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Blair & Barker

Remembering Bobby Cox + Jays' Roster Moves with Caleb Joseph

11 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What was Bobby Cox's impact on baseball and his players?

6.292 - 27.218 Jeff Blair

All right. Welcome back to Blair and Barker brought to you by Capital One. Capital One getting Canadians credit for 30 years. So we are waiting. Some further news on Addison Barger's MRI, which was scheduled for today. Nothing final yet, but our Arden Swelling reporting that Johenrik Penango is in the Jays' clubhouse or is with the team.

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27.759 - 50.464 Jeff Blair

He was, of course, sent out to make room for Addison Barger when Addison Barger came back on Saturday. So Johenrik Penango is in Toronto right now. Again, that could... Let's not read too much into that until we hear one thing or another about Addison Barger. But it would certainly indicate that the Jays, let's put it this way, the Jays are prepared for an IL stint.

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50.584 - 76.441 Jeff Blair

I think the fact they have him up. Now, they've also brought Yariel Rodriguez, where he was also reportedly going to join the team as well. So there are a couple of moves to be made. before tonight's first game of that three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. And, of course, as we said, Addison Barger's MRI, we believe, due to the throw he made in his return on Saturday.

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76.481 - 93.858 Jeff Blair

I don't know if we've heard anything definite in that one way or another. It would stand to reason that that was the issue. But we'll wait and see. some further updates from John Schneider and the Blue Jays. Caleb Joseph joins us in a few minutes.

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93.878 - 118.839 Jeff Blair

We'll talk to Caleb about his thoughts on the Angels series on the weekend and also Addison Barger and where the Jays go from there if Addison Barger is, in fact, not available. We've also got Jays tickets to give away to see the Jays and Rays tomorrow at the Rogers Center. Patrick Corbin on the mound against Shane McClanahan to more Griffin Jacks and Dylan Cease Wednesday series finale.

118.88 - 131.389 Jeff Blair

So, Kevin, I guess we'll have to wait and see what John says. His media veil is in about 45 minutes or so, I think. We'll wait and see what John says about Addison Barger.

131.437 - 132.078 Kevin Barker

Yeah, it's too bad.

Chapter 2: What were the key roster moves made by the Blue Jays?

132.118 - 142.759 Kevin Barker

Momentum was heading in the direction, I think, that they wanted it to head into with where guys were hitting, thump up front. Addison's pretty good at having a game plan, sticking with it, no matter the outcome.

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Chapter 3: How did Tom Glavine describe his relationship with Bobby Cox?

142.779 - 159.791 Kevin Barker

And that's kind of the thing you have to do, hitting in the middle of the order in 2026. That'll be a big loss. He's not able to hit, especially against these righties that the Rays are going to run out there. That's pretty good. Yeah, it just means other guys are going to have to step up the obvious names. Hopefully they can do that and start having better approaches.

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159.811 - 180.383 Jeff Blair

Well, as you know by now, the baseball world, and particularly I would suggest the baseball world in Atlanta and Toronto, although certainly the baseball world in general, lost one of its giants this past weekend, Bobby Cox, former manager. of the blue Jays and Atlanta Braves passing away.

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180.483 - 204.728 Jeff Blair

And, uh, you know, for those of you of a certain age, you'll remember Bobby Cox is the guy who took over as Jays manager in 82. And, uh, for the first time in their existence led the Jays out of the American league East basement. They won 89 games in each of the next two seasons. They clinched the division for the first time in 85 with, uh, Bobby as manager, um,

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206.058 - 231.728 Jeff Blair

A lot of baseball fans outside of Toronto, I would suggest, would probably associate Bobby with the Atlanta Braves. And very much another name associated with those Braves is our next guest, Tom Glavin, Hall of Fame pitcher and Atlanta Braves broadcaster, joins us on Blair and Barker. Hey, Tom, thanks so much for joining us. Sorry for your loss with Bobby. Look, I...

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231.708 - 258.424 Jeff Blair

I wasn't covering the Blue Jays when Bobby was managing the team, but I was covering the Montreal Expos when you guys would roll into town and did have a chance to talk to Bobby often during the postseason as well because you guys were part of the postseason furniture, as I said in the past. But what's the first word that comes to mind for you when I mention the name Bobby Cox?

260.007 - 269.402 Tom Glavine

You know, it's a question that's been asked a lot over the course of the last 48 hours, and I guess the one word that continues to come to mind for me is passion or passionate.

