Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series preview: Who Has the Edge?
USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks down both sides of the upcoming World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays.
Sports Pulse
- Brighton graduate Ernie Clement is about to become the fourth player born in the Rochester area to play in a World Series.
- Clement’s defense is highly-valued and possibly Gold Glove-worthy, but the 29-year old has shined as a hitter during the American League postseason.
Toronto Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement, who was named to a high school all-decade All-Greater Rochester Baseball Team after his playing days at Brighton, has gone from Buckland Park to baseball’s biggest stage.
The Blue Jays have made it to the World Series where, beginning October 25, they will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
When Clement brings his glove onto the field for Game 1 in Toronto, add him to a very short list. Heinie Groh in 1919 and 1922, Howie Krist in 1943 and Johnny Antonelli in 1954 are the only players born in the greater Rochester area who have appeared in a World Series.
“The kids in our baseball Bruins program are in awe of him,” Brighton varsity baseball coach Jason Wasserman said about Clement, a 2014 Brighton graduate. “We just had a watch party, and they love hearing his story, how hard he’s worked to get to where he is now, what he did in college (University of Virginia).
“Very inspiring.”
Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement shines in 2025 postseason
Clement, 29, has stepped to the plate 42 times during the postseason and put together an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of 1.063. That’s well above the 2025 major league average of .719. Clement’s OPS during the regular season was .711.
The 5 foot-11 inch, 170-pound veteran, who made his debut in the major leagues in 2021, has driven in seven runs and homered once with a .425 batting average as the Blue Jays eliminated the New York Yankees and then the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championships Series.
“He gets on base and the big bats drive him in,” Gates resident and Orioles fan Michael Chefalo said about Clement,. “That’s their recipe for success.”
Don’t forget to add glove work or defense to the recipe.
Ernie Clement’s defense earns Gold Glove nominations
Clement’s play in the field is so strong that he’s a Gold Glove nominee at both third base and utility infielder. Blue Jays manager John Schneider has relied on his versatility, starting him 89 times at third base, 60 at second, 29 at shortstop, and 15 at first.
“They are asking him to be able to move anywhere and do it really well,” Wasserman said. “Put the ball in play (as a hitter) when needed and be a good baserunner.
“Those are a lot of his strong suits. He’s meshed into that lineup really well.”
Ernie Clement’s baseball journey began in Brighton
Wasserman would know, since he has watched Clement play since the major league ballplayer was in Little League.
“(Buckland Park) is a nice community park,” Wasserman said. “There are two fields on the side, and there is the main field where we play our varsity games.”
Clement went from youth baseball in Brighton to the high school program in 2009, when he was a seventh-grader. Two years later in his freshman year at Brighton, Clement was in the varsity starting lineup as a second baseman.
“He still isn’t big,” Wasserman said about Clement’s physical frame. “He just always put the ball in play, no matter who was pitching. I knew he could handle the at-bats.”
Clement was trusted enough to play shortstop as a junior, and Wasserman noted “he could make any play look good.”
Three of Clement’s four varsity seasons were so good that baseball coaches in Section V voted him on to that year’s Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester Team. Clement was also named all-state three times.
And Clement was so good during his high school playing days that a panel of area coaches and the D&C sports editor put him on the publication’s AGR Baseball Team of Decade 2010-19. After high school, Clement went from Buckland Park on Westfall Road to Atlantic Coast Conference baseball with the Virginia Cavaliers.
Clement was drafted in 2017 by Cleveland
Clement has been in pro baseball since 2017, when the Cleveland organization drafted him in the fourth round. He made his major league debut in 2021. The next year, the Oakland Athletics claimed Clement, who later signed a contract to play in the Blue Jays organization in 2023.
Wasserman understands what it means when someone says that time flies.
“I have picture of the 2014 seniors, he’s on there,” Wasserman said. “It’s what, 11 years later.”
During that time, more than a decade, Wasserman watched Clements make his way from Buckland Park to the World Series, the biggest stage in baseball.
“I try to catch all of them in some form,” Wasserman, the Yankees fan, said about Blue Jays games. “That’s the first thing I check in the morning, ‘How did Ernie do?’
“I was (a Yankees fan), but anytime Ernie plays them, I go Blue Jays. This is way better.”
James Johnson, who grew up in the city of Rochester, has worked as a full-time journalist covering high school sports for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. His career began as an intern during the summer of 1990, before the start of his senior year at Edison in the Rochester City School District. He has become a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s Sports Media Excellence Award.
