Author: Deesha Thosar

The Hot Stove season is just getting started, but before the action really heats up, we’re examining each Major League Baseball team to identify its biggest needs this offseason. 

From the usual big-money spenders destined to scour the free-agent market, to the teams with deep farm systems that will fare better on trade deals, we’ve got everyone covered. 

To kick things off, our series begins with the American League East. Here are the biggest needs for one of the most competitive divisions in baseball:

Teams are listed in order of their records, best to worst, in the 2025 season.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

Biggest need: Keeping Bo Bichette in Canada

Coming off an emotional and disappointing end to a hugely successful season, the defending AL champions quickly crossed off a priority on their offseason checklist when Shane Bieber opted into a one-year, $16 million deal instead of becoming a free agent. Now, they need to keep adding on by focusing on their homegrown shortstop. Bichette battled back from injury and, after seven weeks of no game action, returned during the World Series to become their hit machine. It’s time for Toronto to repay him.

Fortunately for the Blue Jays, as they aim to keep Bichette in Canada for the foreseeable future, the feeling is mutual. Bichette has been vocal about his preference to remain in the organization that raised him. But don’t expect the process to be nearly as swift or painless as it was for Bieber. Bichette is hitting the market at the prime age of 27, and there will be multiple suitors for one of the top hitters of the game. Plus, he just spent the World Series playing a more-than-serviceable second base, all while being at less than 100% health. Teams that have vacancies at shortstop, second, or third base should be salivating at the thought of signing Bichette.

Bichette has produced similar numbers to Corey Seager through the veteran shortstop’s age-26 season. Elite company for an elite hitter. Toronto has to be prepared to pay up to include Bichette in their long-term plans. It will be fascinating to see how long Bichette tests the market to drive up his price, which is expected to top $200 million. 

NEW YORK YANKEES

Biggest need: Re-signing Cody Bellinger

It was odd to see Aaron Judge and his Yankees teammates sitting courtside at the New York Knicks’ season opener a couple of weeks ago. It was the middle of October, and there were playoff games taking place, but the powerhouse Yankees weren’t a part of the action. How can they avoid getting eliminated next postseason, and build an indomitable roster?

It starts with re-signing Bellinger, who was a key performer at four positions for the 2025 Yankees. His transition into pinstripes was seamless. The former MVP posted a 125 OPS+ in 152 games. He was a leader in the clubhouse. He was consistent and durable. Outside of Aaron Judge, Bellinger was their MVP. Landing him on a multi-year deal to return to the Bronx will give the Yankees an everyday center fielder in a Trent Grisham-less world. 

Otherwise, the Yankees could target free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker. While his bat would be an asset to the lineup, he doesn’t make a ton of roster sense. Tucker taking over right (or left) field would push Aaron Judge to center, and that defensive alignment is suboptimal. The Yankees prefer an everyday centerfielder who is not Judge. They don’t seem to trust Jasson Dominguez there. And Bellinger has already demonstrated he can effectively fill that role. Tucker, of course, is the bigger acquisition and the Yankees should go for it. I just don’t think they will. And losing Bellinger’s versatility in the field would hurt them too much.

BOSTON RED SOX

Biggest need: Starting pitching

The Red Sox had a turbulent season, highlighted by the Rafael Devers Drama, before shocking everyone and making the playoffs. Though it was an early exit after losing to the Yankees in the Wild Card round, there were some encouraging developments to expand on. That starts with adding a quality arm behind ace Garrett Crochet to create a formidable 1-2 punch. 

The Red Sox have a farm system brimming with young talent, so they’re expected to trade for a starter rather than buy one. And if the Tigers are serious about shopping Tarik Skubal, the Red Sox have the trade capital to land him. The thought of a Skubal-Crochet 1-2 punch should petrify opposing teams to the bone, and it’s almost too tantalizing to believe it could come true for a Red Sox fan base that has seen more superstars leave the organization than enter it since their 2018 championship. Other potential trade targets include Freddy Peralta, Sandy Alcántara, Joe Ryan, Mitch Keller, and Luis Severino.

