The Jays throw at Kiermaier because he stole their secrets, a breakdown
What Happened
During a September 2021 game between the Rays and Blue Jays, Kevin Kiermaier got thrown out trying to stretch a hit into a run, and while sliding home he scooped up a piece of paper that had popped out of catcher Alejandro Kirk's wristband. It turned out to be Toronto's pitching scouting report on Tampa Bay hitters. Kiermaier slipped it to a Rays coach in the dugout without openly reading it, then refused to give it back when the Jays asked. The next day, Toronto pitcher Robbie Ray plunked Kiermaier on the first pitch, which got the pitcher tossed and manager Kevin Cash heated.
Why This Matters
This is one of the rare cases where MLB's quiet world of stolen signals and scouting reports went fully public. There's no rule against picking up a card that lands on the field, which is exactly why the Jays had no recourse beyond a beanball and some grumbling. Kiermaier's argument was simple: it's not espionage if you drop your homework on my baseline. The retaliation the following night showed how seriously Toronto took it, with the pitcher getting ejected for an obvious intent pitch. Both teams were chasing playoff spots down the stretch, which raised the temperature even more given they could meet again in October. It also fed the broader 2021 paranoia around in-game data and the laminated cards catchers started carrying everywhere.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Aaron Judge. Teams: Blue Jays.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentand Pete Walker is you thought Kevin was
hot Pete Walker is red hot
[Applause]
well now i know what i'm doing tomorrow
i'm waiting for john boy to come out
with uh
the lip reading of this uh little
gathering i want to see with john boy
how he puts this one together well that
should be good he does it as well as
anybody maybe better
Kevin Kiermeier stepping up to the plate
and this at bat is going to lead us into
one of the more strange storylines
strange dramas we've had this year
definitely something i don't think has
happened
on a public level in mlb so let's get
into it it's brought to you by roman you
got to go to get roman.com
john boy you get 15 off your first month
if you're prescribed Kevin Kiermeier the
confident and cocky center fielder with
white walker eyes steps into the box and
he's gonna poke that one the third base
bare hand throw oh no thrown away a
run's gonna score and kiermeier loves
his speed and he's just gonna keep on
going he's gonna go past third the
ball's in his hand and he's gonna try
and sneak home and he's dead but can he
do a tricky slide can he go up right
sneak the foot in low is he gonna get it
no he would have had it if his foot kept
going that left foot look it just stops
there if he just went full pancake mode
and slid it under he would have been
safe like we saw on the Gary Sanchez tag
but look at Alejandro Kirk's wristband
that's where he keeps the scouting
report on all the raised batters it's
open it's flailing about and you're
gonna see the piece of paper
flip out
and now it's flying in the breeze
bouncing around with hands it's going to
go back and then their hands are going
to put it forward and now it's right by
kiermeier he says i might have been safe
ooh what's this a book of secrets is
this all their secrets about us is this
their detailed game plan on how they're
gonna pitch to us and what they're gonna
do is this a team that we might see in
the postseason would this information be
super valuable to us
huh
yeah i think i'm just gonna grab that
did they see
let's check real quick you guys see you
on to me no okay cool he doesn't look at
it once so it's not like he didn't know
what he was grabbing he's gonna say that
he's gonna say i thought it was mine so
i picked it up like no dude you knew
exactly what you were grabbing and uh
you walk into the dugout and you're like
ah man you know they threw me out i
thought it was gonna be i thought i was
gonna be safe and when he gets in the
dugout he sees this coach and the
coaches are saying like oh that a boy
how you feeling and look at his left
hand he's gonna sneak it down and he's
gonna be like hey be sneaky about this
and then he has he must say something to
him here like put this in your pocket
don't look at it because the coach
just grabs it
and just pockets it right away super
sneaky handoff on purpose i mean someone
hands you a piece of paper your gut
instinct isn't to
not look at it
your gut instinct's going to look at it
unless someone says hey put this in your
pocket don't look at it so coach takes
it puts it in his pocket doesn't look at
it that's not normal you know if he was
like hey this might be ours i found it
the coach would look at it here's what
kier meyer had to say about it and
before i played this it was a whole
thing that the blue jays asked for it
back and girmeyer was like no dude would
