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Enjoy this Steve Simmons column one day before it arrives online or in the newspaper |
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George Springer, who turns 36 in September, is defying time and history.
And the red-hot Blue Jays are benefiting from this improbable break-out season from the previously declining Springer.
Who gets better at age 35 after struggling to find their game and three seasons of diminished statistics in Toronto? Who becomes one of the most impactful offensive players in the American League after a lot of years of just being impressive — just not overwhelmingly impressive?
If the season ended today, Aaron Judge would win the MVP and Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh would likely finish second, but for the first time in five years, Springer would be deserving of votes.
Maybe a lot of votes.
He’s only received MVP votes in three of his 12 big-league seasons. Once, he finished as high as seventh in MVP voting. Twice in his career, he finished 13th in voting. The first year he received votes also happened to be the same season in which he won World Series MVP in 2017.
That was a long time ago.
The Jays signed Springer to play centre field and contribute offence. He did both for a while. Then he was moved to right field. Then he was moved to barely any field at all.
In the recent four-game sweep of the New York Yankees, moving the Jays into first place in the AL East, Springer went 7-for-14 at the plate with four home runs and 11 RBI. He out-Judged Judge in the four-game set.
The sweep may prove to be the absolute turning point in this unlikely and now possible run by the Jays. There are six games left before the all-star break after Sunday and Toronto plays the two weakest teams in the league to finish up.
Realistically, they could have a four-game lead by the break. A four-game lead? And, really, who saw that coming? From this team and from this Springer? |
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Mitch Marner became pretty much impossible to be around in his final season with the Maple Leafs. He knew it was his last year. He knew he was going somewhere warm — either Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Pretty much everyone around him knew he had one foot out the door all season long before he had to perform at the highest level (regular season) … We’re betting here that Mommy and Daddy Marner, longtime GTA folks, will be moving to Vegas to be alongside their prized possession … The Leafs had nine seasons of Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander and seven seasons of John Tavares without having a playoff run of consequence. What was accomplished? If this hasn’t been a golden opportunity lost, I don’t know what it’s been … Upon joining the Golden Knights after the sign-and-trade with the Leafs, Marner said he wanted to play in Vegas because they had a winning culture. Maybe math was never his best subject: The past four seasons, the Maple Leafs had 436 points; Vegas, with a Stanley Cup win, had 413 … Coaches who have been around Nicolas Roy over the years have lots of good things to say about the incoming Leaf. “He’s a good penalty killer,” said one coach. “And the kind of player that is better in the playoffs. Definitely a piece on a good team, versatile and good on face-offs.” … When the Golden Knights won the Cup, they had just about the deepest six-man defence in the NHL. But now, Alex Pietrangelo, future Hall of Fame, may never play again and Nicolas Hague has been traded to Nashville. They combined to play 42 minutes a night in Vegas’ Stanley Cup run of 2023 … The list of significant Maple Leafs traded away in their prime: Frank Mahovlich, Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Wendel Clark, Vince Damphousse, Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, Randy Carlyle, Nazem Kadri, Alex Steen. Outside of dealing Clark for Mats Sundin and Leeman as a central figure in the Doug Gilmour trade, how many of those deals turned out well for Toronto? … It made sense for Marner to want to play in Vegas. After playing his first nine seasons in the NHL with either Matthews or Tavares as his centre, it’s nice to head west and play with Jack Eichel. There aren’t many Eichels or Matthews in the league. The pair will be the top two centres for Team USA at the Winter Olympics in February … When you play for a Canadian NHL team and you are paid in U.S. dollars, it means Marner’s $11 million from last season was essentially $15 million in Canadian dollars. So you’re paying more taxes playing here, but you’ll also be getting American dollars to pay your Canadian bills with … If you’re handing out a Stanley Cup in July, you can give it to the Florida Panthers right now. But here’s the thing. Winning the off-season rarely translates to winning in June. The Panthers are the easy and obvious choice to win next season, especially after re-signing Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand, but there’s always a human element involved in all of this. And anytime something looks too obvious, it often goes the other way … Very smart signing by the Panthers: Bringing in veteran Jeff Petry to replace Nate Schmidt on the Florida defence. They went from Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the cheap in 2024 to Schmidt in 2025 to Petry now. All for bargain-basement prices.
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Just when you want to love the Blue Jays and this incredible first half of the season — and who do you like better Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger? — along come the ticket-sellers and the carpetbagger president Mark Shapiro, with news of next season’s price increases. Longtime season-ticket holders have been informed their Level 200 tickets behind home plate, which many have had for years, will be converted to luxury seats in the future. The price is going up from $16,000 for season tickets to $43,000. How’s that for customer appreciation? … When Masai Ujiri began with the Raptors, the franchise value of the team was just over $400 million US. When he was pushed out by the club last month, the value of the Raptors was more than $4 billion. He had a bonus in his contract tied to franchise value. Ownership — primarily Edward Rogers — was offended by how large the bonus had become. It was among the reasons Masai was shown the door … I don’t like the idea of an 84-game NHL season starting in 2026 because it distorts future 50-goal seasons. Alex Ovechkin has had nine 50-goal seasons in his career. Three other times he came close to 50. With an additional two regular-season games, he might have a dozen 50-goal seasons today instead of nine … The new contract Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has signed with Oklahoma City will pay him $78.8 million for the final year on the deal. Just one year. Which translates to just under $1 million a game. It’s nowhere near Dak Prescott’s almost $3 million-a-game playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys on a 17-game season, but it’s huge nonetheless … If Connor McDavid’s next contract pays him $20 million a year, that will equate to $238,095 per game … You can work your entire life in hockey and never win a Stanley Cup. Or you can be like Jamie Kompon, assistant coach with the Panthers, who just keeps on winning. He has won two Cups in Florida after winning one as a Joel Quenneville assistant in Chicago and one as an assistant to Darryl Sutter in Los Angeles. That’s four in all.
