Ben Nicholson-Smith

I'm not sure how well regarded he is on that front, but

The offense from a backup catcher, you almost take what you can get and hope for the best.

But if he's seen as a really good defender who can step into a major league environment, learn on the fly, and adapt, then you're probably more comfortable taking on risk when it comes to losing a veteran catcher.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, ultimately it's not like you can go around and, you know, ask everybody what their opinion is either.

So you almost have to, this is where it's like the day-to-day communication of just understanding, okay, do they like working with this guy?

Is it working?

Am I getting, you know, I don't want to say complaints because it's a professional environment.

I don't think that they're out there, you know,

You're talking badly behind each other's back, but you got to get a read on it because, yeah, you're not going to send around, you know, anonymous pull on it and have the have the players.

And I know you're not saying that, but, you know, you got to you got to make that call.

And you've got to as the front office and the coaching staff, you've got to make that best determination based on how you think those interactions go.

Everybody in the clubhouse gets like a Google form.

For roster building by, yeah, why not?

Anonymous polling.

Someone should give it a shot.

Maybe, yeah, maybe not this 2026 Blue Jays, but I would love to see that.

I would say Cease is possibly closest based on John Schneider saying there's a chance it could be one and done.

And clearly he has the biggest impact potential.

We've seen that already in the first couple months of the season, fully expect him to be an impact starting pitcher going forward.