Chapter 4: How does Eric Lauer's performance affect the Blue Jays' roster decisions?

270.504 - 289.741 Tom Glavine

You know, Bobby was passionate about his family, he was passionate about baseball, and he was really passionate about his players. So, you know, I think that passion and the dugout, not only just to win a game, but to to fight for his players. You know, the ejections obviously are a big part of Bobby's story, and they happen for a reason.

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289.821 - 310.551 Tom Glavine

And most of the time, those reasons were he was either defending a player or he was trying to gain an inch, if he could, for our team. And I think when you play for Bobby and you saw that, you saw that passion he had each and every day coming in the dugout to manage a game and, like I said, go to battle for his players, it was the kind of thing that I think was a big reason why

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310.784 - 314.31 Tom Glavine

Everybody who played for Bobby felt like they would run through a wall for Bobby.

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314.791 - 317.957 Kevin Barker

Tom, do you ever think we'll see another manager like Bobby Cox?

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320.682 - 343.944 Tom Glavine

You know, I don't think so, unfortunately, in today's game because, you know, so much of Bobby's era, you know, those guys... You know, they knew how to go out and argue, and they knew how to go out and argue either to keep a player in a game sometimes or, like I said, to fight for that advantage. And I think now in the advent of instant replay, A lot of that has been taken out.

344.044 - 361.851 Tom Glavine

Now, you know, I know over the course of the last couple years when Brian Snitka was the manager of the Braves, he did his best to, you know, follow in Bobby's footsteps and would have a couple of ejections every year. But I just think by and large with instant replay, I feel like that part of the game has kind of gone away.

362.033 - 380.641 Jeff Blair

I just want to jump in here for a minute, Tom. The Jays have made four roster moves. Hendrick Pena has been recalled from AAA. Buffalo Yariel Rodriguez has been added to the roster. Eric Lauer has been designated for assignment. And Addison Barger has been placed on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation.

Chapter 5: What insights does Caleb Joseph provide on the Blue Jays' recent games?

380.661 - 383.325 Kevin Barker

It's a fan up here, Tom. Sorry about that.

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383.465 - 384.887 Kevin Barker

It has hit the fan.

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386.288 - 399.403 Jeff Blair

Sorry about that. We'll deal with that in a minute. Right now, I do want to focus on Bobby Cox. Hey, what was the key to the relationship between Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone, his pitching coach? Why did that work so well?

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400.464 - 425.398 Tom Glavine

Because I think by and large, because Bobby, unlike a lot of managers of his era, had a tremendous amount of respect and I think to a certain degree admiration for his pitchers. I don't think too many managers in Bobby's day really held pitching or pitchers in high regard. I think for a lot of guys, they were kind of a necessary evil, kind of a second-class citizen.

425.998 - 450.268 Tom Glavine

And Bobby didn't feel that way about his pitchers. I think he understood how important those guys were to the team, and in particular for us in Atlanta, our starting rotation, how important we were going to be to the ultimate success of the team. And I think he was very cognizant of that. He was very careful. to keep guys healthy, put guys in situations where they could succeed.

450.308 - 461.441 Tom Glavine

And, you know, I think a lot of that had to do with that relationship between him and Leo. You know, Leo kind of letting him know how guys were doing, how guys were feeling, which guys were available on a given night.

Chapter 6: How can the Jays improve their offensive performance?

461.521 - 472.433 Tom Glavine

And that whole thing, as far as that relationship was concerned. But I think the driver of that, like I said, was the respect that Bobby had for his pitchers and how important they were.

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472.413 - 493.828 Jeff Blair

You know, I can remember covering your teams in the postseason. And one of the things I've always told people, there were two clubhouses that I think were the most professional clubhouses I was around. One was yours and one was the Yankees clubhouse. But yours in particular, you know, there was... you seem to have a pretty good way.

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493.948 - 514.543 Jeff Blair

You and the team seem to have a pretty good way of self-governing yourself. And Tom, it seemed to me that a lot of that came from the pitchers, which I found, you know, further to your point, a little odd, right? Because you've got everyday position players and you usually associate the quote unquote leader of a team often as a position player. But I thought it was different with you guys.

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514.623 - 522.453 Jeff Blair

I thought it was kind of the the starting rotation that sort of set the tone for the way the Braves went about their business?

