National Post (National Edition)
Schneider is the Jays’ prospect whisperer
COACH KNOWS PLENTY ABOUT VLADDY, BO AND BIGGIO
John Schneider walked across the parking lot the other day, stopped and took a moment for himself — a moment trapped in his own thoughts, a moment or more to take it all in.
“It was emotional,” the Blue Jays first-year coach said. “I came last year as the Double A manager and came for a few weeks, taking it all in, then gone. Now you’re here and you’re not going across the street later. When we leave to go up north, you’re going up north, too.”
And now Schneider is here, one of nine coaches on manager Charlie Montoyo’s staff, but in a truly different position than anyone else on staff. In a way he is Montoyo’s eyes and ears and at times a voice who can best explain Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio and Danny Jansen — the best of the Blue Jays prospects — because he’s been there with all of them.
He managed Guerrero twice, Bichette twice, Jansen twice, Biggio three times. He can’t wait to see all of them joining him in the big leagues.
Jansen is first in line, obviously having started the final month or so last season. On former general manager Jim Bowden’s list of the Top 200 prospects in baseball, he listed Jansen at 59, one of eight Blue Jays designates to have his name mentioned. Guerrero, to the surprise of almost no one, was first on the list.
Schneider, like all Blue Jays, won’t say when Guerrero will be called up for good and starting at third base — that’s the rather silly mystery of this spring training — but he does know Guerrero better than anyone in the Jays organization.
That and his ability to speak Spanish may be the reason why he’s on Montoyo’s staff. His book on Guerrero is uplifting and typically exciting.
What makes Vladdy so special? “The person that he is, the worker that he is, the teammate that he is,” Schneider said. “I’m impressed by how much fun he has every day, by how hard he works on his defence, by how much information he shares with his teammates. Everyone has seen the numbers and his exit velocity numbers — but it’s so much more than that.
“I watched it every day. I lived it. It didn’t catch me off guard. If anything, it opened my eyes. We’ve got something pretty special here.” It’s only a matter of when. Unlike Guerrero Jr., with an unspoken plan for his arrival with the Jays, there is no set timetable for Bo Bichette, listed as baseball’s 12th prospect on Bowden’s list. Schneider figures Bichette to be a major league hitter of consequence and good enough defensively to be an every day shortstop in the future.
“He’s an ultra-competitor with everything he does. Whether it’s baseball, tennis, golf, ping- pong or tic-tac-toe, he wants to win and pushes hard to win,” Schneider said. “He has elite batting skills. His swing can cover a lot of the zone. And the thing that jumps out at me (is that) he’s a tireless worker.
“He’s really good at understanding what he’s good at and what he needs to improve on ... We challenged him last year to improve his backhand play in the hole. We told him if you want to be a gold-glove shortstop, you need to get better at that. And over time, we saw improvements. When you’re that competitive at something, the work you put in is going to take care of itself.”
There is no rush for Bichette to make the team. He turns 21 in a few weeks. “The thing with Bo, he strives to be great. He doesn’t want to be just another player. He wants to be something better than that.”
This will not be a great season for the Blue Jays.
But it should be a season of discovery. Just what will Guerrero Jr. do and when will he start doing it? Just how long before Bichette is ready to play shortstop in the big leagues?
And what about Cavan Biggio, son of hall- of- famer Craig Biggio? He’s not the sure thing Guerrero is. He’s not the certainty Bichette is. He’s moved up to 70th on Bowden’s list of prospects because he’s coming off a sensational season playing for Schneider at Double A.
“What I like about Cavan is he’s a gamer,” Schneider said. “He’s a really intelligent kid. He came in with a plan and he executed it. You can’t say he came out of nowhere, but a lot of credit for him for building himself in this. He worked his way into being the MVP of our league.”
There are others Schneider is excited about — young fireballers, Nate Pearson and Eric Pardinho; starters T. J. Zeuch and Sean Reid-Foley; infielders Kevin Smith and Santiago Espinal, to name a few.
When the Blue Jays head north to Montreal before opening up in Toronto in late March, it’s possible none of these kids, Jansen aside, will be with them. That will change in April, maybe in May, almost certainly in June.