award winner, Mia Valcke, joins us to talk about her move from the outfield to shortstop in order to help Team Canada reach the podium at the 2024 World Cup. Plus thoughts on the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes and the ballot for the Cooperstown class of 2025.
Guests: Blue Jays starter Alek Manoah, former Blue Jays beat reporter Kaitlyn McGrath Our first episode of 2025 brings a check-in and a farewell. Alek Manoah, rehabbing from mid-June Tommy John surgery, joins us to give an update on the state of his elbow and the timeline for his late-season return. He also shares his thoughts about the Jays’ slow off-season to this point and the lack of a contract extension for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Also, departing Jays’ reporter Kaitlyn McGrath, late of The Athletic, shares her memories and stories of being on the beat through the team’s rise in the early part of the decade and recent fall.
Guests: Second City alumni Sandy Jobin-Bevans and Pat Smith, Actor/Director Stu Stone 2024 was a rough year for the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans, and the way this off-season has gone so far, it doesn’t seem as though 2025 is going to be much better. For our final episode of the year, we convene a roundtable of Canadian stars of stage and screen, in front of and behind the camera, to discuss where the Jays stand as the calendar flips and what it means that the fanbase seems to have completely lost faith in the ability of the front office to get the team back on track.
Guests: Former Toronto Blue Jay and current Philadelphia Phillie Jordan Romano and new Jay Andrés Giménez Now that he has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, former Jays closer Jordan Romano joins the podcast for his first one-on-one interview since the Jays cut him loose. He goes in-depth about his time in Toronto and signing with a National League contender. We also hear from new Blue Jay Andrés Giménez.
Guests: Toronto Star baseball columnist Gregor Chisholm, Sports Info Solutions Mark Simon The Blue Jays had their busiest Winter Meetings in years: making a trade, signing a free agent and grabbing a pitcher in the Rule 5 draft. Gregor Chisholm joins us to discuss all the Jays’ doings in Dallas, and whether it’s the right move to continue to drill down on run prevention at the expense of run creation. They made the best defence in MLB even better by picking up Andres Gimenez, but did they make a below-average offence worse? And we drill down on Gimenez – the best defensive infielder in the game – with Fielding Bible guru Mark Simon.
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What a nice young man Alek Manoah comes across as. Thoughtful, intelligent, straightforward, and no attempt to obfuscate. There's clearly a lot of respect between him and Mike (and other Jays' correspondents by the sound of things), and that made for a really interesting listen. Looking forward to seeing him pitch again in August, fingers crossed...
Wilner you are doing such a great job. Your pacing and rhythm you have in your interviews and the way you speak is just fantastic. Though what I love most is how you listen. It’s such a great quality in an interviewer. To let space happen, let thoughts happen and then wind them together in a great response that adds to your listeners enjoyment. As a songwriter and someone with Bipolar and ADHD I end up hyper focused on minute small things that others might not pay attention to. Pacing and space is one of them. Since leaving your last gig and then starting this podcast you’ve improved remarkably in that manner. I think the platform helps with that. Please keep up the great work and know that the people that listen keep listening because they can’t pull away. Much love and respect BiPolaRMaN Ps. If you like new music our group Special Agent Sunshine is on the come up in the Canadian seen. Feel free to check us out. Stay awesome 😊