Ex-Blue Jays coach Don Mattingly says there is one World Series play he wants back

It was a play that was debated over and over again following Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, and thanks to a former coach with the Toronto Blue Jays, it's back in the spotlight again. However, this time, that former coach is the one putting the blame on the staff and not the player.

The player in question is Blue Jays utility infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The former coach is Don Mattingly. The play is a game saving force out at home that helped the Los Angeles Dodgers keep the game going in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7.

Ex-Blue Jays coach Don Mattingly says there's one World Series play he wants back

Mattingly, who stepped down from his role as bench coach with the Blue Jays following the end of the season, was a recent guest on MLB reporter Jon Heyman's podcast. Mattingly was asked if there was anything that stood out that the Blue Jays as a team could have done differently and Mattingly picked out that particular play.

Mattingly says, "I think the play is played properly, because the bases are loaded and you've got one out with the infield totally drawn in, so you're not in a contact situation. You have to at least freeze on a line drive. If you look at the play Alejandro Kirk is about a foot off the base at first, and so is IKF. And that's because Daulton Varsho is at the plate and he does pull the ball. So I'd say the one thing that we kind of missed is that Varsho does not lineout to third base."

Mattingly says that is something himself, Manager John Schneider and the rest of the staff should have had in the back of their mind. They should have realized that his tendency to go the other way is almost non-existent and they should have relayed that to third base coach Carlos Febles to tell IKF to take a bigger lead. Varsho's pull percentage in 2025 was 48.9% while his career rate is 49.3% while he has hit to the opposite side 21.4% in his career.

What Mattingly is suggesting is that while it's not impossible for Varsho to have hit a line drive to third base, it's very unlikely and the Blue Jays should have been able to take note of that trend and get IKF further off the bag than he was. "If it's a right handed hitter IKF is probably right where he should be. But that is probably the one play I fell like if we really looked at that over again and had a split second more time to say, 'hey we can be off further,"' says Mattingly.

He closed out that portion of the interview by saying, "If Varsho lines out to first then IKF can get back. You've got a little bit more time. So that's the one thing that we would change. But it's not IKF's fault, it's really, all of our faults."

That probably doesn't make any fans feel better about the way the season ended, and it might even be much more infruriating to know that the Blue Jays brass didn't use all of the information available to them to the best of their abilities. But hindsight is 20/20 and Mattingly at the very least is taking the heat off the player who was only doing as he was instructed.