After the 2025 post-season, Kevin Gausman did something he’d never really done before.

Still stinging from the Blue Jays’ loss to the Dodgers in the World Series, Gausman felt compelled to look back and relive the October experience, good and bad. When he’d work out, he’d often put on radio or TV broadcasts of his starts.

It wasn’t something he ever set out to do, but once he started, he felt it worked for him. First off, he could watch the game as a pitcher and analyze what he could have done differently. And the experience also reminded him of “what a fun, exciting time” the 2025 post-season had been in Toronto.

As the winter progressed, Gausman went back through all of his playoff starts. Sometimes he’d listen to the home radio broadcast, other times he’d flip to the road feed, curious what they might have said. As the weeks went by, he watched “probably every pitch (he) threw,” all 436 of them. By his final appearance — Game 6 of the World Series — it could be painful to relive.

“Kind of heartbreaking at times,” Gausman said. “But I kind of needed it to get over it in a sense. It’s almost like when you have a bad breakup, I guess. If you have some voicemails, you’re going to listen to them for a while until you finally delete them.”

Roaring Rogers Centre is expected

With a series against the Dodgers set to begin in Toronto on Monday, many of Gausman’s teammates will be coming face-to-face with similar emotions. On the schedule, it’s just another series in April, but any early-season meeting between World Series opponents would inspire some strong emotions — and that’s especially true after a series that was closely contested all the way through extra innings of Game 7.

“It’ll bring back some memories for sure,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “It feels like we just played them. We still know they’re a damned good team. We still know they’ve got superstars up and down their lineup and really good pitching. I’m sure you guys (in the media) will have fun with it. There’s plenty of stories to write and I’m gonna get some sleep tonight with the media hours the next couple days.”

While the media presence will surely be significant, they aren’t alone in caring about this story. Near-sellout crowds are expected all week, and the players themselves have a heightened awareness of what’s ahead, as expected.

For instance, Gausman’s parents told him they planned to make a point of being there for the Dodgers series.

“It’s something we can’t ignore,” Gausman said. “We know we lost to them in the World Series last year.”

Yamamoto, Ohtani will start in series

Others within the Blue Jays’ clubhouse were looking forward to the series for their own reasons. After starting Sunday’s loss to the White Sox, Eric Lauer said he’s hopeful playing the Dodgers can help the Blue Jays collectively reach a higher level of play.

“Everybody knows it’s going to be a good series,” he said. “It’s going to be another showdown. It’s going to be a good one for us to get back on track. We stumbled this (0-3) road trip, but it’s going to be a good reset for us to getting back to playing baseball the way we know how. Going against the Dodgers you can’t make stupid mistakes and you’ve got to really throw the ball well so hopefully this series really locks us back in.”

While Lauer’s not slated to pitch against the Dodgers this week, Gausman’s set to pitch Tuesday. And not only is he pitching, he currently lines up opposite World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched opposite Gausman in Games 2 and 6 of the World Series, winning twice despite quality starts from Gausman both times.

Gausman knows the lineup he’ll face Tuesday is “really good — that’s why they won it back-to-back years.” So as the series approached, his focus was on attacking the Los Angeles hitters, not whether Yamamoto’s start day would line up with his again.

“You never know how it’s going to line up, a lot of things can change from day to day, so I don’t really look too much at who I’m going to be facing,” he said.” But I will say at the same time, when you’re facing other established guys it’s fun. We kind of expect that the other guy is going to pitch well and I think they expect you to pitch well, so there’s the level of understanding that we’re both going to go out there and do our thing.”

Gausman then added that he hopes the Blue Jays score 10 runs per game. An offensive outburst like that would certainly help flip the narrative around the 2026 Blue Jays, a team that’s now struggling to find its footing. 

Yet the story of 2025 has been told by now. When the games counted most, the Dodgers found a way, leading to a painful ending for a particularly likable Blue Jays team. Nothing that happens now will change that — but even with that knowledge in mind, the next few days may still be emotional.

“It’s just funny because it’s so early in the season still,” Gausman said.” But yeah, I get it. I get the excitement behind it. It’s just two of the best teams from last year facing each other for the first time, so yeah, it’s going to be fun. I know there’s probably going to be a little bit more reactions from the fans during that series. But that’s what sports is all about.”