mcclellan have given lee the battle
plans for antietam back the south would
have won no
you just they're mine now and then the
blue jays got all mad about it like how
are you not going to give us our secrets
back and they're like what are you
talking about we could just take
pictures of them anyway here's kier
meyer play happened the other night
sat there on home thinking you know
wanting to challenge
the play because i knew it was closer
than it looked i had a piece of paper
right there picked it up
thinking it was my scouting report lie
a couple seconds after that realized it
was not ours
lie
never even looked at it before handing
it to the coach
at that point i'm not giving it back
not going to go sit there and walk to
the other dugout or find another way
i'm over it i'm trying to win ball games
and that's all i want to say from here
on out they can think whatever they want
over there they're entitled their
opinion
i am over it though yeah so i mean i
don't know he's lying about some of it
and being honest about other stuff i
mean i think it comes off better he says
yeah dude you drop your secrets of how
you're gonna hit us that's gonna help us
out i'm gonna snatch that why would that
not be okay instead he goes with like oh
man i didn't mean to and and i didn't
even look at it he dropped that at one
point he's like i didn't even look at it
it's like i hope you looked at it dude
otherwise what was the whole point of
grabbing it so that's weird so all of
kiramir's quotes kind of suck i don't
hate his actions some people do i mean
you guys can fight about in the comments
if you want but let's find out how the
blue jays really felt about it because
the first pitch and the blowout oh right
between the numbers camera is going to
toss the bat get away from the pitch
he's like what it get away from you
picture's like what
no i hit you on purpose dude the whole
thing don't you remember and how cash he
comes out screaming cash gets hot he
gets hot everyone knows that you need to
throw him out of the game it's
that simple
how do you outrun this guy for
sake i mean come on he's staying in the
box they called him out before the game
he's thrown at him here and the umpire
is just like hey cash cash new rule i
got to talk to the crew before we throw
him out so you let me do that and cash
like oh yeah okay cool so he goes and
talks to the crew this guy's like hey
why haven't they thrown me out yet man
that was kind of weird i threw at the
guy umpires get together Joe West what
up he's like you gotta go
yeah you gotta go
yeah you're out of the game yeah i
didn't mean to throw it at him he got
away from me and joe s is like uh yeah
okay
okay well the wrong time for that to
happen with all the stuff that's going
on so
you gotta go he's like okay that makes
sense mr west thank you very much and he
leaves and cash is like holy smokes they
listen to me but now
walker who's this for the blue jays you
guys know bench coach hitting coach
bench coach i don't know he's mad he's
super bad
just screaming he's mad
he's a mad guy in the field he's gonna
drop a lot of god damn it a
that you'll be kidding me
that
horse that he's out
he's mad montoyo not mad kinda just
laughing like yeah i don't know i mean
what are you guys doing i'm i'm having
fun you know we're making a walk
broke he gets dapped up by his teammates
because
you know in some weird aspect of
baseball
he had their back i guess
um and that's kind of it you know and
then kiramar was just standing there
cameron was like man i didn't realize it
was that big of a deal and on this play
the catcher the catcher lost
uh
in the middle of the scrum he lost his
secrets again so imagine if they lost
their secrets twice
and they didn't so yeah i mean there's a
lot of opinions on this is it wrong is
it not wrong one thing we know for sure
is that if a guy steps into the batter's
box and he knows exactly how the
opposing team is going to try to attack
him he's going to have way more
confidence in that at-bat confidence is
key confidence is the whole game you got
to have confidence you got to be ready
you got to be roman ready that's why you
got to go to getroman.com john where you
get 15 off your first month if you're
prescribed you get a free online
evaluation all from the comfort and
privacy of your home it's simple it's
discreet signing up is easy
be ready
make sure that you're confident
when you're going
everywhere you want to go
my one thought and this is a total
derailment and a bigger picture thought
than uh that pertains to this i say take
paper out of baseball i don't think it's
fun to watch
fielders and pitchers and hitters
checking notes of people that are
smarter than them that wrote for them
i'd rather the players on the field be
left to their own devices and memory
that's a whole nother thing though but
if you're gonna put all your notes on a
secret piece of paper don't drop it
and then get mad at the opposing team
for taking it
you dropped it