If you’re surprised that Boston’s biggest need isn’t re-signing Alex Bregman or an alternate corner infielder, that’s because they have an in-house option in Marcelo Mayer. He was called up to the big leagues after Bregman went on the injured list in May, and after a slow start, Mayer posted a .788 OPS with four home runs in June. If he can stay healthy, he could be the answer at third. Bregman is likely going to demand a higher asking price than the Red Sox are comfortable giving him. 

TAMPA BAY RAYS

Biggest need: Outfield impact bats (and roof over their stadium)

I’m only half-joking about that roof, which is expected to be built back up at Tropicana Field sometime in 2026. It still sounds like there is a possibility that the Rays will play their initial home games at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ winter and spring training complex. Besides a little more normalcy for 81 home games, the Rays also need to upgrade their outfield production. An outfield group consisting mainly of Jake Mangum, Chandler Simpson, Josh Lowe, and Christopher Morel ranked 26th in MLB in terms of OPS+ this past season. That has to be better. But how will they fix it?

The Rays’ payroll situation isn’t going to dramatically change this winter, but it’s also unlikely that they will run the same team back after finishing 77-85 and falling to fourth place in the division. That being said, it’s easy to imagine a world in which the Rays rely on Simpson and Mangum taking steps forward next year with their rookie seasons behind them. They could get creative and move fast with a sneaky move if the opportunity presents itself, a la the acquisition of infielder Ha-Seong Kim in early February. Barring a trade or two, expect the Rays to shop in the mid- to low-tier of free-agent outfielders. This winter, some of the top names in that group include Mike Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto, Max Kepler, Starling Marte, and Grandal Grichuk.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

Biggest need: Starting pitching

Are the Orioles just going to stand pat and watch all the other teams in the division get better and contend for the playoffs, or are they going to make a scurry of significant moves to upgrade their roster? With an owner who is reported to have a net worth upwards of $4 billion, it has to be the latter. David Rubenstein took full control of the Orioles before the 2024 season, and we’re still waiting for him to infuse the roster with cash and bring in marquee free agents. Maybe this is the year. 

The O’s plan of running out Zach Eflin as their ace, backed up by Grayson Rodriguez, Charlie Morton, and Tomoyuki Sugano, didn’t work. It was viewed as a weak starting rotation heading into the 2025 season, and it unsurprisingly performed that way. The O’s should be shopping at the top of the free-agent market for arms like Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, and Michael King. There is no penny-pinching excuse. There should be no restraints. 

They have a young and promising lineup that’s due for a bounce-back season in 2026 after underwhelming results in 2025. They have a new manager in Craig Albernaz with a ton of optimism surrounding his hire. Now, they need a viable starting rotation to bring the Orioles back from the AL East basement. It was only two years ago when, led by ace Corbin Burnes, Baltimore boasted a 101-win season, followed by an early playoff exit due to — stop me if you’ve heard this before — a lack of quality starting pitchers. It’s past time for the O’s to fill up their rotation with top arms to supplement the stars in their lineup.

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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Decades from now, we will still be talking about how masterful Trey Yesavage was against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series.

The Blue Jays’ rookie phenom rose to the class of eyebrow-raising and chills-inducing feats we haven’t seen from pitchers in the postseason since the halcyon days of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, Don Newcombe… the list goes on. 

Yesavage struck out 12 Dodgers and allowed no walks on 104 pitches. He whiffed half the batters he faced, at one point striking out five consecutively, to send the Blue Jays back to Toronto in need of one more win to become the world champions. 

To think, just five months ago, Yesavage was a 21-year-old cipher pitching in Low-A ball, facing teenagers and twenty-somethings. He is now the first pitcher in history who started a game in Low A, High A, Double A, Triple A, and the World Series all in the same year. 

Years from now, we will still be in awe.

“Walking from the bullpen to the dugout, I took a moment to look around the stadium, see all the fans I wanted to — I was hoping I would send ’em home upset,” Yesavage said Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium after his Game 5 brilliance. “It was just a cool, like, full-circle moment.”

‘You Still Can’t Do Anything About It’

Only 503 days ago, he was drafted by the Blue Jays in the first round (20th pick). The East Carolina product began the 2025 season in the Low-A Florida State League, making seven starts before he was promoted to the High-A Northwest League in May. Less than a month later, he was asked to keep climbing the minor-league ladder. Yesavage recorded seven starts and one relief appearance for the Double-A Eastern League. Finally, in August, he was promoted to the Triple-A International League, where he posted a 3.63 ERA in six outings (four starts) for the Buffalo Bisons. 

