Blue Jays Hire Barefoot Baserunning Coach Mike Roberts
SkimNews Take
When teams convert baserunning judgment into written policy, they remove the contextual read that makes the skill valuable in the first place — turning a win-or-lose moment into a question of which checklist the runner followed.
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- Isiah Kiner-Falefa was thrown out at the plate by inches in the ninth inning of Game 7 with the score tied 4-4, bases loaded, one out, and Daulton Varsho at the plate; he said Blue Jays coaches instructed him to take a short lead and smaller secondary lead as 'organizational policy,' adding, 'I did what I was told.'
- Addison Barger was doubled off second base in Game 6 on a line drive to Dodgers left fielder Enrique Hernandez, ending the game on a 7-4 putout — the first such finish in postseason history and Toronto's second notable baserunning blunder of the World Series.
- The Toronto Blue Jays hired 76-year-old Mike Roberts as a special baserunning instructor this spring, partly because they were tied for last in MLB in the advanced metric 'holds' (extra bases taken once a ball is put in play), alongside the Yankees and Cardinals.
- Mike Roberts teaches barefoot — a method he learned from Florida Southern coach Hal Smeltzly in the early 1980s — telling players the point is to 'feel the ground, to come out of the ground like a catcher coming off his knees to throw.'
- Brian Roberts, Mike's son and a former Orioles second baseman, stole 285 bases at an 80% success rate across 13 MLB seasons and pioneered the 'jump lead' — a hop that generates momentum before the pitcher delivers; Rangers/Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler told him, 'I learned to steal third by watching you play against us.'
- Former manager Joe Maddon said analytics-driven organizations spent roughly a decade de-emphasizing baserunning instruction in the minor leagues because getting picked off or making outs on the bases was treated as the 'mortal sin' in analytic journals, though new rules (bigger bases, the three-engagement rule) are reviving the discipline.
- Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, one of the game's best baserunners, said he would have read the Game 7 situation differently: with a left-handed hitter at the plate and the third baseman positioned where a back pick was unlikely, 'I'm going to opt on the side of being aggressive as opposed to the unlikely potential of two negative things happening.'
Why it matters: Toronto's Game 7 loss crystallized a league-wide problem Joe Maddon identified: analytics-driven organizations spent a decade treating baserunning outs as a 'mortal sin' and de-emphasized teaching it. The Blue Jays' response — hiring Mike Roberts, whose son Brian invented the jump lead technique now used by top base stealers — signals how new rules (bigger bases, the three-engagement limit) are forcing a baserunning renaissance across MLB.
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