The Toronto Blue Jays, like every team in the majors, had a home run celebration in 2025.
So when Davis Schneider sent a first-pitch fastball into the left field stands during an Aug. 6 game, there was only one appropriate choice for who would drape the Eastern Regional High School graduate in the celebratory home run jacket — Buddy Kennedy.
For Kennedy, who joined the Blue Jays the day before, that was the highlight of what was another unorthodox season for the four-year major league veteran and 2017 Millville High School graduate.
Kennedy and Schneider grew up playing travel ball together for the South Jersey Young Guns in Winslow Township, Camden County.
“I think it was probably the best moment,” Kennedy reflected last week after his Triple A season ended with the Toronto’s affiliate.
Kennedy recalled many times when he and Schneider would hit home runs for the Young Guns all over the Tri-State area.
“I said to him one day like, ‘man, it was pretty cool we were doing this when we were 13 and now we’re 26 having fun with it.’ It’s the coolest thing,” Kennedy said.
Toronto ended the season 94-68 atop the American League. The Blue Jays will host the New York Yankees in the best-of-five American League Division Series with Game 1 at 4:08 p.m. Saturday.
The New Jersey connection didn’t stop with Kennedy and Schneider.
Outfielder Joey Loperfido graduated from Haddonfield and played against the Young Guns in some tournaments. Blue Jays manager John Schneider is from Princeton.
The familiarity enabled Kennedy to mesh quickly with a new team, he said, which he joined a month and half after being let go by the Philadelphia Phillies. Kennedy also played a short stint for the Los Angeles Dodgers before returning to the Toronto organization at the beginning of September.
Kennedy appeared in four games with the Phillies, two games with the Blue Jays and seven with the Dodgers. He hit .069 (2 for 29) with two walks, a double, an RBI and two runs scored. He is a lifetime .178 hitter with two homers in 67 major league games since 2022, which included stints with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who drafted Kennedy in 2017, and the Detroit Tigers.
“Hopefully we win it all,” Kennedy said of the Jays. “If something happens to where I get the opportunity to be with Joey and Davis on a roster and we can win the whole thing, that would be the coolest thing for New Jersey.”
Milestones in a down year
Mike Trout hit the 400th home run and drove in the 1,000th run of his career this season. Those two milestones put him in elite company, one that has him on the path to Cooperstown.
Despite the milestones and playing in 130 games, his most in a season since 2019, it was the worst season of Trout’s 15-year career. It was a season in which the center fielder was relegated to mostly a designated hitter role.
Trout hit .232 with 26 homers, 64 RBIs and .797 OPS, all well below his career averages. With the Angels finishing 72-90 and in last place in the AL West, it was the 11th straight year he missed the postseason.
Yet the 2009 Millville graduate remained optimistic and engaged — and the 34-year-old slugger says he still believes he can recapture the form the led him to three AL MVPs with the Angels.
“Yeah, I’m very confident,” Trout said. “I think it sounds funny, but I joke about it with all the guys in there — when I see the ball, I’m good. When I don’t see it, man, it’s a battle.”
A rough debut
For a day or two this season, there were three people from Millville playing in the majors. Joining Trout and Kennedy was 2021 Mainland Regional graduate Chase Petty, who grew up in Millville before moving to Somers Point his freshman year in high school.
Petty, 22, made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds on May 30 and was roughed up by the St. Louis Cardinals for seven hits and nine runs in 2 1/3 innings.
“I mentioned before the game that (Petty’s) career is not going to be defined by tonight, and I believe that,” Reds manager Terry Francona said after the debut. “There’s a lot to like there. He’ll learn.”
Petty made three appearances on three stints with the Reds, going 0-3 with a 19.30 ERA in six innings. He spent the rest of the season with the triple-A Louisville Bats after being sent back down at the end of June.
In 26 minor league starts, Petty, the No. 7 prospect in the Reds’ organization according to MLB.com, went 6-13 with a 6.39 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 112 2/3 innings.
The Reds finished 83-79 and lost in the NL Wild Card round to the Dodgers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact John Russo: 609-272-7184
jrusso@pressofac.com
X: @ACPress_Russo
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