Travis Snider

Travis Snider arrived in the major leagues at age 20, seemingly destined to be a star.

When he made his debut on August 29, 2008, he was the youngest position player in the majors. The corner outfielder, who batted and threw lefty, was an imposing 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds. But as easy as Snider made things look in the batter’s box while rising through the Toronto Blue Jays’ system, he was constantly struggling from the lasting effects of a troubled childhood. The eventual result: a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.1

Those challenges eventually became too much for Snider to overcome. In his eight-year MLB career, he was traded twice and designated for assignment. He never lived up to the hype surrounding a first-round draft pick once rated the No. 6 prospect in the game. Snider had a career Wins Above Replacement of 4.4 with 54 home runs. He played more than 115 games in a season only once.

“I was fragile,” said Snider, who grew up in a household where both parents were addicts and had to go through an eviction while in high school.2 Snider, considered the best baseball player in Washington State since age nine, also had to deal with the pressure of high expectations on the baseball field, manifesting in what he later realized was a panic attack during a Little League regional tournament game when he was 11.3

Since the end of his playing career in 2022, Snider has focused on easing pressure and stress for young athletes. He co-founded an organization, 3A, to bring awareness to the issues of youth sports, including unrealistic expectations. “A lot of the stuff we’re doing with 3A is as much for me as for the parents out there,” Snider said.4

***

Travis James Snider was born February 2, 1988, in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington. He grew up in nearby Mill Creek with his father, Denne; mother, Patty (Kinney); and older sister, Megan. Denne was a salesman for a company which sold fasteners, nuts, and bolts, while Patty worked in marketing. Travis got hooked on baseball from watching his father play competitive softball, with the whole family going to tournaments.5

Denne introduced Travis to playing baseball from the age of three. Once Travis started playing organized baseball, Denne was his coach until Travis reached high school. The parent-child coaching relationship, though, was a mixed blessing. “Eventually, we reached a point where two competitive people like my father and I could not be in the same dugout,” Snider said. “Something would happen, and we’d do our father-son thing in the dugout.”6

While it didn’t take long for Snider to make his mark on the sports field, he was an angry child, getting into heated arguments with his sister and kicking down a door at age eight. He also lashed out while playing a variety of youth sports, including baseball, soccer, football, and basketball. “I didn’t play well in the sandbox,” Snider said. “I was a hyper-competitive kid.”7

His behavior was tolerated, though, because he was such a good athlete, especially on the baseball field. Snider was an All-Star for Mill Creek when he was nine. Playing with the same core group of players, Snider led Mill Creek to two Little League state championships, pitching a no-hitter and hitting two homers in a state semifinal game. His travel team did even better, winning three national championships. At Henry Jackson High School, Snider was on an undefeated (27-0) Class 4A state championship team in his senior year.8

Snider was also a standout on the football field. As a middle linebacker/fullback, he helped Jackson High go undefeated in his sophomore year. But the following spring, Snider broke his ankle during spring football, resulting in multiple surgeries and forcing him to miss playing his junior year. Baseball scouts told him not to play football in his senior year, and he obliged. It was his football teammates, though, who gave him the “Lunchbox” nickname which stuck with him throughout his baseball career.9

Things didn’t go as smoothly at home. During Snider’s freshman year, he found his mother in a coma on the bathroom floor, a result of pneumonia related to liver illness caused by her drinking.10 The next year, Snider’s family got evicted, and as his mother struggled to recover, she and Denne separated and then divorced. For a while, Travis lived with his sister.

When scouts came to meet Snider, though, his family would be on their best behavior. “My parents understood how important it was to build a good in-house environment,” Snider said. “Scouts felt I had matured young. I talked to a local scout who graded me 80/80 as a makeup guy. I convinced everybody around me that I had figured it out.”11

The Blue Jays’ area scout, Brandon Mozley, persuaded Toronto to use its first-round pick, the 14th overall, to select Snider in the 2006 amateur draft. His $1.7 million signing bonus was at the time the fifth-highest in franchise history.12

Snider’s pro career began in Pulaski (Virginia) in the Appalachian League, a Rookie league. He was named the Short Season Player of the Year after batting .325 with 11 home runs and an OPS of .979 in 54 games. The next season, he tore up the Midwest League for Lansing (Michigan) – he led the Class A league in RBIs and doubles while batting .313 with a .902 OPS.

