Blue Jays held advantage over Yankees in ALDS thanks to an "on-field tell"

The Toronto Blue Jays resoundingly took care of business in the 2025 ALDS against the New York Yankees. They took the first two games at home before finishing off the series in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays outscored the Yankees 34-19 over the four games and just looked like a more well polished team, despite them both finishing the season with 94-68 records.

But due to the Blue Jays holding the regular season tie breaker over the Yankees, they ended up winning the division title and held home field advantage during the postseason. However, it's recently come out that the Blue Jays may have had more than just home field advantage in their arsenal to take down the Yankees.

Blue Jays held advantage over Yankees in ALDS thanks to an "on-field tell"

In a story on Sportsnet by Ben Nicholson-Smith, a source says all those head-to-head games against the Yankees, including the late season ones in September, were a boon to the Blue Jays. It's within those games that they were able to study and pick up on a few things that "tipped" the game in their favour.

Nicholson-Smith says, "The sources were not authorized to speak about the matter or share further details about what the Blue Jays saw because the information was sensitive and could impact future games. But this much is already clear: as the Blue Jays and Yankees pushed for the AL East title in September, the teams were eyeing each other closely in search of possible tells."

As part of the evidence to support that, he points to the Sept 5. start in which Cam Schlittler allowed four runs in just 1.2 innings against Toronto and after the game, said he tipped his pitches. A few days later Max Scherzer was knocked out of the game after the fifth inning and he too indicated that the Yankees were relaying signs against him.

Blue Jays Manager John Schneider wasn't upset about it and in fact was quoted as saying, "it’s fair game.” Apparently, he preached what he practiced and his staff managed to find out little things about the Yankees pitchers, enabling the Blue Jays to utilize that information and hit a combined .338/.373/.601 against Yankees pitching in the postseason.

It was something Yankees manager Aaron Boone alluded to as well during the Winter Meetings. When asked about how to close the gap between the Yankees and the Blue Jays, Boone said, "Obviously, they were on fire against us in the playoffs. Look, it comes down to against other good teams, execution, performance, game plan, all that, because the margin's thin against other great teams.”

The 13 head-to-head games between the Yankees and the Blue Jays should be must-watch viewing in 2026. As if the rivalry wasn't already heated after the playoff matchup, the news about how close these two teams were watching each other should only heighten the tension during the new campaign.