Mayza serves as Blue Jays bat boy, 'punishment' for last-place in fantasy football

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Two years ago, when Tim Mayza won the Toronto Blue Jays’ fantasy football league and Danny Jansen came in last, there was no "punishment" for finishing at the bottom of the standings.

Yet, when he arrived at spring training this year, the rules had suddenly flipped on the left-handed reliever, who went from first-to-worst in 2023, while his catcher went worst-to-first.

Erik Swanson, whose joint team with Daulton Varsho finished one win better, "announced in front of everyone that I'd be bat boy in the first three innings of the game (Saturday) as punishment for my last-place finish," according to Mayza.

"From my point of view," he added, "this was kind of dropped on me when they found out who was in last place."

Good sport that he is, Mayza dutifully paid the piper during Saturday’s Grapefruit League opening 14-13 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. Wearing a jersey with "4-10" on the back — his 2023 league record — he ran balls out to home-plate umpire Brennan Miller, prepped the on-deck circle, and sprinted out to collect bats and gear from his teammates with his usual gusto.

While he may felt the circumstances of his penalty were suspect, and now will "be expecting some form of equal or bigger punishment for the last-place finisher" this year, he made the most of the experience.

"I have a newfound respect for those guys," said Mayza. "I've done it a couple of times in the minor leagues. On the back fields, you'll have one ball boy and one bat boy doing those duties. You're as engaged down there as anyone. When things happen, especially with the clock now, you have to be on it. My biggest fear heading in was the game stopping because of me. Obviously, in the first inning, there was a bit of a mishap with the rosin bag, unaware that there wasn't a rosin bag out there. Other than that a few minor things. But for the most part, I feel like the game was rolling and wasn't slowing down. Definitely not because of me."

"It was a good time," he added. "I took my punishment and now we're ready to move on and roll with it."

Manager John Schneider was among those impressed with Mayza’s effort.

“Timmy, he was working hard,” he said. “We asked if he had a Catapult (motion tracker) on to measure his output. He was taking it very seriously. I was happy with the work that we did see and I'm sure a couple of the bullpen boys were watching on TV if they weren't here. But overall, Timmy, whenever he's done playing, hopefully for a long time, he's got a nice little career backing him up as a bat boy.”

Dallas does it

Right-handed prospect Chad Dallas started the Blue Jays off on the right foot Saturday with a clean, 11-pitch first inning in his Grapefruit League debut.

The 23-year-old, who split last season between single-A Vancouver and double-A New Hampshire, got Whit Merrifield on a grounder before striking out Johan Rojas and Edmundo Sosa.

"I had some nerves in the bullpen and while I was stretching and stuff throughout the preparation part and then talking through the plan with Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) and Jano," he said. "As soon as I got onto the field it was just baseball. It was really cool, I was really excited for it and things went pretty well.”

The 2021 fourth-rounder's development last season — when he posted a cumulative 3.65 ERA in 123.1 innings over 23 starts — positions him within a secondary wave of up-and-coming pitching in the Blue Jays system.

Key for Dallas last year was the addition of a cutter, a pitch he’d long worked on but struggled to master. During his second start after joining New Hampshire, he couldn’t locate his fastball and with Portland stacking lefties against him, catcher Phil Clarke decided to call for it.

"I guess maybe being in-game helped me focus more on it and ever since then, he started calling cutter a lot and it was working," said Dallas. "So we (said) alright, let's just keep calling it. We really focused on it and now it's a really fun pitch to throw. We almost forced it to work."

Improving command of his four-seamer is one area of focus for Dallas, who also features a curveball and slider and pitches with a motto of "spin to win." He’s a candidate to open the year with triple-A Buffalo, although it’s possible he starts the year in New Hampshire and gets quickly bumped up, the way he was a year ago from Class to double-A.

Only tightness for Tiedemann

An MRI revealed tightness between the left hamstring and calf, but no structural damage for top Blue Jays prospect Ricky Tiedemann, leaving the electric left-hander day-to-day.

“Best case scenario, probably he's back throwing in a couple of days and you go from there,” said Schneider, adding that Tiedemann's next outing will depend on “how he feels when he gets back off the mound for the first time. And if it is not his next turn, anticipating it to be hopefully not too long after that.”

Tiedemann had been slated to start Saturday’s spring opener but was scratched after experiencing tightness toward the end of his conditioning work Friday. Schneider praised him for not staying silent and trying to pitch through it.

“He said he's felt a little bit of a cramping sensation when he's been on the mound before in years past,” said Schneider. “It's just a good lesson for not just young guys but everyone, we're in February, you want to be very, very careful if you feel something. Let it be known and take a little bit of a breather. He's pretty routine-oriented and we don't anticipate him being out too long.”