However, as was often the case, Snider’s success on the baseball field didn’t carry over to his personal life. Shortly after returning home following his 2007 season in Lansing, Snider got into a heated argument with his mother and ordered her out of the home he had purchased for her with his signing bonus. A few days later, she died in a car accident.13 That just added to the string of tragedies the 19-year-old Snider had endured. During the previous two years he had also lost two grandparents, a close friend, a former summer league baseball coach, and two former high school football teammates.14

After taking time to mourn his mother, Snider reported to the Arizona Fall League, where he picked right up at the plate, batting .316 with a .944 OPS. “Baseball was an outlet for me,” Snider said.15 He also continued anger management therapy, which had started years earlier.

After injuring his elbow in spring training in 2008, Snider rocketed his way through the Blue Jays farm system, transitioning from DH to the outfield as his elbow improved. He started the season in High Class A at Dunedin in the Florida State League. After just 17 games, he was promoted to Class AA Nashua (New Hampshire) in the Eastern League, where he won the midseason Home Run Derby. Later that summer, he was called up to Triple-A Syracuse in the International League, where he hit .344 in 18 games.

Snider had played only 305 games in the minors and another 26 games in the Arizona Fall League, but the Blue Jays had seen enough. Veteran outfielder/DH Matt Stairs was designated for assignment, opening a roster spot for Snider, who was called up to Toronto on August 29. “We’re going to play the kid and see what he’s got,” said Jays manager Cito Gaston.16

Later that day, with his father and sister in the stands at Yankee Stadium, along with three of his high school friends, Snider started in left field and batted ninth. In the sixth inning, he got his first hit – a ground-rule double off Carl Pavano. Two weeks later, he had six RBIs in a doubleheader in Fenway Park. After 12 games, Snider was batting .316 with two homers and eight RBIs, helping the Blue Jays win 11 of those games. “We knew he wouldn’t be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about being in the big leagues and wouldn’t be in awe of it, which is a problem sometimes for younger players,” general manager J.P. Ricciardi said, praising Snider’s maturity.17

Playing nearly every day either at DH or one of the corner outfield positions, Snider hit .301 in 24 games with an OPS of .803, both of which would be career highs. He struck out a lot, though: 23 times in 73 at-bats.

With his career off to such a good start, Snider should have been floating on cloud nine. But an encounter at the batting cage with batting coach Gene Tenace on the day of his MLB debut sent him into an internal downward spiral. Snider said Tenace told him that he wasn’t going to stay in the majors unless he modified the two-handed finish on his swing. Tenace later said, “I might have brought it up to him, but I never told him he had to change it.” Regardless, the damage to Snider’s psyche was done.18

“I was very proud, very hard-headed, and didn’t respond to criticism in that fashion, even if it wasn’t meant as criticism,” Snider said. “Trying to figure out where Geno was trying to make a comment like that to me at 20 years old, my first day in the big leagues … for my personality type and for how hard I worked, it was going to be very hard for me to stay open-minded to any kind of suggestions or help they would try to give me.”19

Entering the 2009 season, the Blue Jays were expecting big things from Snider, who was being touted as the team’s best power-hitting prospect since Carlos Delgado 15 years earlier.20 Snider started in left field on Opening Day, when he belted a double and an opposite field home run off Detroit’s Justin Verlander in a 12-5 Toronto victory at the Rogers Centre. On April 13, Snider became the youngest player in team history to homer twice in a game, clouting two tape-measure blasts against Minnesota.21 “He’s so strong,” Toronto catcher Rod Barajas marveled. “Effortless swing. He has the ability to hit the ball out of any park, whether it’s pulled, dead center or opposite field. He’s just got that much power.”22

To protect Snider, though, Gaston batted him at the bottom of the order and platooned him with José Bautista. The day after he hit two homers, Snider found himself on the bench against Minnesota’s lefty starter Glen Perkins. Being platooned bothered Snider, who was getting teased by his teammates about not playing after all the hype he had received.23 After hitting .423 with three home runs in his first eight games, Snider hit just .222 with no HRs in his next 10 games. As his batting average sank, so did his confidence. To make matters worse, Snider was told to discuss his approach to each at-bat with Gaston before leaving the dugout for the on-deck circle. “It put me in a position to overthink,” said Snider, who “hated” having to do so.24

The individual attention from Gaston didn’t help. After going 2-for-15 in a late-April series against Kansas City, Snider asked Gaston to limit his one-on-one coaching to pregame batting practice. Gaston agreed to do so, but nothing seemed to work. Over his next 12 games, Snider was only 8-for-37.

