Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> minor-league infielder Josh Kasevich, who\u2019s renowned throughout the halls of Toronto\u2019s player development complex for demonstrating the most relentless work ethic in the organization<\/p>\n\u201cThat was something we talked about with him,\u201d said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. \u201cToning it down with the number of reps that he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good luck with that. Kasevich was a two-way player as a dean\u2019s list freshman at Oregon before leading the team in games played as a sophomore and heading to a wood-bat summer league immediately afterward to play more. He returned from college baseball\u2019s COVID-19 shutdown with 10 added pounds of muscle from backyard workouts. He learned how to juggle in an effort to improve his hands defensively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A couple off-seasons ago, the Blue Jays challenged Kasevich to increase his power. His response was to rent a place in Dunedin so he could train daily at the club\u2019s complex \u2014 aside from a trip to Driveline for additional work\u00a0\u2014 where he increased his peak exit velocity by over five miles per hour.<\/p>\n
Eric Duncan, the one-time Yankees prospect entering his first season as Toronto\u2019s field coordinator, calls Kasevich \u201ca coach\u2019s dream\u201d \u2014 the kind of player who sets the standard of commitment and effort for an entire team. Duncan began working with him in 2023, when he joined the organization as a minor-league coordinator. He compares Kasevich to an \u201cA\u201d student who doesn\u2019t stop studying until the test begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s a pretty special dude when it comes to work, commitment, focus, all that stuff. He’s off the charts in those areas,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cBut I think sometimes that can take away from how dynamic he is on the field. He hits the ball real hard. He can play multiple spots. And he’s pretty freaking athletic, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kasevich\u2019s most noticeable tool is his feel for contact. He whiffs less often than anyone in Toronto\u2019s organization this side of Ernie Clement, with contact rates regularly sitting just south of 90 per cent over his minor-league career. Then there\u2019s the discipline. He\u2019s walked (110 times) nearly as often as he\u2019s struck out (141) since turning pro, limiting chase to a 90th percentile rate at triple-A in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defensively, he\u2019s spent time at all three infield positions to the left of first base, and the Blue Jays have long been baffled by the tepid grades his glovework\u2019s received from outside evaluators. He isn\u2019t a flashy, highlight-reel defender. But there\u2019s seldom a makable play he doesn\u2019t convert. And every so often, he\u2019ll do things like this:<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been impressed with him. Not just at the plate, but in the field and on the bases,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cLike I tell all these guys, I want to see your whole game. I want to see your awareness, your baseball IQ, how you’re running the bases, your game clock, how you get better. And he’s been really good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question has always been Kasevich\u2019s game power and whether he can generate enough of it to last in the majors. Taking more chances with his “A” swing early in plate appearances and creating more loft have been developmental focuses for years. And, in 2024, he found a way to access his top-end power more often, running a 90th percentile average exit velocity of 104.2-m.p.h., which ranked among the top quarter of triple-A hitters.<\/p>\n
Pairing that more consistent thump with the right movement patterns to generate more optimal ball flight in the air \u2014\u00a0Kasevich\u2019s groundball rates have long hovered around 50 per cent \u2014 was meant to be a next step in 2025. He reported for his first big-league camp early, filling a locker next to his best friend, Alan Roden, who was likewise on the cusp of an MLB debut. That\u2019s when everything changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of the hardest years of my life,\u201d Kasevich said, of 2025. \u201cI got tested \u2014 over and over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
It started with a back issue in early March. Kasevich had dealt with some soreness in the area on and off throughout camp, but never anything worse than what most athletes experience from the daily stress they put on their cores. Then, on a swing in his first at-bat of his fifth game of spring, it gave out. He\u2019d developed a stress fracture of the L2 vertebra, likely the result of overuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even know you could do that,\u201d he said. \u201cThey told me to rest it for two weeks. And I\u2019m like, \u2018All right, two weeks \u2014 that\u2019s not that bad.\u2019 And then they\u2019re like, \u2018That\u2019s when you can begin your very slow ramp up.\u2019\u00a0And I was like, \u2018Oh, no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuck on the 60-day injured list with strict instructions not to do anything that would impact his spine, Kasevich showed up to the Blue Jays complex and looked around the club\u2019s vast weight room at every piece of strength and conditioning equipment an athlete could ever desire \u2014 99 per cent of which he couldn\u2019t use. Toronto\u2019s rehab staff allowed him only one reprieve: the elliptical.<\/p>\n
