John Schneider has paid his dues and now he’s reaping the rewards

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DUNEDIN, Fla. — As the Blue Jays prepare for a season of celebrations honouring the team’s 50th season, there’s another notable anniversary that won’t get near the attention or hoopla.

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That would be the 25th anniversary season of John Schneider, the team’s current manager and former longshot catching prospect who has known no other baseball employer.

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Drafted by the Jays way back in the 13th round of the 2002 draft, Schneider never did make it to the big leagues as a player. He has managed at just about every level in the Jays farm system, however, and as he prepares to begin his fourth full season as big league skipper, the New Jersey native is one of the longest-serving baseball men in the organization.

“I feel like I bleed Blue Jays blue,” Schneider said in our one-on-one interview here, a chat that meandered through a number of topics relating to the reigning American League champions.

“It’s wild for me. My entire adult life, basically, has been here. Where they were 25 years ago and where they are now, to see the evolution of this organization and for it to be highlighted right now with how we’re viewed around the industry, is really cool.”

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For Schneider, it’s testament to his drive and ability to carve a career for himself. When it was clear playing pro ball wasn’t going to carry him far, he was pragmatic enough to recognize it was time to shift if he hoped to retain baseball as a profession.

He coached (and won) at multiple levels of the minor league system, was lottery-level fortunate to be able to hitch his wagon to budding prospects Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, was eventually promoted to the big leagues and now is the fourth-winningest manager in franchise history with 303 victories. (Schneider should easily move into third this season passing the 355 of hall of famer Bobby Cox.)

“Where I am now, it’s definitely different than where I was in 2023 (his first full season as manager) and that just comes with experience,” Schneider told us. “It comes with being familiar with people and not being afraid to have uncomfortable conversations.

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“When you get the job, you’re very thankful and you want to make everybody happy. After you’ve done it for a bit and have some success and some failures, you say ‘Okay, this is exactly how I want to be.’”

That authenticity was on display in a breakthrough 2025 season for the team and for Schneider, who finished second in balloting for American League manager of the year. For the first time since taking over from Charlie Montoyo midway through the 2022 campaign, he appeared to have the full trust of his players and it showed.

Schneider’s future is bright — and potentially lucrative — which is where we’ll begin.

Soon to be highest-paid manager in Jays history?

In the final year of his contract — one that was extended by a year prior to 2025 — Schneider could soon find himself the highest-paid manager in club history.

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He acknowledged that there have been serious talks at an extension, the timing being excellent for Schneider given the success of last season.

“I’m totally focused on the here and now in 2026,” Schneider told us when we queried about his future. “I feel like there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

That said, the 46-year-old acknowledged there have been some meaningful discussions with team president Mark Shapiro (who signed a multi-year extension with owner Rogers Communications in the offseason) and general manager Ross Atkins.

Schneider certainly seemed confident something would get done and potentially soon. Whether it lands him a lucrative deal remains to be seen, given that the Jays have some bargaining power of their own.

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“We definitely have had really productive back and forth and hopefully we get something done. Ross and Mark and (Rogers CEO Edward Rogers) they all know I (want to be here) and that’s kind of it.

“I think things will take care of itself, really. And I think if I put my focus on (negotiations), I’m just doing everyone here a disservice.

“And that’s kind of it. I’m comfortable where we are and I’m very hopeful something will get done.”

Message to this year’s team

Losing a World Series in Game 7 not only leaves a mark, it puts a target on a team’s back.

After a last-to-first season the sent a jolt of rejuvenation to the team and its coast-to-coast fan base, the Jays will go from hunters to the hunted in 2026, a point made in Schneider’s start-of-camp address.

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The manager knows every player on that team won’t forget what happened in that incredible World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Among the challenges is empowering them to take the next step.

“It was not ignoring what we accomplished last year, but then definitely saying we’re not defending anything,” Schneider said of his managerial address when camp broke some five weeks ago. “We’re not defending the American League East or the American League.

“We’re attacking this year like it’s a new year.”

With that in mind, Schneider made sure to acknowledge and accentuate the good of 2025, a magical season that captivated not just the country, but a good portion of Major League Baseball.

“There were a lot of things that we did really well last year that we have to continue to do, and some things that we want to try to change a little,” Schneider said. “There’s always room to get better.

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“The expectations have been raised, and I think the notoriety for different guys has changed, but I don’t want them to change what they do and what makes us a good team.”

It will be impossible to ignore the expectations, beginning with the AL championship banner raising at the Rogers Centre on March 27. And it’s been more than three decades since the team was regarded with such esteem around baseball.

“I think that we have the right group of players to really embrace it, and I think that it’s earned,” Schneider said.

“When you play well, and not just last year, but I think we’ve played well for the last handful of years, people understand that we’re pretty good. They have to handle it. They have to know people are going to give us their best shot every night.”

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Schneider’s anniversary memories

It will be a season of reminiscing as the Jays fete the 50th anniversary, an overload of looking back at the highlights and follies of what is now Canada’s only MLB franchise.

With that in mind, we asked Schneider to share his top personal memories of his quarter century with the team, as incredible as that span seems to him.

