Ernie Clement has gone from utility player to postseason threat for the Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays are in the World Series for the first time in 32 years. While much of the talk about the Blue Jays in their World Series run is about Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage, there's one player who may not be getting the appreciation he deserves and that player is Ernie Clement.

Clement was drafted by Cleveland in the fourth-round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of the University of Virginia. Clement was part of Virginia's national championship team in 2015 as a freshman. It took four seasons for Clement to reach the majors, making his MLB until 2021.

Clement played for Cleveland and the Oakland Athletics before he was picked up by the Blue Jays in 2023. Now in 2025, Clement continues to be the unsung hero of the Blue Jays' postseason run.

Clement goes from utility player to playoff star

Clement played high school baseball at Brighton High School in Rochester, New York. Jason Wasserman was Clement's high school coach and prior to the World Series, Wasserman spoke highly about Clement during his high school years.

"He always puts in the extra time, the extra fungos, the extra time in the batting cage" Wasserman said. "First one there, last one to leave, one of those types of guys."

Clement got major playing time for the Blue Jays during the 2025 regular season. Clement batted .277 with nine home runs and 50 RBIs in 157 games played. It's the 2025 postseason in which Clement has taken the roll of being the unsung hero for the Blue Jays.

Through the first game of the 2025 World Series, Clement became the first player to record 20 hits and have two or fewer strikeouts in the first 12 games of an MLB Postseason, according to Just Baseball on X.

Clement's bat helped start a huge sixth inning in the Blue Jays' 11-4 win in Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Clement hit an RBI single with the bases loaded to put the Blue Jays up 3-2. The Blue Jays ended up scoring nine runs in the inning to cap off an exciting win in front of their fans at Rogers Centre.

In the 2025 postseason, Clement has seven multi-hit games, which is tied for the most in Blue Jays history. One of those game he went 4-4 against against the New York Yankees, in their only loss of the series, in Game 3 of the ALDS.

The Blue Jays' offense struggled in the second game of the World Series, losing 5-1 against the Dodgers while recording just four hits. But Clement did record one of the hits in three at-bats - maybe the most generous hit of the postseason, given it was an infield pop-up that first baseman Freddie Freeman over ran.

Overall, Clement is batting .429 in the 2025 postseason. With the Blue Jays now heading to Los Angeles with the series tied 1-1, Clement will be relied on to turn the tables in Game 3 after a tough Game 2 loss.