A Little Bit of Everything
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What was Ben’s experience covering the Blue Jays on trade deadline day in Houston?
It's at The Letters for Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. Arden Swelling and Ben Nicholson-Smith. Our producer is Christian Shenidi. Thanks so much for listening. Ben, you are our man on the ground. You are in Houston with the team. You were with them throughout the trade deadline on Monday, reporting, breaking, responding, reacting, all of the Rs and the 1B in there as well. Just where is your energy level at today?
How are you feeling coming off of what you went through on Monday? Well, as you know, it's very busy. The energy level is on the lower side combined with just a certain amount of relief of, hey, this is done. We're through to the other side of it. I came up at MLB Trade Rumors. I love baseball trades and transactions. Even with that being said, it's a really intense period of time. And for me, you know, I was, Caleb Joseph asked me and Shai the other day, he was like, how many times do you think you check Twitter on deadline day? And my estimate was 400 or 450, somewhere in there, where it's just like... constantly, constantly checking, which is not great for, uh, one state of mind, but it was, uh, a really, really interesting day.
The blue Jays did some really interesting things. And, um, it was also a really emotional day for the team and for a lot of people around the team, just given the kind of transition that happened. So there's a lot there that we can get into, but yeah, on this end, uh, really super busy period of time. And, um, Thanks to everyone who listened and followed along and, you know, was checking their Twitter 400 times because I'm sure there are lots of people listening who are doing just that and following along. So definitely appreciate anyone's support who was following.
Well, as long as we're kind of going down the inside baseball track of like what it's like to cover one of those days. When I'm on the road, I'm trying to spend as little time in my hotel room as possible. I'm trying to get to the gym for an extended period of time. I'm trying to get to like one, two, maybe even three coffee shops. I'm trying to get out on a walk. I'm trying to find a grocery store. Like I'm just trying to be out of the hotel room where I'm just going to go stir crazy sitting in there all day waiting for a baseball game. to begin um but i'd imagine that like up until the point when you actually went to the ballpark it was probably difficult for you covering the deadline yesterday to stray too far from your many like devices and electrical outlets within your your room
A hundred percent. Yeah, exactly. You're charging the phone at all times. I had notifications on. I don't normally have notifications on. And these last few days were like a good reminder of why. Because, you know, every time it's like a Ken Rosenthal tweet, a Jeff Passon tweet, I'm like going on my phone and checking and rechecking. And look, obviously sign up for that. Obviously, that's part of it. And it can be a super exciting time. But to your point, when you pull back the curtain, it's like, I'm sitting there like, OK, when am I going to eat lunch? Like I still have to eat something. When am I going to iron my shirt? Because it got wrinkled on the carry on on the way to Houston and I got to go on TV and a few hours and look presentable.
So you're kind of like I won't want to have the iron out and I'm like checking my phone with one hand. And I'm like, careful here. Like, don't be an idiot. So, yeah, it's it's one of those very, very busy days of which there are many on the baseball calendar. And this is kind of a unique one. And ultimately, the Jays, true to form, were doing a ton really from start to finish when it came to their moves.
So I was with you and Shai on Sunday at the ballpark at Rogers Centre and things were definitely happening and in the air, like things were stirring, things were going on on Sunday and I don't think any of us were sure exactly when something would become official or exactly how the Blue Jays were going to handle it with like a charter taken off after the game and players gonna be on it some players might not be on it like you know this impacts clubbies reloading luggage and sending stuff one way and other stuff another way um and if i'm correct i believe like the you and shy would have been in the air when the gossman deal actually broke is that true
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What was Ben’s experience covering the Blue Jays on trade deadline day in Houston?
0:06–13:59
2
How did deadline-day logistics and clubhouse energy reveal impending trades?
13:59–57:20
3
What made the Dalton Varsho and Kevin Gausman departures so emotional for teammates?
57:20–1:17:34
4
How did the Blue Jays balance buying and selling over the 36-hour deadline?
1:17:34–1:25:35