In mid-September, he got the call. Yesavage was promoted to the major leagues for Toronto’s pennant push. It was viewed as a tryout. The Blue Jays closely monitored his performance across only three major-league starts, evaluating whether he was prepared to be added to their postseason roster. Not only was he October-ready. After his exceptional Game 5 performance, it’s clear he was born to pitch in the World Series. 

“First, you’d have to credit the Blue Jays for moving him along so rapidly, which is a rarity within itself,” former All-Star pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who pitched as a rookie for the Miami Marlins in the 2003 World Series, told me. “This kid is wise beyond his years in the sense of, he knows how his stuff plays to the hitter, and that’s a big ingredient. 

“And with that split-change, at one point, he was just throwing it at will. It was almost like a cheat code. Like everybody in the stands, everybody on both sides knew this pitch was coming, and you still can’t hit it. It’s one of those pitches where it’s like a Clayton Kershaw slider, where you know it’s coming. You know it’s coming, and you still can’t do anything about it.”

Yesavage has now made more playoff starts than regular-season outings. 

It took guts for the Blue Jays’ brain trust to promote him from Low-A ball to the World Series all in one season. But then again, he all but forced their hand. Yesavage tossed three perfect innings and struck out four in his final minor-league start on Sept. 10. Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said Yesavage “made the decision for us” after witnessing his undeniable strikeout rate and rapid rise through the minors. But the front office could never have anticipated that Yesavage would be this elite, this soon.

“Guys that are being taken in the first round are usually dominating, usually are performing at such high levels that the makeup reports are always pretty good,” Atkins said of Yesavage last week at the Rogers Centre. “It’s going to be, yeah, this guy’s a bulldog, he’s a warrior, he works his tail off and never backs down from a challenge. But then the game gets faster, and the talent gets higher, and the stages are bigger, and that exposes some things. 

“So if we had the magic formula to tell you that Trey Yesavage was going to be able to handle this when we acquired him, we probably would have had a lot more success prior to today. You just never know, and it’s the hardest thing to evaluate, in my opinion.”

‘Hollywood Couldn’t Have Made it This Good’

Yesavage has received a slew of praise for his composure as a rookie — and we’re not just talking about when he makes in-game adjustments on the mound. After pitching in front of fewer than 500 people at Low-A stadiums just five months ago, he took the World Series stage at the historic Dodger Stadium in front of 52,175 fans like he’d been doing it for a decade. Plus, he has handled his increased media obligations with aplomb. Some veterans who play for small-market clubs still get flustered with the larger number of national reporters in a postgame clubhouse in the postseason.

And then there’s the overflow of information. The 22-year-old is routinely being schooled by his teammates, including future first-ballot Hall of Famer Max Scherzer. Rather than being rattled or overwhelmed by all the instruction and advice from experienced veterans, Yesavage has relied on them to prepare himself for starting in the World Series. After Game 5, he shouted out Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and Scherzer for helping him make the quick transition and ascension into a Blue Jays legend.

“It’s been a crazy year, but being surrounded by vets is a great thing for the future of my career,” Yesavage said. “They have treated me the best I could have ever asked for. So going forward with other rookies that come up, I’m going to remember how I was treated when I got here. The poise part, I don’t know, you got to thank my parents.”

Willis described pitching out of the bullpen as a 21-year-old rookie in the 2003 World Series as “an out-of-body experience.” It was only until the next day, when he had a moment to gather his thoughts, that he wondered how he even did it. And that’s coming from the southpaw who won the Rookie of the Year award that year. Willis believes Yesavage won’t realize how monumental his performance was until it’s all over, which could very well be on Friday night after World Series Game 6, with the Blue Jays lifting the championship trophy.

“It’s a crazy world. Crazy world,” Yesavage said. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good. Just being a part of this, I’m just very blessed.”

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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As Freddy Peralta put it after the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the National League Championship Series, “They didn’t even let us breathe.” That’s what it feels like to face a formidable Dodgers team that’s peaking at exactly the right time.

