ing. I’ll do nothing but look back
on these times and be kinda grate-
ful for them all, to be honest with
you,” Stroman said. “The frustra-
tion is something that happens in
an instant and it’s gone in an in-
stant, that’s not something that’s
held on to.
“We had a conversation and I
voiced my opinion and that’s it.
No hard feelings on either end. I’ll
be back in Toronto in the near fu-
ture. I love this city, it’s not the last
time I’m going to be here.”
New York opened play on Mon-
day with a 50-55 record, good for
fourth place in the National
League East. There had been talk
that the Mets might be sellers at
the deadline, with ace Noah Syn-
dergaard (a former Blue Jays pros-
pect himself) rumoured to be
available to contending teams.
But New York turned that no-
tion on its head in acquiring Stro-
man, who held a 2.96 earned-run
average through 21 starts with the
Blue Jays this season.
“I think it’s an unbelievable
team,” Stroman said of the Mets.
“I think it’s one of the best staffs in
Major League Baseball.”
Stroman’s departure was met
with disappointment from Blue
Jays fans who had became enam-
oured with the energetic pitcher
from his earliest days with the
team.
Stroman had expressed his de-
sire to stay in Toronto multiple
times – he even got a tattoo of the
city’s skyline on his abdomen in
the off-season – but said Blue Jays
management had never ap-
proached him with an offer for a
contract extension.
General manager Ross Atkins
said Monday that he had had “ve-
ry, very brief” initial talks with
Stroman’s agent throughout the
season, but “felt as though there
was too big of a gap” to delvedeeper into formal discussions of
a contract extension.
“It’s not that he’s not a good fit,
I wouldn’t say that,” Atkins told
reporters on a conference call. “I
would say that if there was a way
for him to be a part of it – and we
certainly did work towards that –
the initial steps that you take, the
discoveries, the due diligence
about potential extensions, we
felt as though there was too big of
a gap.
“I love watching Marcus as a
performer, I believe he’s going to
go on and be a durable, solid ma-
jor-league pitcher, and I’ll be ex-
cited to watch him do that.”
The rebuilding Blue Jays re-
ceived a pair of minor-league
pitching prospects in the deal
with New York – 24-year-old left-
hander Anthony Kay and 18-year-
old right-hander Simeon Woods
Richardson.
Kay has struggled to a 1-3 re-
cord and a 6.61 ERA in seven starts
for triple-A Syracuse after going
7-3 with a 1.76 ERA in 12 starts at
double-A Binghamton. Woods Ri-
chardson, meanwhile, is 3-8 with
a 4.25 ERA in 20 starts for class-A
Columbia, with 97 strikeouts in
781 ⁄ 3 innings.
Atkins said he’s excited about
the potential of both pitchers,
calling Woods Richardson “one of
the most exciting young pitching
prospects in baseball.”
“I think the great thing about
young players is ... how much
they can improve in short periods
of time,” Atkins said. “And I think
when we look up we’ll see where
[Woods Richardson] is. ... And in
Anthony Kay, we have a higher
probability and we will see what
his upside is.
“We’re extremely excited about
his potential to help very soon.”THECANADIANPRESSM
arcus Stroman knew the
chances of remaining a
Toronto Blue Jay at the
end of July were pretty slim. But
he didn’t quite expect to be a New
York Met before the month was
over.
Speaking on a conference call
with members of the media on
Monday, roughly 24 hours after
being traded from the only
major-league organization he
had ever known, Stroman said he
was “shocked” to learn it was the
Mets that had acquired him.
He was also frustrated, at least
in the immediate aftermath of the
trade.
Reports had surfaced Sunday
of a “commotion” in the closed
Blue Jays clubhouse, and the char-
ismatic right-hander chalked that
up to him “voicing his opinions”
in an exit interview.
“I didn’t like how a couple of
things were handled throughout
the process and that was it. It had
nothing to do with the Mets at
all,” Stroman said. “It all kinda hit
me quick, and once I settled and
talked to my family, the
excitement all settled in. To be
back home, to pitch in New York,
it’s going to be an amazing time
and I can’t wait.”
The Long Island, N.Y., native
maintained there are “no hard
feelings” between himself and the
Blue Jays, the team that drafted
him in the first round out of Duke
University in 2012.
He said he’ll look back fondly
on his eight years in the organiza-
tion, which included big playoff
starts and back-to-back
appearances in the American
League Championship Series.
“The moments that we’ve had
here has been nothing but excit-
Stromanquicktodismiss
rumoursofbitterJaysexit
MELISSACOUTO
BlueJaysGMRossAtkinssaidtheorganizationhad‘very,verybrief’initialtalkswithpitcherMarcusStroman’s
agentaboutapossibleextension,butthatthetwosidescouldnotfindcommonground.Stroman,seenin
actionagainstClevelandeartlierthismonth,wasdealttotheMetsonSunday.MARKBLINCH/GETTYIMAGES
TUESDAY,JULY30,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O REPORTONBUSINESS | B11
B
ack when they were teammates on the Toronto Argo-
nauts, Mike O’Shea and Orlondo Steinauer always fig-
ured they’d coach together.
After winning a Grey Cup as players with Toronto in
2004, O’Shea and Steinauer added another CFL title as Argos
assistant coaches in 2012. But neither ever thought much
about squaring off as head coaches.
That became a reality Friday night in Hamilton when Stei-
nauer’s Tiger-Cats defeated Winnipeg 23-15, handing O’Shea’s
Blue Bombers their first loss of the season after five straight
victories.
With the win, Hamilton (5-1) remained atop the East Divi-
sion, tied with Winnipeg for the CFL’s best record.