The inevitable happened on May 22, when the Blue Jays demoted Snider to Triple-A Las Vegas. It was the first time he had experienced failure on the baseball field. Snider was so upset by the demotion that he refused to shake Gaston’s hand. “I made a big mistake that I take responsibility for,” Snider said. “As a man in this game at 21 years old, that (adversity) I wasn’t ready for.”25

Instead of reporting directly to Vegas, Snider, who declined to speak to the Toronto media after being demoted, went home to Mill Creek for two days to spend time with friends and family.26 The brief break didn’t do much to clear his mind. When Snider reported to Vegas, he admitted he was “one of the most bitter guys in the clubhouse.”27

Snider spent a month with Las Vegas before a back injury which he had suffered in Toronto flared up, and the Blue Jays sent him to Florida to rehab. Once he returned to Vegas, Snider hit well enough – .337/.431/.663 – to earn a trip back up to Toronto on August 13.28 In his first game back, he had two hits, including a home run off Boston’s Josh Beckett. Snider played regularly over the rest of the season but still had to deal with both Tenace and Gaston belaboring him on a daily basis to pull the ball more frequently. “We were giving him information to try and help him, not to try to hurt him. That was our whole criteria, was to try and help him survive. He didn’t look at it that way apparently,” Tenace said.29 Snider ended the season hitting .241 in 77 games with nine homers and 29 RBIs.

The atmosphere in the Toronto clubhouse didn’t help a young player like Snider either. The veterans complained about Gaston, with those gripes being aired publicly by the end of the season.30 Following the Blue Jays’ disappointing fourth-place finish in the AL East, Ricciardi was fired, with Alex Anthopoulos promoted from assistant GM. Gaston kept his job, though, while Tenace retired. The organization said it was committed to Snider and would be willing to ride out his growing pains.31

The Blue Jays were true to their word, sticking with Snider in the early part of the 2010 season after he batted only .155 in April. He got untracked in May, hitting .378 in 12 games before a wrist injury put him on the disabled list. Snider was sent out on a rehab assignment on June 30 but got frustrated when he wasn’t recalled even though he thought he was ready.32 When he was finally recalled on July 30, he found himself splitting time in left field with Fred Lewis, another left-handed hitter.

Snider quickly made a splash, hitting two doubles in an inning on August 2 against the Yankees.33 He played regularly in September, hitting .341 with five home runs in his final 10 games. For the season, Snider hit .255 with 14 homers and 32 RBIs in 82 games.

As a team, the Blue Jays improved by 10 wins but still finished fourth, and Gaston stepped down. The new manager, John Farrell, penciled Snider into the lineup for 2011, saying, “He has all the ability to play left field and hit for some power, and hit for a better average than we’ve seen. It starts with him feeling our trust in him and creating an environment where, if he makes a mistake, he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder.”34

Meanwhile, Anthopoulos had promised Snider a contract extension, but the actual offer didn’t arrive until the day before the season opened. Even though the proposal, a multi-year contract with club options, included $12 million of guaranteed money, Snider didn’t feel it was fair. He turned it down and never got a counteroffer, calling it a distraction as the season got underway.35

After an injury-riddled spring training limited his playing time, Snider got off to another terrible start in 2011, batting just .184 in April. The Blue Jays, concerned about what they considered a hole in Snider’s swing on the inside part of the plate, sent him down to Las Vegas on April 28 to rebuild his swing. Just four weeks after being offered a long-term contract, Snider found himself back in the minors, where he did some soul-searching. “I had to grow up at that point and say, ‘if this is what I want to do, I have to learn how to deal with this stuff because this is real life.’ As comfortable as I was in the organization until that point, that was a turning point for me when I realized I’ve got to get it right and get going. I had almost a rebirth mentally.” 36

