ESPN MLB Insider Shares Unique Story of Toronto Blue Jays Former Front Office Pursuit

The Toronto Blue Jays' 2026 season is likely to go down as one of the most disappointing season in franchise history.

Toronto, just a year after winning its first American League pennant since 1993 and advancing to Game 7 of the World Series, finished with a 79-83 record, fifth place in the American League East and 19 games out of first place in the division.

The Blue Jays' disappointing season led them to being one half of history.

In addition to Toronto, the Seattle Mariners also missed the playoffs and finished third in the American League West. The two sides combined to be the first duo of American League clubs to make the American League Championship Series one season and both miss the postseason the next since 1987.

The Mariners' response to their struggles was to move on from manager Dan Wilson. There's been much speculation since on who Seattle will target as its new skipper, with the only thing known for sure is that the team will be looking for someone outside the organization and, although managerial experience isn't a prerequisite, it will be preferred, per M's president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto.

This has led speculation that the Mariners could look to reunite with former bullpen coach and current Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who's led Cleveland to an American League Central title in all three years as manager and won the American League Manager of the Year award twice. Vogt was the M's bullpen and quality control coach in 2023.

Due to Vogt being under contract with the Guardians, Seattle would need to execute a trade to bring the two-time Manager of the Year back to the Pacific Northwest professionally. Vogt still resides in the Pacific Northwest with his family.

Managerial trades are rare in baseball, but they do happen.

However, as pointed out by ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney in a recent episode of the "Refuse to Lose Territory" podcast, Toronto was involved in a situation not dissimilar to the M's potential pursuit of Vogt when it tried to pursue former executive Dan Duquette.

"This comes down to how that position's valued," Olney said on the podcast. " ... It's interesting because I always thought general managers and managers mostly are undervalued. Years ago, when Dan Duquette was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, the Toronto Blue Jays wanted to talk to him to be their CEO. And then-owner, the late Peter Angelos, the owner of the Orioles, said 'Yeah, you can only do that if I get Jeff Hoffman.' And the Blue Jays were like 'No, that's fine. We're not gonna do that.' That's a relief pitcher that they're not willing to give up. It doesn't hurt to call. You ask for permission. I'm sure that'd lead Chris Antonetti, who's the head of baseball operations for the Guardians, to go down and have a conversation with Stephen Vogt. Either to explain why he told the Mariners to take a flying leap, depending on how he feels about it, or basically feeling out Stephen Vogt saying 'Hey, what do you want in your career?' I don't know which way Chris would go on that."

Hoffman was a former top prospect with the Blue Jays, who selected him in the first round of the MLB Draft out of East Carolina. They eventually did trade him to the Colorado Rockies in the deal that netted them Troy Tulowitzki, but they signed him in free agency before the 2025 season. He helped the Jays get to the World Series before Toronto traded him to the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline this season.

At the time Toronto attempted to acquire Duquette, he was a two-time Executive of the Year with the Boston Red Sox and Orioles.