Shane Bieber’s quick signing reflects the cohesion of the Toronto Blue Jays

Crushing losses in the playoffs come in all shapes and sizes, regardless of the round. Afterwards, players and other staff complain that they are falling short and not performing at their biggest moment.

For the Toronto Blue Jays, the moment to regret these things came after they came within two outs of winning the World Series and ultimately lost their grip on a title in the 11th inning.

It was the kind of title that captivated an entire country and a large segment of American baseball fans, who had different interests in mind and weren’t hoping that Don Mattingly could win it all, or that any other team could win.

The Blue Jays played 18 postseason games, starting with two blowouts of the Yankees in the Division Series and followed by an enthralling victory in Game 7 of the ALCS over the Seattle Mariners, another team, who played 12 enthralling postseason games to get to the brink of their first World Series appearance.

The more the Blue Jays played, the more apparent it became to the national audience of the teams’ closeness. While talent can overcome a lack of personality cohesion, teams that get this far don’t have that cohesion.

It shows up in different ways, but for the Blue Jays it was immediately apparent and even more so in the wake of Jeff Hoffman allowing an improbable two-strike, tying homer to ninth-place hitter Miguel Rojas and Shane Bieber allowing a tiebreaking homer to Will Smith in the 11th.

In the comments passed along and published by those who were there, it was quite clear how close a team these Blue Jays were in 2025 and will always be remembered.

An example of this is how Ernie Clement struggled to hold back tears when he said the following:

“I’ve probably been crying for an hour. I thought I was done with the tears, but I just love these guys so much. “I had so much fun coming to work every day and fighting with these guys. We have so much to be proud of, even if things didn’t go the way we wanted. All I care about is spending a few more hours with these guys.”

A few days later, the Blue Jays learned that Bieber would remain with the team for at least another year by picking up his $16 million option. Bieber could easily have decided to test the open marker and would likely have some suitors after posting a 3.57 ERA in seven starts after returning from Tommy John surgery and a 3.86 ERA in his five postseason appearances.

It was also clear that Bieber and others felt the connection of a team with unfinished business when he spoke after Game 7.

Lots of intangibles. Some things are hard to describe,” Bieber told reporters at the time. The perseverance. The togetherness. They pull together. It’s not just one man, it’s the entire clubhouse.”

And it wasn’t just players, but their families too. Bieber’s wife wrote a post on Instagram about falling in love with baseball again and it seemed to echo what the players showed in their post-game comments.

It was also a subtle difference from last season’s losing clubhouse after the Dodgers claimed Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were certainly a tight-knit group as they won their first pennant since 2009, but the biggest storyline following their crushing 7-6 loss involved Juan Soto, who was eyeing the title of most talked about free agent in 2024.

Soto’s comments reflected the disappointment of not winning his second World Series and the Yankees’ first since 2009. There also seemed to be an air of someone walking on his way out as he responded in a carefully guarded tone.

The pitch included comments about anyone wanting to be part of a winning team and that he would be available to all 30 teams and investigate what offers would be presented. The Blue Jays eventually became one of those teams offer a contract before Soto took the 15-year-old for $765 million to join the Mets.

Once Soto chose the Mets, the Blue Jays eventually figured out how to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who continually said and showed he was ready for these big moments of the postseason. Guerrero would have been in his penultimate season of free agency this postseason, but signed a $500 million contract in the first few weeks. It seemed to pave the way for the Blue Jays’ cohesion, who took about two months to really get going, got the better of the Yankees in July and played a huge role in one of the most compelling World Series matchups in recent memory and likely a contributing factor to Bieber deciding he wanted to return.