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523.875 - 543.139 Tom Glavine

Oh, well, I think you're right. And I think early on, you know, like the early 90s, you know, we were more lead by example, right? I think the guys knew what we had in our pitching staff. They knew the talent, obviously, but they knew how important it was

543.44 - 564.072 Tom Glavine

to the success we were having, you know, even in 1991 when we just kind of came out of nowhere, you know, it was evident that the starting rotation had a lot to do with that. And I think any time you carry that kind of weight on the field, there's a certain level of respect that you have in the clubhouse. Now, in those early 90s, you know, Terry Pendleton and Sid Bream were our guys.

Chapter 7: What are the expectations for the new players joining the Jays?

564.112 - 583.595 Tom Glavine

They were the guys that policed the clubhouse. They were the guys that addressed issues and things of that nature. But when those guys were gone, you know, It kind of fell more and more on myself, Smoltzy Maddox, because then the next wave of guys, Chipper and Ryan Klesko, Javi Lopez, those guys were young. And it's hard to commend that when you're a young player. I don't care how good you are.

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583.675 - 601.071 Tom Glavine

So I think at that point in time, in the mid-90s into the late 90s, it fell more on the pitching staff and the pitchers just because we had been around the longest. So, you know, it was a little bit of an odd dynamic. But, you know, the beautiful thing was there wasn't a whole lot, really, that had to be policed. We were...

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601.051 - 622.726 Tom Glavine

You know, we were pretty good about going about our business, and I think that stemmed again from Bobby. You know, everybody always asks, you know, what were his parameters, so to speak. He had three rules, really. You show up on time, you wear your uniform the right way, and you play hard. And it was really that simple, and I think in relationship to that, He left everybody alone.

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622.826 - 634.465 Tom Glavine

He treated everybody like men. He figured if here's what I'm asking you to do and you do it, you're not going to bother me. I'm not going to bother you. Now, if guys started to step out of line, Bobby certainly would have a conversation.

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Chapter 8: How do the Blue Jays plan to utilize their pitching rotation?

634.525 - 653.925 Tom Glavine

But I think that went a long way towards, you know, I talk a lot about and we all talk a lot about how much golf we played, you know, in spring training and during the course of the regular season. And there was never an issue for Bobby because he knew it did not take away from our work in between starts, and he knew every fifth day we were going to take the ball.

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654.446 - 669.533 Tom Glavine

And I think he knew that with the rest of the team as well. It was basically, here's what's expected. Now I trust you guys to go do it, and I'm going to leave you alone, and I'm going to treat you like men. And for the most part, guys fell in line and did it. Every once in a while, you'd have to pull somebody back on track.

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669.513 - 674.018 Tom Glavine

But for the most part, guys did their thing, and it was because Bobby trusted us to do it.

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674.138 - 690.097 Kevin Barker

Okay, every time I hear about a good manager, they always say the same thing. They treat the 25th guy just like they treat you, a Hall of Famer, and they say that about Bobby. Is that true? I've never been in a locker room with a manager that's been – well, I've never really, quite frankly, been on a really great team.

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690.718 - 706.484 Kevin Barker

And if you have a great manager and a great team, I'm assuming he's treating everybody the same. I would think, Tom, that's very hard to do. Is that – Real, like, did Bobby really treat the 25th guy, it was 25, not 26 then, the 25th guy like he would treat the Hall of Famers on your team?

708.047 - 730.719 Tom Glavine

He did, but obviously, listen, is it 100% fair to say that was the case? Maybe not. I mean, are you going to treat the 26th man, 25th man on your roster like you're going to treat Chipper Jones or myself? I mean, listen, the veteran guys who are established and have been around, of course they have a little bit more leeway than the guy who's in year one or year two.

730.92 - 749.826 Tom Glavine

However, I will say that Bobby made a point every single year at the start of the year you know, the team meeting before the season was going to start and you're laying out expectations or whatever. He made it a point every single year to mention that. They'd say, hey, listen, you know, the 25th, every guy in this roster is going to play a role.

749.886 - 764.467 Tom Glavine

Everybody on this roster is going to be important from the one through 25. And the 25th man on this roster is going to do some things to help us win some games, which is going to matter at the end of the year. And that was true. And I think for us, a couple times we won our division by one game.

764.507 - 785.548 Tom Glavine

So you never know when that one key hit or that one key appearance by a relief pitch or whatever is going to be the difference. But he did. He made it a point of letting everybody know, listen, we need everybody in this room. And it's going to take everybody in this room. And then I think the icing on the cake, so to speak, in that situation was Bobby was really, really good.

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