They entered the year with a hardline expectation to win the World Series in back-to-back seasons. It hasn’t been done since the Yankees’ three-peat run from 1998-2000. Earlier in the year, the Dodgers gave us more reasons to doubt them than to believe in them. Now, they’re showing us why they always thought it was possible, even when the first half of the regular season featured mediocre results.  

“I think you always want to be peaking and playing your best baseball in October,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before Game 1 of the World Series. “I don’t know that we have a formula or a thought of really how to do that.”

Friedman indicated the blueprint that has gotten the Dodgers two wins away from winning their second straight title wasn’t calculated. But it sure appears that way. 

At one point in June, the Dodgers had 15 pitchers on the injured list, including Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Emmet Sheehan, Blake Treinen, and Roki Sasaki. Shohei Ohtani had not yet thrown a pitch in a major-league game for Los Angeles. One of the reasons Friedman signed top-tier arms and bulked up the pitching staff in the offseason was to avoid last October’s injury-riddled journey to, eventually, hoisting the championship trophy. 

But, once again, the Dodgers’ rotation was in shambles. Their fans were panicking. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said midseason that he was confident all of their pitchers would return healthy, but the club was being cautious in case of setbacks. Rushing them back might hinder their availability for October, when the team would need the depth of those arms the most. The Dodgers can say they were just trying to avoid more stints on the IL. But slow-playing those pitcher injuries always seemed deliberate.

“A lot’s been made about us slow-playing,” Friedman said. “I don’t know how much it was slow-playing — there’s a lot of unknowns about injuries. We’re not going to sit here and pretend we know what exactly causes them. And the build-up to get back, for us, it’s about getting back to stay back. So it’s imperfect and it’s much more art than science. So we just erred a little bit more on the side of caution to give ourselves a better chance of when they come back to stay back.”

Being cautious was a risky strategy because by mid-June, the San Francisco Giants had tied the Dodgers atop the NL West. If the Dodgers didn’t get their act together, they were in danger of letting the division slip away. 

But division pennants and championships are not won in June, and the Dodgers knew Snell was on the verge of a healthy return, which is when things snapped into place for the rotation.

Since Aug. 2, the Dodgers boasted the best starting-pitching ERA (2.79) in baseball — and it has carried over into the postseason. They’re equipped with a well-rested rotation that’s sharper and fresher, at least in part because most of their top starters threw fewer competitive innings during the regular season. Sure, Yoshinobu Yamamoto went wire to wire. But Glasnow (90 innings pitched), Sasaki (36 IP), and Snell (61 IP) had plenty of stamina reserved for these taxing October starts. 

And it wasn’t a coincidence that they started playing their best once Snell rejoined the starting pitching staff. That, too, seemed premeditated. 

“For us, when we won last year, our focus and meetings were all about, okay, how do we win in 2025,” Friedman said. “And there were two big risk factors that we had seen looking back. One is complacency. You’ve reached the top of the mountain, you’re less hungry. I didn’t worry about that with our group. 

“The second is, usually to win 11 or 13 games in October, you have to really step on your pitching to do it. So for us, it was about how do we add some guys that are really hungry to our group that will do everything they can to win that final game of the season. And it ties back to Blake and just how much he wants this as well.”

‘Extra Hunger Wouldn’t Hurt’

Snell was the centerpiece of the Dodgers’ offseason additions. His on-paper value was pitching a 2.41 ERA in nine starts from when he came off the IL in August to the end of the regular season. Having won the Cy Young award and ERA title twice in his career, what drove Snell now was the hunger to win a World Series, something the 32-year-old has not yet accomplished. 

He spoke about that desire before the Dodgers offered him a $182-million, five-year deal last November. Snell emphasized to Friedman that he loves rising to the occasion in October moments. It was that intense fire that Friedman believed would rub off on the team when it most mattered. The Dodgers brass wasn’t worried about complacency from their players. But the way they saw it, a little extra hunger wouldn’t hurt. 

By early September, the Dodgers were again in a tight division race. They got swept by a pathetic Pirates team (ace Paul Skenes notwithstanding). The Padres were in close pursuit of the NL West crown. In Baltimore, after a walkoff loss, Roberts had seen enough. Though the manager tries to refrain from frequent team meetings so as not to minimize the impact of his words, he felt the Dodgers needed to be reminded of what they still had a chance to do. Forget the expectations. Move on from the recent lapses. Flip the switch. 