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Sometimes I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have worked in this industry for the past 46 years. And I got to thinking about that upon the news presentation and celebration of Bob McKenzie’s career on TSN on July 1. I have been lucky enough to have worked around Bob, against Bob, for Bob, and with Bob since 1982. His career, now over, is unmatched in Canadian sports media. He didn’t just cover the stories or break them — he changed the way we look at the NHL draft or free agency or trade deadline or the world juniors. No one has played such a large role in the growth of hockey in Canada from a viewership perspective. And no one deserves a happy retirement more … How long ago did I write for Bob at The Hockey News? Long enough ago that we mailed in our columns for the next edition of the paper and hoped they arrived on time … Big time for Sam Bennett. A Stanley Cup. A Conn Smythe Trophy. A new contract. And now, more reasons for the Panthers to party — his wedding … I thought of Lou Lamoriello when Noah Dobson was traded to Montreal and signed an expensive deal with the Canadiens. Says Lamoriello of too many contracts signed: Too much money, too much term. Dobson signed for eight years and $76 million in Montreal. Which is too much money and too much term … Speaking of which, what a disaster the signings of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi turned out to be for Toronto FC. Insigne never took the job seriously in Toronto. He just took the money. At least Bernardeschi tried to embrace the city, if not the team. TFC has won four of 20 games this MLS season … Congratulations to the terrific broadcaster, Scott Oake, rewarded with the Order of Canada for all he’s done for drug rehabilitation in Canada … I love these kind of stats. This one comes courtesy of Columbus hockey writer Aaron Portzline. The Blue Jackets had a record of 26-13-2 last season when Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, Dante Fabbro and Denton Mateychuk all played together on their defence … There is nothing quite like NBA drama. LeBron James may be in play. Giannis Antetokounmpo may still be available after saying he wasn’t. Damian Lillard has been bought out in Milwaukee.
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It remains remarkable to me that so many WNBA players, who should be worshipping all that Caitlin Clark has done for their business, continue to take a negative spin on women’s basketball’s most talked-about player. In recent all-star fan balloting, Clark received more votes than all WNBA players combined. When she was voted the top guard in the league, players voted her ninth-best. The small-picture nature of the WNBA isn’t shocking, but it remains foolhardy … Bo Levi Mitchell passed the 40,000-yard mark in CFL throwing on Friday night against the Argos. Next on the list for Mitchell is Tracy Ham and, right after that, Doug Flutie — both catchable this season. Flutie currently ranks ninth all-time in yardage. Anthony Calvillo has the most CFL passing yards in history at 79,816. Tom Brady leads the NFL with 89,214 yards … With CFL defences playing one yard off the ball, wouldn’t it make sense for teams to start using the Philadelphia tush push in their offence? Just line up an extra offensive lineman behind the quarterback as a fullback. And in goal-line sneaks, have the fullback push the QB into the end zone. Seems pretty obvious to me … Matt Murray has signed with Seattle, where former Leafs assistant Lane Lambert is now the head coach. Murray still wants to play in the NHL. Lambert got a good look at Murray around Toronto over the past season … The Blue Jays paid $15 million for Max Scherzer, another $20 or so million for Anthony Santander and traded for Andres Gimenez’s large contract and, to date, none of those moves have paid off. Which makes this season all the more impossible to believe … When Clayton Kershaw hit the 3,000 mark for strikeouts, he became the 20th pitcher in Major League history to hit that prestigious mark. Scherzer is 11th all-time with 3,419 Ks. Next on the list, and maybe the last to get there, is Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who sits at 2,528. And with the amount of innings starting pitchers throw today, getting to 3,000 seems next to impossible for today’s youngsters … Leafs coach Craig Berube has already thought about loading up on one line with William Nylander playing right wing with Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies — the way Boston loaded up for years with Patrice Bergeron playing with Marchand and Davd Pastrnak. But when you’re a coach and don’t know what your lineup will be come September, you consider all possibilities. That’s what you call summer thoughts … Happy birthday to Shohei Ohtani (31), Manny Machado (33), Brad Park (75), Rich Gossage (74), Doug Wilson (68), John LeClair (56), Zion Williamson (25), Willie Randolph (71), Roy Shivers (84), James Lofton (69), Ron Duguay (68) and Fraser Minten (21).
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