Glew: Saunders returns to B.C., introduces Saundo Athletics
Former Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Michael Saunders has launched “Saundo Athletics” in his hometown of Victoria, B.C. Photo: Saundo Athletics
January 16, 2026
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
After living in Colorado since 2011, Michael Saunders decided to move his family back to his hometown of Victoria, B.C. last July.
He has also decided to share his baseball expertise by launching his new business called “Saundo Athletics,” which will kick off with four baseball camps (for 8-to-14 year-olds) at Lambrick Park Field in Victoria in July and August.
His goal with the camps is to give local players the opportunity to receive elite baseball training in Victoria so they don’t have to travel to Vancouver or the U.S.
“We’re doing four camps in the summer and we’ll see where it grows from there,” said Saunders prior to the Baseball Canada National Awards banquet on Saturday. “Essentially, it’s about the kids. We want to provide the kids with something that they have never experienced.”
Saunders has enlisted several local coaches to help him – including Victoria Eagles head coach Mitch Davidoff and local Little League coach Cody Fitzsimmons.
The camps will be operated based on one of Saunders’ core beliefs about coaching: “Person first, player second.”
“‘Person first, player second’ is unbelievably important to me,” said Saunders. “Sports teams provide kids with lifelong lessons, lessons that they will take into the workforce, that they will take into whatever they choose to do . . . What I want to emphasize through our coaching is that the person is what is truly important and then the player is second, meaning that we will help you with your athletic journey, but we also want to help you with your lifelong journey as a human being.”
And Saunders certainly has a lot of wisdom to share.
A left-handed hitting outfielder, he honed his skills with the Victoria Mariners of the B.C. Premier Baseball League before joining the Junior National Team in 2003.
After being selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 2004 MLB draft, Saunders forged a successful nine-season major league career in which he hit 81 home runs (14th most by a Canadian) in 775 games with the Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies. The 6-foot-4 outfielder hit 10 or more home runs in a major league season four times, including clubbing 24 for the Blue Jays in an All-Star campaign in 2016.
One of the highlights of his career was when he went 8-for-11 (.727 batting average) and had seven RBIs in three games for Canada in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Canada didn’t advance out of the first round, but Saunders was named MVP of that pool. He was also later named an outfielder on the All-Tournament team.
The 39-year-old Saunders is still in great shape, but unlike his former Seattle Mariners teammate James Paxton, he has no plans to come out of retirement to play for Canada in the WBC this March.
“If I could still play, I would,” said Saunders. “I don’t think I’d be doing a service to Canada, but I can’t wait to watch. The WBC is very special for me, for obvious reasons. It should be very special for this group of Canadian players. It’s a chance to showcase their talents where the emblem on the front of the jersey means so much more than the name on the back.”
Saunders makes a point to return to Baseball Canada’s Awards banquet in Toronto every year to support Greg Hamilton, the national teams director.
“Greg deserves so much more recognition than he receives but he’ll never ask for it,” said Saunders. “I think I can speak for all alumni about why we come back. It’s because Greg has meant so much to our own personal journey, not just on the field but off the field as well. When you put on the Canada jersey, you’re a member of a family like none other.”
In recent years, Saunders has served as a roving outfield/baserunning coordinator with the Atlanta Braves (2022 to 2024) and Mariners (2025).
That coaching experience should help him in the first Saundo Athletics camps this summer.
“We want to give the kids an experience they’ll never forget,” said Saunders.