With the help of Vegas hitting coach Chad Mottola, Snider revamped his plate approach, going from a closed stance in which he pulled off the ball to a more open stance, which gave him more plate coverage.37 In 49 games after being sent down, he hit .333, earning a recall on July 4. With Bautista moved to third base, Snider was given a chance to be the everyday right fielder. He didn’t take long to stake his claim to the position. In his first game back, he had three doubles and two RBIs in a 9-7 win over the Red Sox. Snider hit .391 over the next 10 games with six more doubles, a homer and 10 RBIs. But then he tailed off, batting .148 over his next 13 games. Once the Blue Jays obtained outfielder Colby Rasmus at the trade deadline and moved Bautista back to the outfield, the writing was on the wall. On August 5, Snider was demoted again to Vegas. Sixteen days later, Snider’s season was over because of tendinitis in his right wrist. After a season of highs and lows, he went back to Washington to “work on myself as a person and my mindset.”38

While he played well in spurts in 2011 in Toronto, overall Snider’s season was a disappointment. His home-run output went from 14 the previous year to just three in 2011; his OPS fell 151 points, to .616.

When Snider reported to spring training in 2012, he was no longer a rising prospect. Instead, he lost the competition for the left field job to Eric Thames and began the season back in Vegas. Once again, he tore up Triple A, where he batted .335 with 13 homers. When Bautista got hurt, though, instead of calling up Snider, Toronto called up Anthony Gose. Snider prepared himself for a trade.39 But on July 20, the same day they made a 10-player trade with Houston, the Blue Jays called him up.40

At first, things went well for Snider. He helped the Blue Jays to a three-game sweep at Boston and had three homers and eight RBIs in his first nine games. On July 30, though, he was pulled in midgame in Seattle and told he had been traded to Pittsburgh for pitcher Brad Lincoln, who had been chosen fourth overall in the 2006 draft, 10 spots ahead of Snider. Within hours, the Blue Jays cleared out their outfield logjam that day, also trading Thames to Seattle.41

Snider welcomed the move. “It was like a restart button was hit for me…it was like that burden had been lifted,” he said.42 Even so, his struggles at the plate continued in Pittsburgh, as he hit .250 with just one home run in 50 games over the final two months.

Snider began 2013 platooning in right field with José Tabata. He got off to a good start, hitting .300 in April before reinjuring his big left toe, a “turf toe” he had first sustained in 2012.43 He hit only .189 over the rest of the season as the Pirates made the postseason for the first time since 1979. Snider went 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter in their wild-card game over Cincinnati but didn’t play at all during the five-game divisional series loss to St. Louis. “There’s nothing that compares to that 2013 wild-card game,” Snider recalled. “It was the most electric atmosphere I’ve ever been in during a game.”44

That offseason, Snider had surgery on his toe. After a difficult rehab, he was still in lingering pain as the season began.45 But he learned to trust Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and his coaching staff, who were still focused on rebuilding Snider’s swing. They were convinced that once Snider got his swing back, the power would follow.46

The 2014 season turned out to be Snider’s best: he hit .264 with career highs in RBIs (38), OPS-plus (118), plate appearances (359), and games played (140). He led the NL in pinch hits and was the Pirates’ most used right fielder, filling in when Andrew McCutchen got hurt. The Pirates returned to the postseason, this time losing 8-0 in the wild-card game to San Francisco as Snider went 0-for-2.

Snider closed out 2014 by marrying Isabel Bauche on December 13. The couple had met years ago in Mexico, where Snider’s grandparents had a time-share, and reconnected early in Snider’s stint with the Blue Jays. They have three children – sons Troy and Tyce and daughter Sienna.47

One team that took notice of Snider’s success was the Baltimore Orioles, who tried to trade for him at the winter meetings.48 The Orioles failed to get Snider then, but they succeeded in doing so the next month, acquiring him on January 26, 2015, in exchange for a minor leaguer and a player to be named later.49

