Yankees owner seemingly gives Blue Jays backhanded compliment

Jon Conahan

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Yankees owner seemingly gives Blue Jays backhanded compliment image

The Toronto Blue Jays were one of the more surprising teams in Major League Baseball throughout the 2025 season, losing Game 7 of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Had the Dodgers lost that game to the Blue Jays, many would’ve viewed it as one of the more surprising things in baseball history. 

When entering the campaign, it seemed evident that Los Angeles would add another ring to its collection, going back-to-back. While it did just that, it wasn't before the Blue Jays gave the Dodgers a big fight. 

Heading into that series against the Dodgers, the Blue Jays had to take down the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series. 

When speaking about what he was impressed with and the Blue Jays' season in general, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner had some positive things to say, admitting that the Blue Jays had a great year. But it also felt like he gave a backhanded compliment on what Toronto did, questioning if it is going to have the same type of success a year later. 

"You can't simply be a slugging home-run team. [The Blue Jays] had a great year. I'm curious to see next year how well they do, with that roster, assuming it stays mostly intact, but they're a great team," Steinbrenner said, per BlogTO. "They definitely played better than us, they slugged better than us, they hit the ball and put it in play better than us, and they pitched better than us, and that's why they won."

It's tough to say that Steinbrenner was throwing a backhanded compliment here in some sense, but reading back on it, it certainly felt like that. 

All the Blue Jays can worry about is going out on the field and taking care of business, which is precisely what they did in 2025.

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Editorial Team