“When I was drafted in 2002, it was a weird time in the organization’s history with new ownership and different uniforms, that kind of stuff,” Schneider said (as an understatement). “But the biggest ones for me really were transitioning to coaching and managing and being the youngest manager in the minor leagues at one point, which was really cool.”

There was the year in Vancouver managing the single-A Canadians in 2015 when he started to regularly text Jays pitching coach Pete Walker, a working relationship that would eventually become the tight bond it is today.

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“To come full circle and leading the team to go further than they have (since the World Series titles in 1992 and ’93) is surreal to me,” Schneider said.

Along the way there were highlights, no matter what level he was working. There was Jose Bautista’s bat flip (in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS), Edwin Encarnacion’s walkoff homer (in the 2016 AL wildcard) and the big trade deadline deals of 2015 that brought David Price and Troy Tulowitzki to town.

“That kind of shifted things,” Schneider said, acknowledging that his first 13 years as a Jays employee weren’t exactly brimming with optimism and accomplishment.

“From there, getting Mark and Ross here and seeing how they operate compared to the way it was, and you could really feel a change in attention to detail quickly. It was new, for a lot of people, myself included.”

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Then there was being named to the big league staff under the title “major league coach” prior to the 2019 season, the day after Grayson, his second son, was born. That led to his managerial career, the highs and lows that went with it and of course, the non-stop moments from last year’s playoffs.

“George (Springer’s) home run. Bo’s home run. Game 7,” Schneider said rattling off just some of the indelible moments from last fall. “I mean experiencing that in real time was wild. Just living through the magnitude all of that — and being a part of it — was incredible.”

Will this be the season of Vlad?

Like everyone associated with the Jays, Schneider was captivated by Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s performance at the World Baseball Classic, a run that ended with Sunday’s 2-1 semifinal loss to the U.S. in Miami.

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Few know the all-star first baseman better than Schneider, who can’t help but dream on massive things ahead for the slugger, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Monday.

“I’m glad that he’s back in that environment (of the WBC), after what he did in the postseason,” Schneider said of Guerrero’s prolific run for the Dominican Republic. “I think his best years are in front of him, which is crazy to say after 2021 and ’24 and even last year’s postseason.

“I think he’s at the right spot to really take another step forward.”

Schneider has been there for almost every meaningful moment on the wild Vlad ride.

“To watch him go from a teenager as the No. 1 prospect to this, I’ve been very fortunate to be with him all the way,” the manager said. “From home run derbies and all star games and the playoffs. It’s been really cool to watch him grow as a player and as a leader.

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“He’s the face of the franchise. You never really expect that when you meet someone as a teenager, but you kind of knew he had a different way about him. I’m just so thankful to be around him every day.”

Schneider can’t help but dream on what a mammoth Guerrero season could do for his team’s aspirations of getting back to the World Series.

“That’s season changing,” Schneider said. “If you go from regular season Vlad to post season Vlad last year … so hopefully he can continue what he’s doing. He has the understanding of how important he is to this team and this country and he can handle it.”

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How has Schneider grown as a manager?

Results aside, 2025 was a massive year for Schneider as a big league manager as he became more comfortable in doing things his way and making sure his voice was heard.

That level of assertiveness helped define who he was as a leader and certainly seemed to resonate in the clubhouse.

“Reps is everything and having done it a little bit longer, I went into the regular season just saying, ‘OK, I want to be exactly who I am,’” Schneider said. “Be totally transparent with everybody — players, staff, front office, media, everyone.

“The biggest area was just the communication part of it, and understanding how hard the guys’ job is, and trusting people, especially when you get into the postseason, really comes through.”

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In other words, Schneider vowed not to be wishy-washy with his players. Having grown from the debacle of having removed Jose Berrios early from a 2023 playoff game in Seattle that led some to surmise the decision was made by the baseball operations crew.

“There’s so much data and numbers and information that is very, very valuable, and I think that you always have to keep that in consideration,” Schneider said. “But when you get into pressure-packed moments, and you get into high stakes games, you really want to trust the person, and that takes a lot of work.

“It takes a lot of conversations throughout the year. And I think that’s where I grew the most, with everyone kind of understanding exactly where I was in my decision-making process. And I think that really helped last year.”

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Getting there was recognizing that the trust takes work. Veterans aren’t going to buy-in until they believe the manager has earned it. And then there’s the matter of being authentic is important currency.

“When you start in this job, it’s hard to really let that come through immediately,” Schneider said. “It takes some time, and you have to earn it.

“I totally understand where I was in my managerial career in ’23 and ’24 and it takes some time to go through some ups and downs, bumps in in the road and things like that, and you learn from it.”

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“People ask me, ‘What’s the difference last year compared to the year before or two years before?’” Schneider said. “And I think it’s where we arrived at last year, really identifying what was important to us on the field, in the clubhouse, off the field, it took some time to get there.

“And I think that when you match that with our payroll flexibility, the talent that we have, there’s only one way to go.”

In Schneider’s mind, signing Guerrero to that historic, 14-year US$500-million extension last year became the strongest signal yet.

“With locking Vlad up, you know we’re going to be competitive,” Schneider said. “We have a market to do it. We have a fan base to support us, and we’re not a small-market team. It’s like we have taken a step forward as an organization.”

rlongley@postmedia.com

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