Blue Jays' support staff stole the show in hilarious fantasy football draft contest

The Toronto Blue Jays take their fantasy football league very seriously. So serious in fact that determining who gets the number one pick in the draft can't be settled by drawing names, or picking numbers. Instead, the Blue Jays turned the draft order lottery into a pitching showcase.

Each of the 12 fantasy managers on the player roster was paired with a staff member through a random draw. Those staffers then took the mound, threw their hardest pitchwith manager John Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker manning a radar gun, and determined the draft order by velocity. Assistant pitching coach Sam Greene took the whole thing to another level when he unleashed a 90 mph fastball.

Greene easily cleared the rest of the field and secured the No. 1 pick for Kazuma Okamoto. For comparison, other early throws reportedly came in between 71 and 77 mph, which made Greene’s heater a must-see moment that will likely be brought up in group chats and on team road trips for years to come.

Greene pitched varsity for McGill University from 2016 to 2021 while earning a Master's Degree in Analytics. He's originally from Philadelphia, but has family in Québec and his mother Marie-France, hails from Thetford Mines, a city in south-central Québec. He joined the Blue Jays in the player research and development department in 2021 and has moved around to various roles over the last five years.

The  mastermind behind the event was Max Scherzer. The future Hall of Famer has been a key part of building the clubhouse culture over the last two seasons and so it's not surprising that he's the one who turned this whole thing into a spectacle. Scherzer explained the format during an in-game interview, breaking down how the players were paired with support staff members and how the hardest throw would determine the draft order.

That is part of what made the contest work so well. The players may be the fantasy managers, but they had no control over who actually earned their draft slot once the random draw was complete. Their fate depended entirely on whether their assigned staff member could reach back for a few extra miles per hour in front of a dugout full of major leaguers.

Blue Jays have always had a good time with their fantasy football team

This isn't the first time that the Blue Jays' fantasy football league has stepped into the spotlight. During spring training of 2025, Chris Bassitt had to serve as the team’s honorary bat boy after finishing last in the league. He also had to wear a jersey that displayed his 4-10 fantasy record. Former Blue Jays' reliever Tim Mayza had previously been given a similar punishment, which made Bassitt’s turn part of a growing tradition rather than a one-off gag.

The draft order fun could not have come at a better moment. The Blue Jays have some momentum after going 11-6 since July 31, finishing off a 17 games in 17 days stretch in a better position than when they started. They are also being reinvigorated by some new faces in the clubhouse that are proving they were brought in to win now. The Blue Jays are having fun both on and off the field and it's giving their fans a chance to believe this might not be a lost season after all.

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