Snider wasn’t surprised to be traded, but he was sad to be leaving the Pirates, whom he called “a tight-knit group. It was a tough transition after you really find your place.” For the cost-conscious Pirates, though, the deal was a way to keep them from having to pay Snider’s $2.1 million salary. “We were not intending to move Snider. We felt he was a really good fit for our club,” said GM Neal Huntington. “Those are the challenges that small-market clubs have to face.”50

The Orioles, meanwhile, had high hopes for Snider. “It looks to me like he’s just coming into his own,” ssaid executive vice president Dan Duquette. “He could very well develop into an everyday player.”51

Snider began the 2015 season as part of the Orioles’ outfield mix. However, he spent the season dealing with a significant hip injury sustained when he dove for a ball. “It was a tough situation,” Snider said. “I’d been injured a lot but didn’t want to use that as an excuse.”52

By the time the trade deadline came, Snider was hitting just .237 with three homers and 20 RBIs. The team’s other left fielder, Nolan Reimold, wasn’t doing much better. On July 31, the Orioles acquired Gerardo Parra from Milwaukee and installed him in left field. One week later, Baltimore called up outfielder Junior Lake from Triple A and designated Snider for assignment.

Snider didn’t stay unemployed for long. The Pirates signed him to a minor-league contract on August 20 and sent him to Triple-A Indianapolis. When the rosters expanded on September 1, Snider was promoted to Pittsburgh. He played in 18 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter, going 5-for-26. The Pirates earned another wild-card berth, and Snider had a pinch-hit single off Chicago’s Jake Arrieta in the wild-card game, which Pittsburgh lost, 4-0. That turned out to be his final major-league at-bat.

Snider wasn’t ready to retire, though. “I felt that getting back to the major leagues and living up to my potential was my goal,” he said. “I wanted to get back and validate that.”53 Snider spent the next six years in a futile attempt to get back to the majors. During that time, he played for six different major-league, as well as a year with the Long Island Ducks, an independent team.

Finally, in January 2022, at age 34, Snider announced his retirement on Instagram. His post said, “I have spent many waking hours and sleepless nights trying to find a way back to the show…What I have learned through those experiences is what gives me the confidence in this transition to becoming a ‘former player.’ ”54

In August of that year, Snider was officially diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Snider said the diagnosis helped explain a lot of the mental health struggles he had throughout his career, especially when he faced adversity, such as being demoted. “I’d get stuck in time loops and emotional experiences from my past,” he said. “I was just a player that got triggered by a lot of these experiences.”55

In 2025, Snider teamed with Seth Taylor, a life coach who worked with him after the death of Denne Snider, to create 3A Athletics. The 3 As represent Awareness, Activation. and Achievement. “We’re so focused on performance, we’ve lost focus on allowing our kids to develop first as human beings, and I was a product of that,” Snider said. “How we parent our kids in youth sports will have lasting effects on them.”56

Taylor said Snider is the perfect person to try to change the “toxic” culture of youth sports. “Travis sees it as a life mission,” said Taylor. “His career was a complete and total failure. He should have made millions and millions of dollars, but he didn’t, because of trauma. And he’s the perfect advocate for this because of that.”

Last revised: July 22, 2026

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Travis Snider for giving generously of his time for a phone interview.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Mike Eisenbath and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team.

Photo credit: Travis Snider, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Brittany Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture,” NYTimes.com, August 15, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5479891/2024/05/09/travis-snider-youth-sports-toxic-culture-mental-health/ (last accessed February 9, 2026).

2 Travis Snider telephone interview with David Bilmes, January 21, 2026 (hereafter Snider-Bilmes interview).

3 Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture.”

4 Snider-Bilmes interview.

5 Snider-Bilmes interview.

6 Bob Elliott, “Travis Snider and his dad both worked hard to get him to the big leagues and last night, their perseverance paid off,” Toronto Sun, August 30, 2008: 10.

7 Snider-Bilmes interview; Michael Sanserino, “Pirates’ Snyder endures off the field,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 21, 2013.

8 Snider-Bilmes interview.

9 Snider-Bilmes interview. Snider, who hung out with older teammates on the football team, was given the nickname after taking advantage of a lunchbox deal at Taco Bell to eat an impressive amount of food.

10 Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture.”

11 Snider-Bilmes interview.

12 Elliott, “Travis Snider and his dad both worked hard to get him to the big leagues and last night, their perseverance paid off.”

