Blue Jays reliever could play important role in knocking out Canada from WBC

Less than three weeks after Canada lost in the Gold Medal game to the USA in both the men's and women's hockey Olympic finals, Canada has a chance to exact some revenge. On Friday night (Mar. 13) Team Canada will play Team USA in a quarterfinal matchup at the World Baseball Classic.

It's the first time Canada will play in a knockout stage game in the 20 year history of the tournament, while the USA have been to several finals and is regarded as a heavy favorite to at least reach the finals again. And they have seemingly added a secret weapon to their arsenal in the form of Toronto Blue Jays reliever Tyler Rogers.

Blue Jays reliever could play important role in knocking out Canada from WBC

Rogers joined the Blue Jays in the offseason on a three-year $37 million deal after spending 2025 with the New York Mets. Originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 10th round (2013 MLB Draft) he spent his first six seasons in the majors with the NL West club, debuting in 2019.

It might be a tough way to familiarize himself with fans of his new team. Many Blue Jays fans will be cheering for Team Canada in this game, but if Rogers is called upon, there will be a real sense of intrigue to how he performs. If he performs well, that could be detrimental to Team Canada's aspirations of moving on in the tournament. If he performs poorly, that could raise some eyebrows about the perception of how he'll do suiting up in the Blue Jays' bullpen, even if it is an over reaction to one outing.

The best case scenario is that Team Canada piles up a bunch of runs and by the time Rogers comes into the game, even if he has a three up, three down inning, it doesn't do much to alter the outcome of the final score. That would satisfy both sides in this instance.

The super, submarine thrower Rogers was brought over to Toronto to help solidify the back end of the bullpen that actually became a strength for the Blue Jays during the stretch run. They added Louis Varland and Seranthony Dominguez at the trade deadline and Tommy Nance came on with a strong second half. While closer Jeff Hoffman still had his up and down moments, the hope is that the Blue Jays bullpen revamp will see much better results right from the get-go in 2026, and Rogers figures to be a big part of making that happen.