Betts: 28 years after being guest coach, McRae lands job with Jays

After a long and successful college coaching career, Mike McRae (Niagara Fall, Ont.) has landed a professional coaching job with the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Photo: Rutgers University

January 12, 2025

By Matt Betts

Canadian Baseball Network

Former major leaguer Ryan Freel was meticulous about his preparation.

Just ask Mike McRae (Niagara Falls, Ont.), he remembers it well.

It was the spring of 1998 when Freel made his way to a side field at the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor league spring training complex to get his work in. Sitting at second base waiting to feed him reps was a young McRae.

The up-and-coming coach was in Florida with the Blue Jays as a guest coach thanks to a program run between the organization and Baseball Canada.

“He wanted to work strictly on a backhand flip,” McRae recalls.

“I sat there for 45 minutes. Seeing the attention to detail and how he wanted to perfect that movement, it was awesome. It was an incredible experience to be immersed in that.”

Freel went on to play eight big league seasons as an infielder and outfielder. He broke in four years later in 2001, hitting .273 in nine games with the Blue Jays before rounding out his career with the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals.

McRae would move into college coaching positions at Niagara University, Winthrop, Maine, Canisius, Virginia Commonwealth University, William & Mary and most recently, Rutgers, all the while carrying a detailed approach of his own.

Now, 28 years after his brief stint around the pros, McRae is heading back after inking a contract to become a minor league coach with the Blue Jays.

It’s a full-circle moment and one that’s all the more special thanks to it being with Canada’s team. It’s almost as if it was meant to be.

When he was cleaning out his office last week, he found a letter penned by Alex Anthopoulos, John Gibbons and Paul Beeston congratulating him on a milestone college coaching victory.

He was also at the Jose Bautista bat-flip game with his son in 2015.

Then there’s the numerous other stories from being a guest coach at spring training, including when he sat in on a meeting with former pitchers Rick Langford, Pat Hentgen and pitching coach Rick Peterson as the trio talked baseball shop. The relationships with Langford and Hentgen blossomed to the point they stayed in touch.

“That’s always going to be the case, it’s where I’m from,” McRae said of the significance of being with the Blue Jays.

“There’s been so many different pieces over the years that the organization has been really impactful for me.”

College baseball has changed dramatically, McRae acknowledges. The evolution of the transfer portal and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) has altered the landscape, and ultimately the relationship building side of growing a program.

But, there are parts he’ll miss.

“The importance of competition and the value of competition that took place so frequently,” he said.

“There was that build up towards a conference tournament and all the pieces that go towards it. That’s a part I’ll probably miss tremendously.”

As McRae prepares for his new role, which the specifics of have yet to be officially announced, it’s having been involved in college baseball that might be one of his greatest assets. The ability to communicate, manage and teach all aspects of the game gives him flexibility within whatever position he’s asked to fill.

“There’s a unique skillset of combining some very progressive approaches and analytics but also possessing a lot of experience in a lot of different areas,” he said.

“I’ve been exclusively a pitching guy, I’ve worked with different offences and been the leader of teams for many years. I think that’s unique in this day and age to have the combination of them.”

In the end, the offer to move to the next level was simply too good to refuse.

“I think it’s no different than anybody, professional baseball is the pinnacle,” he said.

“I thought it was a unique opportunity to see if I can make an impact in the professional world. I’m looking forward to a new and fresh chapter in my career.”