13 Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture.”

14 Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture.”

15 Michael Sanserino, “Recharged,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 26, 2013: D-8.

16 “Stairs designated by Blue Jays, expects trade,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, August 29, 2008, https://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/stairs-designated-by-blue-jays-expects-trade-1.710794 (last accessed April 16, 2026).

17 Jeremy Sandler, “Slugger Snider rides fast track to big league,” National Post, September. 16, 2008.

18 Shi Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.” sportsnet.ca, September. 25, 2012.

19 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

20 Steve Simmons, “One for Snider to remember,” Toronto Sun, April 7, 2009.

21 Danny Ainge, at the age of 20 years, 77 days, hit two home runs in a game on June 2, 1979. Snider was seven days younger than Ainge had been when he accomplished the feat. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. surpassed both of them, though, on May 14, 2019, when he hit two homers at the age of 20 years, 59 days.

22 Jordan Bastian, “Snider’s two homers lead Jays to win,” MLB.com, April 14, 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20090419130241/http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090412&content_id=4238384&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor (last accessed April 30, 2026).

23 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

24 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

25 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

26 Kirby Arnold, “A bittersweet homecoming for Travis Snider,” Heraldnet.com, July 25, 2009, https://www.heraldnet.com/2009/07/25/a-bittersweet-homecoming-for-travis-snider/ (last accessed May 1, 2026).

27 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

28 A spot opened up for Snider in the Toronto outfield after Alex Rios was claimed on waivers by the White Sox.

29 Shi Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour,” sportsnet.ca, September. 27, 2012.

30 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

31 Davidi, “Snider saga Part 1: Clashes with Cito.”

32 Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour.”

33 The Blue Jays tied a team record with six doubles in an inning, as Snider hit the first and last of them. Toronto scored seven runs in the inning en route to an 8-6 win.

34 Kevin Fidlin, “Jays’ Snider ready to earn it,” Toronto Sun, February 14, 2011.

35 Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour.”

36 Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour.”

37 Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour.”

38 Davidi, “Snider Saga Part II: a deal goes sour.”

39 It wasn’t the first time that season Snider got passed over. Thames, who got off to a slow start, was demoted in late May. At the time, Snider, who had injured his wrist diving for a ball in the outfield on April 26, was on a rehab assignment in Florida. Instead of bringing him back to Toronto, the Jays recalled infielder Mike McCoy.

40 The blockbuster trade involved more minor leaguers than major leaguers. The most noteworthy name was relief pitcher Francisco Cordero, who at the time ranked behind only Mariano Rivera in career saves among active players but was no longer a closer for Toronto. The Astros also received 19-year-old pitcher Joe Musgrove, a former compensation-round pick of the Blue Jays.

41 The Blue Jays had five outfielders and three starting positions. Rasmus and Bautista held two of those spots, and Toronto was committed to playing Gose every day as well. That left Thames and Snider as the odd men out.

42 Shi Davidi, “Snider saga Part III: A ‘burden’ is lifted. sportsnet.ca, September. 27, 2012.

43 Snider-Bilmes interview. “Since it was my back foot, I struggled to engage with my lower half on my swing,” Snider said of his turf toe injury.

44 Snider-Bilmes interview.

45 Snider-Bilmes interview.

46 Michael Sanserino, “Recharged,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 26, 2013: D-8.

47 Snider-Bilmes interview.

48 Eduardo Encina, “Dan Duquette says Travis Snider ‘just coming into his own,’” Baltimore Sun, January 30, 2015.

49 The minor leaguer was  Stephen Tarpley, who went on to pitch 44 games for three different teams with a career ERA of 7.05. The player to be named later turned out to be Stephen Brault, who pitched in 116 games, all but nine with the Pirates.

50 Bill Brink, “Snider trade nets 2 prospects,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 28, 2015: E-8.

51 Encina, “Dan Duquette says Travis Snider ‘just coming into his own.”

52 Snider-Bilmes interview.

53 Snider-Bilmes interview.

54 “Travis Snider retires after 8 big league seasons,” ESPN.com, January 14, 2022.

55 Snider-Bilmes interview.

56 Ghiroli, “Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture.”