“When we played, I think we were both cut from the same
cloth,” said Steinauer, in his first season as Hamilton’s head
coach. “I actually pictured us coaching together, which hap-
pened.
“Playing against each other? That never really crossed my
mind until he took the path to go to Winnipeg.”
O’Shea, 48, of North Bay, spent three years as Toronto’s spe-
cial-teams coach before becoming Winnipeg’s head coach. He
endured a rocky start with the Bombers, missing the playoffs
his first two seasons while posting a 12-24 combined record.
But under O’Shea, Winnipeg has gone to the playoffs the
past three years and registered a 33-21 overall mark.
“I’m just happy for Mike,” Steinauer, a Seattle native, said.
“Everybody is looking at now, but there were some rough
times, some losses in a row.
“It’s special for [O’Shea] and I, it’s fun to talk about. I think
he’s earned this type of recognition.”
In typical fashion, the humble O’Shea played down the sig-
nificance of facing Steinauer, 46, for the first time as CFL head
coaches.
“I think it’s a good angle for a
lot of media stories, but it’s the
players on the field who are out
there battling,” O’Shea said.
“We’ll talk before the game, wish
each other well and then let our
guys go at it.”
O’Shea always saw himself
continuing his football career as
a coach with Steinauer.
“Why would we coach togeth-
er?” he said. “We appreciate each
other, we see the game the same
way for the most part, we had a
lot of good experiences together.
“I don’t think it was a matter
of talking about coaching. He
was already a coach.”
The two played together with
Toronto (2001-08), O’Shea as a
hard-nosed middle linebacker
and Steinauer as a versatile per-
former in the secondary. In
2000, Hamilton acquired O’Shea
from the Argonauts for a pack-
age that involved Canadian running back Eric Lapointe and
the rights to Steinauer.
After serving as Toronto’s defensive backs coach and de-
fensive co-ordinator from 2010-13, Steinauer went to Hamil-
ton as defensive co-ordinator (2013-16). After spending one
season as Fresno State’s defensive co-ordinator (2017) in the
NCAA, he returned to the Ticats (2018) as assistant head coach
under head coach June Jones before being promoted to the
top job prior to this season.
O’Shea had a decorated CFL career, being named the
league’s top rookie in 1993 and outstanding Canadian six
years later. He won three Grey Cups with Toronto (1996, ’97,
2004) and retired as the only Canadian player ever to register
1,000 career tackles.
O’Shea was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of
Fame in 2017.
“We used to watch film together often and when we didn’t,
we’d come in and often have the same questions,” Steinauer
said. “I just always looked at [O’Shea] as a coach.
“He would’ve been great at whatever he chose to do. As a
player next to him, I just think it was easy. He’s just a leader by
nature.”
Steinauer was a five-time CFL all-star as a player. He won
two Grey Cups (1999 with Hamilton, 2004 with Toronto) and
retired ranked second over all in all-time interception-return
yards (1,178).
“You felt good knowing he was behind you because it was
all going to be right,” O’Shea said of Steinauer. “It was going to
be made to be right no matter how imperfect the play may
have started ... you had this safety net behind you.
“With his guys, he always had them doing the right things.
On a play-by-play basis, to have that is pretty cool.”WINLESSARGOSThese are tough times for the Toronto Argonauts.
Toronto (0-6) remains the CFL’s only winless team after
dropping a 26-0 decision in Edmonton on Thursday night,
capping a rough three-game road swing. It marked the first
time the team had been shut out since 2009.
Shaquille Cooper, replacing the injured C.J. Gable, ran for
128 yards and a TD on 22 carries in his first start for Edmonton.
Once again, Toronto had trouble protecting the ball as Ed-
monton forced five turnovers. The Eskimos also had four
sacks, boosting their league-best total to 23.
Toronto quarterbacks McLeod Bethel-Thompson and
Dakota Prukop were a combined 14-of-31 passing for 158 yards
with three picks.
The challenge doesn’t get any easier. Toronto returns home
on Thursday night to face the Blue Bombers.ANOTHERQBHURTJeremiah Masoli’s season-ending knee injury on Friday night
just adds to what’s shaping up to be a brutal year for starting
CFL quarterbacks.
The Ticats quarterback suffered a torn ACL in the first quar-
ter of Hamilton’s 23-15 home win over Winnipeg.
Masoli becomes the sixth starter to go down this season.
The others include Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell, Saskatchewan’s
Zach Collaros, Toronto’s James Franklin, Ottawa’s Dominique
Davis and Montreal’s Antonio Pipkin.
The timing of Masoli’s injury could not be worse as the vet-
eran quarterback is in the final year of his deal with Hamilton.
Backup Dane Evans, who came in relief against Winnipeg,
is expected to be Hamilton’s starter when it visits the Rough-
riders on Thursday night.THECANADIANPRESS‘Cutfromthesame
cloth,’coachingwas
alwaysinthecards
forO’Shea,Steinauer
DANRALPH5-1
BothcoachOrlondo
Steinauer’sTicatsandMike
O’Shea’sBlueBomberssit
at5-1afterFriday’sgame,
inwhichHamiltondowned
Winnipeg23-15.Theteams
aretiedwiththeCFL’sbest
record.7
SteinauerandO’Shea
wereTorontoArgonauts
teammatesforseven
seasons,from2001-08.
Duringthattime,thetwo
wonaGreyCuptogether,
in2004.Bothrows
Inhismajor-leaguedebut,TorontoBlueJaysshortstop
BoBichettefieldsaballduringMondaynight’sgameagainst
theRoyalsatKauffmanStadiuminKansasCity.
Forthegamestory,visitourwebsite GLOBESPORTS.COMORLINWAGNER/THEASSOCIATEDPRESS[BLUEJAYSVS.ROYALS]