Within days, Kasevich was wearing the machine out, progressively pushing his heart rate higher to see how much intensity he could tolerate and how long he could sustain the pace for. He\u2019d go as hard as he could for 20 minutes, trying to spend as much time as possible in Zone 5 \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s over 90 per cent of your maximum heart rate \u2014\u00a0as measured by his activity tracker. Then he\u2019d take a break and go again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was done with that, at least I felt like I did something that day,\u201d he said. \u201cI used to see my dad on it back home, and I would be like, \u2018What are you doing? Get on a treadmill or something.\u2019 But I get it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he wasn\u2019t testing the limits of his body\u2019s ability to clear lactate from the blood stream, Kasevich was in Toronto\u2019s hitting lab, tracking endless pitches off a Trajekt machine without ever swinging at them. Each day, rehab hitting coach Matt Young dialled up whichever starter the Blue Jays were facing and the pair worked on Kasevich\u2019s understanding of the strike zone over a series of mock plate appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And each night, Kasevich would flip on Toronto\u2019s game to see how it played out in real life. He also lived each game vicariously through Roden, who broke camp with the Blue Jays and hung around until he was demoted in late May. The two spoke regularly about Roden\u2019s experience in his first taste of the big leagues and the hitting approaches he was taking into each day\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love how he thinks about baseball and thinks about hitting,\u201d Kasevich said. \u201cI\u2019d watch him all the time. I\u2019d watch all the affiliate games, too. My wife got a little bit annoyed with how much we would be watching baseball. As soon as I\u2019d get home, it was like, \u2018All right, what game can we turn on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, by late May, Kasevich was cleared to return to play, beginning with a three-game complex league stint before his rehab assignment shifted to single-A Dunedin. But while playing shortstop during his fifth game back, Kasevich and third baseman Tucker Toman converged on a groundball between them, didn\u2019t communicate, and collided.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both went flying. Kasevich landed on his right wrist. He didn\u2019t notice anything at first, but when he went out to warm up an inning later, he tried to throw a ball and couldn\u2019t. He\u2019d fractured his radial styloid \u2014\u00a0the small, pointed projection where thumb meets wrist. And it was going to need six weeks to heal.<\/p>\n
So, back he went to the elliptical, the pitch tracking work, the endless stream of baseball games consumed while passing time at home. He dove into faith with his wife, Makaela, embracing religion more than ever before. He got into cooking, grilling steaks and composing pasta dishes. He sought out any positive distraction he could find to get his mind off the fact his body wouldn\u2019t let him do what he loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in a blender,\u201d he said. \u201cI never want to see an elliptical again. I really don’t like cardio. That’s why I play baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, in late August, four-and-a-half months after he was expecting to, Kasevich began his triple-A season on a warm Friday night by grounding into a forceout on the first pitch he saw. He laced a single to right his next time up, but the rest of the season was a struggle as he hit .173\/.272\/.184, the rust he\u2019d accumulated over five-plus months of rehab proving difficult to shake.<\/p>\n
Even at the Arizona Fall League, where Kasevich was sent to make up for lost time, he wasn\u2019t himself. The results were better \u2014 .255\/.419\/.255 with one of the best contact rates on the circuit \u2014 yet the feeling in the box wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought in my mind that everything was right. I would tell myself I’m good to go and just grateful to be back on the field,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I’m going into the game, I never want to think that they have the edge. But, looking back, I was definitely a little bit overmatched at that point. It constantly felt like I was trying to play catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duncan, Kasevich\u2019s AFL manager with the Glendale Desert Dogs, doesn\u2019t necessarily view that as a bad thing. That\u2019s because every time he\u2019s seen Kasevich make considerable jumps throughout his career, it\u2019s been the product of challenges like those.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s completely committed and accepting that you have to be uncomfortable to progress and to grow,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cSo, his work is really fun to watch because there’s a very regimented routine aspect of it. But there’s also always parts like, ‘Hey, I’m going to get uncomfortable here. I’m going to challenge myself. And I’m going to face some really tough environments in my work, both on offence and defence, that allows real growth to happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And maybe it did. This spring, Kasevich is 8-for-21 with a couple walks and no strikeouts. His 55.6 per cent hard-hit rate ranks fifth among Blue Jays to put at least 10 balls in play. He\u2019s whiffed only five times on 33 swings. He\u2019s been defensively sound \u2014 playing with his wedding date, Nov. 9, 2025, stitched into his glove \u2014 at both shortstop and third base.<\/p>\n
In some ways, he\u2019s right back where he was at this time last spring \u2014\u00a0living at the Blue Jays player development complex, preparing for a triple-A season, well within reach of a long-awaited major-league debut. A year has passed and things don\u2019t look too different on the surface. But people like Kasevich work the way they do because they\u2019re never satisfied being the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really grateful just to be back on the field. This is what I love to do. And when that’s taken away, it’s really, really difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, at the same time, you gain a lot of perspective. And a new appreciation for the joy of being able to go out there and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUNEDIN, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Spend enough time around baseball, and you\u2019ll hear the same descriptors over and over again. That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-524598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}