Baseball season is officially back in Toronto, with the Blue Jays home opener happening this Friday, kicking off a three-game series against the Athletics. Ahead of the opening day celebration, Ernie Clement shared some words about baseball, last season’s heartbreak and the season ahead — and it’s enough to make any Blue Jays fan a bit emotional. In an open letter to Blue Jays fans published in The Players’ Tribune on Thursday, the 30-year-old infielder looked back on the setbacks that nearly derailed his career and how playing for the Jays helped him rediscover his love of the game.
Clement wrote about how his love for baseball began since he was a little kid growing up in Rochester, New York, and got candid about his frustrations at the beginning of his career.
His path to Toronto wasn’t smooth. He made it to the majors with Cleveland in 2021, but struggled with not playing regularly.
“It was a dream come true, for sure. But I was also out of the lineup a lot….. which meant that I was playing the least amount of baseball I ever had,” Clement wrote. “And looking back, I don’t think I handled it very maturely. ‘Guy who sometimes plays baseball’ just wasn’t a job I knew how to be good at.”
Clement got designated for assignment by the Guardians in September of 2022, then was claimed off waivers by Oakland, but he struggled there, too, and was released six months later.
And that’s how he ended up in Toronto. In March 2023, Clement signed a contract with the Jays.
“Of the minor league deals I got offered as a free agent, a few were for more money. But Toronto was the only team that offered me regular at-bats. They promised I’d be in the lineup ‘four or five times a week.’ That was all I needed to hear,” he noted.
Still, even after signing with the Jays, he recalls still feeling like he was in a “funk” and letting people down. It was his mom’s advice to him after a particularly bad game against the Red Wings in his hometown of Rochester that was a turning point.
“She was like, “Ernie…. let’s be honest. You could be done playing baseball tomorrow. I mean, I hope not. It could happen, though, right?? So why not enjoy it??? Like, why spend this time being stressed? Spend it having fun.”
Clement shared that it was just what he needed to get him to relax and have fun again, and make it full-time with the big league club in 2024. And — get ready for the tears, Jays fans — he said it was playing with the Jays that gave him the same energy he felt when he first fell in love with the game.
“Because we had this group of guys that played like kids who couldn’t wait to get to the ballpark,” he wrote.
Clement also said it was the energy of living in Toronto, chatting with Jays fans on his way to and from the stadium (he became roommates with teammate Davis Schneider) that made him feel “like something special might be happening.” How sweet!
There were so many moments from the 2025 playoff run that stood out to him: George Springer’s huge Game 7 moment in the ALCS, the team bouncing back in L.A. after that exhausting 18-inning Game 3, and how he came so incredibly close to having a legendary World Series moment himself, only for it to end in heartbreak.
Losing hurt, yes, but Clement said he feels more gratitude than regret.
“In the end, though, and hopefully this doesn’t sound too corny, I think the stuff we have to be proud of from last season just completely dwarfs the stuff to feel hurt about. And the more time that passes, the more I understand that we still got to do something special: We got to take the game of baseball pretty much as far as you can take it. We got to go for as long as possible, until as late as possible, at the highest level possible. We got to play until there was no more baseball out there to be played.”
Last season, Clement hit .277 with 151 hits, nine home runs, and 50 RBI over 157 games, helping the Jays to a 94-68 season that ended with an American League pennant and a seven-game World Series run. October was probably Clement’s best month — he racked up 30 hits in 18 games — and according to Jays broadcaster Dan Shulman, there’s more to come.
“He’s still learning about himself as a player. He played banged up last year — hit by pitches, foul balls off his shins — but he just kept going,” Shulman recently said.
More than anything, Clement is excited for this new season to begin; he just hopes that the joy the game brings him every day will shine through.
“Baseball is my favorite thing in the world, man. And I’m so honored I get to play it with the Jays and in Toronto,” he ended the letter. We’ll forgive the American spelling of “favourite” — Clement has definitely earned his place as an honourary Canadian!
Check out the Blue Jays’ home opener this Friday, March 27, at 7:07 p.m. against the Athletics at Rogers Centre.