Then they won 15 of their next 20 games to end the season with a 93-69 record and a fourth consecutive NL West title. 

“I do think that when you intentionally try to focus and ramp up your focus, I do think that you can do that,” Roberts said when asked if the Dodgers intentionally turned it on as the calendar got closer to October. “It doesn’t always provide the results. But I hate saying there’s a switch you can flip on and off. It’s a dangerous way to live.”

For Los Angeles, getting to this point was just a matter of time. That was true even as the season tested the club’s strength and will to win at every turn. Even as they seemed to slog their way through the long regular season. Even when they went 9-1 in the first three rounds of the postseason. Even when they had a subdued on-field celebration after eliminating the Brewers from the playoffs and clinching their spot in the World Series.

Throughout all the ups and downs of the season, their untapped potential was being a ruthless juggernaut, bulldozing their way through the playoffs to the World Series, on the cusp of being repeat champions.

“I don’t think that exists,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said when asked if the Dodgers flipped a switch in October. “I think you play the game how you play the game, and it doesn’t matter the situation going on around you. You don’t really rise to the occasion. You kind of fall to your training. We train properly. We train hard every day. So there shouldn’t be much of a change when the game comes.”

It’s not that they’re tired of winning or celebrating. All this time, the Dodgers have been acting like they’ve been here before. This flip of the switch always felt inevitable, even if it wasn’t intentional.

“I don’t know that we have this (plan of) like, hey, let’s just take our foot off in the regular season and then step on it,” Friedman said. “I know it’s what it looks like, but it wasn’t anything conscious.”

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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TORONTO – When Don Mattingly steps onto the field for infield drills, the Blue Jays tense up. 

As Mattingly heads toward first base to catch, players know they have to be sharp. They can’t let Donnie Baseball down. 

“Every time he catches balls at first base, I’m nervous,” second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa told me at Rogers Centre on Thursday. “I’m throwing across to him, and just from my time with the Yankees, and all the stories I’ve heard about him, and what he’s meant to the organization, I get nervous to throw the ball to him. Being able to throw to him every day, it’s a special thing that I don’t take for granted.”

Mattingly is a living legend, and everyone around him knows it, even more so after he accomplished the one feat missing from his storied pilgrimage through baseball. Finally, after the Blue Jays clinched the American League pennant, Mattingly reached the World Series for the first time in his career. He did it after spending 36 years as a player, coach, and manager in the uniforms of the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays. 

“Man, I could sit here and talk about Donnie forever,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Donnie was my favorite player growing up. So to have him here in his first World Series with me is unbelievably special. But he’s done so many things behind the scenes to help get the staff prepared, and to really help the players get prepared for how we’re rolling out our lineup.”

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Mattingly takes his responsibilities as the Blue Jays bench coach just as seriously as his illustrious 14-year playing career for the Yankees. Famous for his intensity and dedication to his craft, that’s the same attitude he still takes to first base when he’s closely watching the Blue Jays work on their defense. 

He never takes a day off. Even Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doesn’t catch throws pregame as consistently as Mattingly does. Players have noted how impressive that is, especially at 64 years old. The last thing they want to do is disappoint one of the best first basemen to ever play the game. 

“When he’s out there catching balls for us every single day, that’s a nine-time Gold Glover catching balls for us,” Kiner-Falefa said. “So we’re out there making plays, but we know how much defense means to him. So we go out there with the intention of making him look good — and him not getting mad at us. We do everything we can to make him proud.”

Sure, Mattingly can be fiery; 19 career ejections as a manager have earned him that distinction. And he knows all about pressure and expectations, having played in pinstripes under George Steinbrenner in the Bronx. Players can feel and understand that tension — his demand for excellence — even today when they field ground balls in front of him. 

Some things never change.

“Anytime I make a bad throw, I’m like, ‘Ughhh. I made Donnie Baseball jump.’ It’s just a bad feeling whenever you have to make him move,” Kiner-Falefa said. “But when you do make a bad throw, and he picks it, it’s just like butter. It’s like, wow. He’s still got it.”

