TORONTO – To fully grasp both the reach and power of the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays, consider the empirical evidence provided by the Canadian broadcast numbers for Game 7 of the World Series — an average audience of 10.9 million, peaking at 14 million, with 18.5 million viewers watching at least some of the contest.

Those are astonishing figures, and at a time when there’s no steady counterweight to the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the gripping finale 5-4 in 11 innings, the key question facing the Blue Jays is how to seize upon the moment left in the wake of a remarkable 2025 season.

For a front office that’s long cast an admiring eye toward the organizational machine the Dodgers have built under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, this is no fleeting matter. Much like the way Friedman brought over the Tampa Bay Rays’ operating system and turbocharged it with the benefits of the Los Angeles market, the Blue Jays may finally be doing the same thing with the Cleveland model and Toronto’s resources.

Now, for the first time since Mark Shapiro took over as president and CEO following the 2015 season, there’s a real, compelling proof of concept for what that looks like and the success it can produce. The Blue Jays no longer need the prime free agents they’ve tried to lure north to imagine how good it would be not just to grab a wild-card spot but to really win here. They can actually show them.