Gallagher: Canadian Conforti works in advance scouting for Blue Jays

Christian Conforti (Oshawa, Ont.) works in advance scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays. Photo supplied.

November 14, 2026

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Scouring the Blue Jays staff directory, one comes upon about 20 people who are employed in analytics.

These are people helping manager John Schneider make decisions on the field.

Some of these employees are identified as “scientists,” others are called “predictive” workers.

They all form part of the club’s desire to get better and better. It’s a phenomena that has been prevalent in baseball for years.

Then there’s Christian Conforti who hails from Oshawa, Ont. and works in a somewhat similar role as an advance-information coordinator for the Jays. He attends all the home games and travels with the team for out-of-town games. He just completed his third season with the Jays after joining the organization in 2024 as an intern in the advance-scouting department.

In this role, he said he assists the major-league coaching staff in preparation for opposing teams and players by providing strategic and game-planning preparations.

You’ll never see him on camera during a game. That’s because he’s working in the coaches’ room, taking in the televised version of the game with several other employees.

“We’re watching and working on in-game reports,’’ Conforti said in an interview. “We’re not allowed in the dugout. And all in-game reports are within MLB’s rules and regulations.

“It’s part of advance scouting. We prepare materials on opposing teams for our coaches and players. We leverage the information the analytics team develops. We work closely with them but our job is making sure we know what to leverage and how to prepare it to make the biggest impact on our major-league coaches and players.

“The majority of what we provide is pre-game information but we have constant dialogue with other coaches throughout the game outside John (Schneider). He’s in the dugout the entire game. We don’t see him.’’

Conforti grew up delivering the Oshawa This Week newspaper, gaining valuable business experience. After attending the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont., he began working at Maple Leaf Foods in demand planning (supply chain) and switched to accounting firm Deloitte, working in supply-chain consulting on client projects throughout Canada and the U.S.

Then, he got a break, taking a job in the area of expertise he really loves: baseball. He joined the Los Angeles Angels as a baseball-operations intern in 2020 but this posting was cut short due to Covid and the shortened schedule.

He switched to consulting firm Creative Fire, delivering Indigenous Reconciliation and Economic opportunities, a post which allowed him to fashion similar work to what he did for Deloitte.

“I always wanted to get back into baseball and my next opportunity was in 2022 for the Lotte Giants in South Korea in research and baseball development,’’ he said. “I worked on developing player-evaluation metrics and advance-scouting reports on opponents.’’

The following season, Conforti was back in North America, joining the New York Mets’ analytical team, leading player development and advance scouting for their triple-A team in Syracuse.

That experience led him to take on an intern role with the Blue Jays in advance scouting and he’s been full-time ever since. His 2027 role will be as an analyst. As they say, it’s all fun and games. Conforti was also thrilled to be a part of Team Canada at the 2026 World Cup of Baseball.

With the off-season in full swing, Conforti works at the Jays’ offices at Rogers Centre, helping to get the team better.

“We’re working on providing the players and coaches what they need as far as strategy and approach to get up to speed,’’ Conforti said. “When the season was on, it was non-stop every single day. In the off-season, it’s an opportunity to step back and reassess stuff that we may want to do different next season.’’

Danny Gallagher’s latest book is called The Tragic Story of Willie Davis: And More Expos Vignettes.