TORONTO — Ernie Clement wasn’t supposed to be there. The prospect infielder, just two years into his professional career, was a late invite to Cleveland’s big-league spring training in 2019.
Clement was called in as an injury replacement for young shortstop Francisco Lindor. With Cleveland in need of another body days before spring drills began, clubhouse attendants ushered Clement over to the big-league locker room and pointed him to the office door of manager Terry Francona.
“Introduce yourself,” they said.
Clement had played just 147 minor-league games to that point, peaking in Double A. He hadn’t yet been designated for assignment, released, refound and beloved. He was raw and, admittedly, naive.
Francona was in the back room of his office, Clement was told, so he walked into the small room and opened the wooden door beside the manager’s desk. There was Francona, pants around his ankles and sitting on the toilet of his office washroom. Clement was aghast. He still doesn’t know why his initial instinct was to walk up to Francona, hold out his arm and shake the manager’s hand, but that’s what he did. It was all a blur.
“Oh my God, I was mortified,” Clement said. “He was dying laughing.”
Francona instantly fell in love with the young infielder’s inexplicable confidence. It’s something Clement, through three MLB stops and years of failure, never lost. It’s what’s led him from cast-off bench piece to key contributor and postseason hero for the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s led him, now, to his first All-Star Game, where he’ll start for the American League on July 14 in Philadelphia after earning more votes than Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. and every other AL star.
“Believing in myself the way I do,” Clement said, “I’m always ready for these opportunities. My mindset’s never changed.”
As Ernie Clement put it, “I’ve been released, I’ve been optioned more times than I can count.” (Kevin Sousa / Getty Images)
Clement, then a 22-year-old fourth-round pick with mediocre minor-league results, had essentially no shot of cracking Cleveland’s roster. Yet he took every practice rep with his “hair on fire,” minor-league teammate Mike Papi said, and “sprinted all over the ballpark.” In 29 spring at-bats, he notched seven hits, hit a homer and stole a base. He struck out just once.
Francona told Cleveland reporters at the time that Clement was “playing like he’s got a jet up his ass.” The manager, then 59, had a crudely photoshopped picture printed and taped to his office door to motivate the team. It didn’t feature Lindor, Carlos Santana or Shane Bieber. It depicted a grinning Clement, with a massive plane lodged up his … well, you can probably guess.
“He was pretty much saying, ‘I want all of my players to play like Ernie Clement,’” Papi said.
It didn’t work out for Clement in Cleveland. He struggled to hit in 103 MLB games across two seasons, was designated for assignment and then claimed by the Athletics. After six games and another two DFAs in Oakland, Clement was released.
“I think Ernie always knew how good he was,” Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins said. “Other people can doubt themselves at times in those positions. But, for Ernie, he got an opportunity to show exactly who he feels he’s been his entire career.”
The rest of the story, you probably know. He was signed by the Blue Jays in March 2023, entering another spring training he wasn’t supposed to be part of. The Jays, just like Cleveland four years prior, needed another infield body.
He mashed in Triple A Buffalo, hitting .348 with a .945 OPS. He earned his way onto his third MLB team, went from utility infielder to everyday starter, notched more hits in a postseason than any other player in MLB history and earned the screaming affection of a fanbase. Over 3.2 million votes later, Clement bested all other AL players by more than 300,000 votes, earning an automatic starting spot alongside NL vote leader Shohei Ohtani.
He’s a deserving All-Star, leading the AL in doubles and hitting nearly .300. But, manager John Schneider said, the voting support Clement earned is clearly a product of performance and personality. The infielder’s path from discarded to stardom, Schneider said, is something fans connect with.
“He’s kind of just like a man of the people,” Schneider said. “He’s a normal dude.”
The fact Clement hasn’t changed amid rising popularity, still walking to and from games and still laughing after successful Automated Ball-Strike challenges, only increases that bond between fanbase and player. In two cities, he was unceremoniously let go; in Toronto, thousands of fans lined up just for a chance to get his giveaway jersey.
“I’ve been released, I’ve been optioned more times than I can count,” Clement said after he was named an All-Star. “I stuck around long enough to earn more and more opportunity. I’m so grateful.”
Clement dripped with humility speaking about his All-Star nod in Toronto last week. “Thankful” and “grateful” were easily his most-used words. Still, his self-assurance was there. The Jays, he said, just let him “be Ernie.” That, it seems, is all it took.
Before his big-league debut, the infielder probably didn’t know he’d eventually set postseason records and earn almost as many All-Star votes as Ohtani one day. But, with the same unexplainable confidence that drew in Francona eight springs ago, Clement always knew he’d get pretty far. His story may be inspiring for other cast-off quad-A players, but for Clement, this is how things were supposed to go.
“I’ve always believed in myself,” Clement said. “I tell myself, if I’m on the field, I’m going to take advantage.”
Some people wear their confidence on their sleeve. Clement wears it on his head. The infielder has a cycle of hats he puts on before and after games, but none is worn more often than the cream cap with a red brim.
Three words are written on the front of that hat; three words that sum up the infielder’s consistent mentality, from Francona’s bathroom to the Midsummer Classic:
“Never a doubt.”