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<\/p>\nBateman was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the eighth round of the 2023 MLB draft. After spending two years in Chicago\u2019s minor-league system he started 2026 with the triple-A Iowa Cubs.<\/p>\n
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He was traded along with infielder Ty Southisene to Toronto on Aug. 2 for former Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman. After a handful of games with Toronto\u2019s triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y., he was called up to the majors on Aug. 7 to fill in for injured infielder Luis Urias.<\/p>\n
Bateman\u2019s very first MLB hit was a double off of Phillies ace Zack Wheeler in the Blue Jays\u2019 5-4 win over Philadelphia in his debut game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great having success early, but this is also a game of failure,\u201d said Bateman, staying philosophical. \u201cI think being a rookie and facing guys like Wheeler and Aaron Nola and Jesus Luzardo, the first three guys I faced, the odds are stacked against you when you go in the box.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you can go up there, put up a good at bat, put some barrels on it, you\u2019re going to be happy at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old centre-fielder has impressed his new teammates in his five games with the Blue Jays. Manager John Schneider, who had Bateman hitting second in the lineup on Tuesday, said the rookie is an easy guy to like.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor one, he\u2019s all business, but has a side to him that\u2019s kind of one of the guys, and that\u2019s hard to do when you\u2019re coming to a new team and making your debut and things like that,\u201d said Schneider at his post-game news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to feel involved, have some key moments early in your career, and probably loosens you up a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s been great, man. He\u2019s been a great add.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting pitcher Dylan Cease, the new cornerstone of Toronto\u2019s rotation with Gausman playing for Chicago, was also impressed with Bateman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been great. He\u2019s looked good,\u201d said Cease, who struck out seven, allowing three runs on five hits and four walks over five innings on Tuesday. \u201cPutting the ball in play, a couple clutch hits, two-out hits, some RBIs.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bateman was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the eighth round of the 2023 MLB draft. After spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-855224","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\/855224","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=855224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}