‘It was just like a relief’ 

How could he not? Mattingly, the 1985 MVP for the 97-win Yankees, was a six-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, and arguably the best franchise player who never reached the World Series. He thought the 1994 and ‘95 Yankees teams, led by Paul O’Neill, Wade Boggs, and Bernie Williams, had a real shot at winning a title. But the ‘95 Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs after the Seattle Mariners won Game 5 in the 11th inning of the Division Series. 

Mattingly retired after that October. Then the Yankees went on a dynastic run. They reached the World Series six times over the next eight years, winning the championship four times in that span. But Mattingly never stopped trying to win a championship, even if that’s not his only source of motivation these days. He accepted the bench coach job with the Jays not to win a ring, but to impart his knowledge of the game to a new generation in Toronto. Working alongside Schneider, then entering his second year as skipper, it seemed like a good fit. 

“I think you try to put it out of your mind, kind of,” Mattingly said of a World Series appearance eluding him until now. “You do what you do. You get ready. You get ready as a player, you get ready as a coach, or a manager. And then you try to get it to come together. You know how hard it is. In a sense, it was just like a relief, I guess. But I don’t know if that’s the right word. 

“But really, more just happy about getting there. Number one, having this opportunity. But again, it goes back to our team. Watching them play and how they’ve responded to everything and what we’ve had to do to get here has been fun.”

Mattingly’s stamp on the game hasn’t just shown up in the way the Blue Jays hit, field, and play. Since joining the organization in 2023, he has reminded the Blue Jays to keep their heads up during tough stretches. He has asked players to show up, no matter how painful last night’s loss was, or how dreadful the team had been playing. He appreciated that they listened to him, arriving to work with the same look on their faces before it finally translated into results. 

After finishing last in the AL East last year, the Blue Jays edged out the Yankees to win the division this year. Then they eliminated the Bronx Bombers, the only team Mattingly has ever played for, from the playoffs in the Division Series. Then they bounced the Mariners after a thrilling Game 7 in the Championship Series, which was fitting for Mattingly, since his Yankees lost to Seattle in the 1995 postseason. Even though Yankees fans have every reason to despise their Blue Jays, they’ve found themselves rooting for them – if only for Donnie Baseball to win his first ring. 

“It’s a really humbling feeling that people want that for you,” Mattingly said. 

‘I Believe in the Best Teams’ 

It’s not just Yankees fans — who included Mattingly in their traditional bleacher-creature roll call during the Division Series — that are happy to see the former first baseman enjoying the World Series stage. Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who infamously shared a heated interaction with Mattingly in the 2015 Division Series, is thrilled for his former manager. But that doesn’t mean he’s rooting for him to win. 

Mattingly managed Kershaw from 2011-15 with the Dodgers. Instantly, Kershaw understood that Mattingly was cut from the same cloth as Joe Torre, who managed Kershaw from 2008, his rookie year, through 2010. Both skippers knew just what to say at exactly the right time. There wasn’t a lot of hand holding or pats on the back. But from Mattingly, Kershaw learned what it’s like to play under a certain expectation. 

“Just do your job,” Kershaw said of Mattingly’s philosophy. “Baseball is awesome. It’s a lot of fun. But if you do your job, and everybody does their job, then you’ll be ready to go. Donnie just had that expectation for us to do our job. Nobody has to do more or less than what they’re asked to do. He didn’t have to tell us what to do. It’s what’s expected. You learn how to do things on your own a little bit. 

“For me, I loved it. It was a great way for me to figure out how to become a professional baseball player and get better.” 

After Mattingly helped make the Blue Jays better, the organization is four wins away from winning its first championship in 32 years. The only team standing in their way is the star-powered Dodgers, led by manager Dave Roberts. Coincidentally, Roberts also played a hand in stopping Mattingly from reaching the World Series when he launched the Red Sox comeback by stealing second base in the 2004 ALCS. Mattingly, who was the Yankees hitting coach that season, was one win away from reaching the World Series before Boston won the next four games.

Now, Mattingly has the chance to exact revenge on Roberts and the Dodgers for his first championship. It all feels like destiny. 

But not for Donnie Baseball, who trusts the work and the work alone. 

“I don’t know if I necessarily believe in destiny,” Mattingly told me. “I believe in the best teams and who plays the best.”

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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