\u201cHe puts his ego aside\u00a0\u2014 if he even has an ego,\u201d says closer Louis Varland. \u201cHe\u2019s willing to do whatever it is for the team as long as the team wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s that kind of guy, which is the best ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernie Clement, All-Star?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one more honorific awaiting Clement, an appropriate coda to a year that saw him crowned a postseason hero, a WBC rep and Monroe County king for a day.<\/p>\n
Clement leads all primary AL second basemen in average (.300), OPS (.771), slugging and wRC+ (113). His first trip to the All-Star Game would seem to be in order, particularly with a Blue Jays fan base clicking his name however many times their Rogers 5G Internet will allow.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the next logical step for a player maximizing his window.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a guy who has been DFA\u2019d,\u201d says Gausman, \u201cI feel like I have a different appreciation for it. There aren\u2019t many guys who get that many second chances, especially as a position player, unfortunately.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that really, from the day he came over, everybody knew the talent he had. His unique ability to not strike out. But you\u2019ve seen him get more comfortable, more confident. Success comes with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s turned himself into such a complete player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clement has essentially grown up with this Blue Jays team, allowed runway by manager John Schneider to produce 3.3 WAR in their 88-loss 2024 season, and then turning into a 30-hit monster in the 2025 postseason.<\/p>\n
As success came, so, too, did a certain freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I\u2019ve been here, they haven\u2019t tried to change who I am and the kind of hitter I am. They let me be me,\u201d says Clement. \u201cSchneids and all the hitting coaches I\u2019ve had here have helped me lean into my strengths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe puts his ego aside\u00a0\u2014 if he even has an ego,\u201d says closer Louis Varland. \u201cHe\u2019s willing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[29420,29421,48],"class_list":["post-71705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-dcc","tag-lee-national","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}