‘AFFIRMATION OF MY EXPECTATIONS’: Blue Jays rookie Alan Roden reflects on big-league debut

Over time, the boxscore bearing the humiliating team details of Alan Roden’s career debut will fade, as will the final score of a forgettable season opener for the Blue Jays.

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The memories will live on forever, however.

A young draft pick who quickly became the story of spring training for the team — a prospect who arrived in Dunedin with big expectations then delivered impressively — carried that buzz and form back to Toronto for his big-league debut.

Not only did manager John Schneider and Jays management reward Roden with a  well-earned roster spot coming out of Florida, he got the start in left field for the season opener.

“I go back to (Dunedin) when I told him he made the team and it was like, ‘let’s (bleeping) go,’” Schneider said on Friday prior to Game 2 of the season against the Orioles. “And I told him I was playing in the opener and it was ‘all right, great.’ And he handled it. And I thought it was awesome.

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“Granted it’s one game and I wish there were some bigger spots that he was up in but so far, he’s been impressive. He’s been steady and I think he handled the whole thing pretty well.”

That he did. Going 1-for-2 with a walk, the big moment was a single up the middle off of O’s starter Zach Eflin in the sixth inning of the Jays 12-2 loss. And the debut  came with a couple of small statistical footnotes — Roden became the 14th player in franchise history to record a hit and a walk in his MLB debut. Also of note, he was the first Jay to have that career first start on opening day since Devon Travis did so a decade ago.

Roden was thrilled with the whole night, sharing the moment with his family and soaking up the atmosphere.. He may one day tell his kids of the rocket he belted for that first knock, rather than the reality of an efficiently well-placed hit that found a hole.

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“You take it any way you can get it,” Roden said after Thursday’s contest. “Obviously, it was good feeling — exciting for it to happen.”

While Roden acknowledged there were some nerves playing in front of a sellout crowd on opening day, the third-round draft pick from 2022 did his best to live in the moment.

“I’ve been prepared. I’ve been ready to go for this game for a long time,” said the 24-year-old. “I’ve been excited for it for the past week. And so when (Schneider told him he was in the lineup), it was just an affirmation on my expectations of what I wanted to do.

“I’d never played in front of that many people, so there was definitely some jitters in there. But for the most part I felt pretty good, felt pretty comfortable. Just drawing on my experience really helped.”

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Roden was back in left field for Friday’s contest, once again hitting ninth in the Jays order. Going forward, Schneider’s advice is to continue what he’s been doing so far and not try to force his way into big-league stardom.

“It’s just like be who you are and don’t try to be anything you’re not,” Schneider said. “Whether it’s him, Vlad (Guerrero), George (Springer), Bo (Bichettte) it’s just do what you do and what you’re good at.

“For him, that’s getting on base and hitting the ball hard. The expectations are not to ask him to hit 30 homers or do anything crazy. It’s keep doing what you’re doing and so far so good.”

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ON TO GAME 2 OF 162

Obviously Schneider didn’t like the result of the opener, but with an opportunity to exhale after the day of distractions that event brings, a dose of normalcy might hit right.

“I was exhausted and I wish the outcome was different, but you don’t really feel it until you’re done,” Schneider said of the opening day pushes and pulls. “And the guys feel it, too. There’s just so many things you can’t really measure with opening day.

“I don’t think it’s a come down, really, it’s just back to normal. So (Friday) it’s all right, it’s baseball and it’s not all the lights and stuff, so let’s get back to normal.”

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