After impactful spring, Brighton’s Ernie Clement has soaring expectations for the Toronto Blue Jays

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Baseball is a contact sport, but this obviously wasn’t the kind of contact Ernie Clement had in mind. The Toronto Blue Jays’ third baseman was hoping to connect bat — not face — with ball, but in a scary moment during an exhibition game a few weeks ago an errant 91 mph fastball smacked the former Brighton High School sports star in the kisser.

“It was a shock at first,’’ Clement said by phone recently from the Jays spring training complex in Dunedin, Fla. “The first thing you do is make sure you’re still alive and all your teeth are where they are supposed to be. Thought for sure I had lost a few chiclets, which luckily I didn’t. And then it becomes a case of shaking it off mentally and trying to get back out on the field as soon as possible so you don’t let that feeling of fear linger.”

Although blood spurted from his face, Clement lobbied to go back into the game, but the Jays’ athletic trainers weren’t taking any chances. They immediately x-rayed him for fractures and tested him for a concussion. Fortunately, the fastball resulted in nothing more than a fat lip. And two days later, Clement stepped into the batter’s box and launched the first pitch he saw over the centerfield wall, over the concourse, and completely out of TD Ballpark in a 7-4 win against the Boston Red Sox. Jays manager John Schneider couldn’t have been happier.

“He’s a hockey player at heart,” Schneider said, alluding to Clement’s high school days as an All-Star puckster and his weekly off-season, on-ice pickup games with relatives and friends at Paul Louis Arena in downtown Rochester.

That he returned to action so quickly and responded the way he did didn’t surprise his teammates, who love Clement’s keep-everyone-loose clubhouse personality and on-field toughness. “He’s not fazed,’’ Jays starter Chris Bassitt told reporters. “Ernie is wired a little different.”

Indeed, he is. Clement called the beaning a minor speed bump, an occupational hazard. “I came back and took out my revenge on the ball,’’ he said. “I got right back into the swing of things.”

And the 29-year-old has been in the swing of things ever since, building on last summer’s breakthrough performance when he hit 12 homers, stole 12 bases and was a Gold Glove finalist at third base. He batted .390 with two homers and RBI this spring, and when the Jays open their regular season in the Rogers Centre this week, Clement will be back at the hot corner, feeling confident and grateful as he enters his eighth professional baseball season.

It’s been quite the ride for the young man who grew up idolizing New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. After batting .472 and earning three All-Greater Rochester selections in four varsity seasons at Brighton High School, Clement hoped to get drafted by a Major League Baseball team in 2014. When that didn’t happen, he accepted a scholarship to the University of Virginia and helped the Cavaliers win the College World Series his freshman season. Two years later, Clement was drafted in the fourth round by Cleveland. He made his MLB debut four summers later with the team now known as the Guardians.  The next few seasons would be filled with ups-and-downs, as he yo-yoed between the minors and majors. After being released by Cleveland and a brief stint with the Oakland Athletics, Clement signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays in 2023. He played solidly for the Buffalo Bisons, earning a call-up to Toronto, where he batted .380 in 29 games as a utility player.

Last season, Clement received an opportunity to fill in at a number of positions with the big club – including as a mop-up pitcher – and excelled at several of them, particularly third base, where his stellar defense resulted in 10 runs saved, placing him among the top fielders at any position in the majors. This year, he finds himself with a solid hold on a starting position entering the regular season. Some baseball pundits believe he could be one of 2025’s breakout players. The pundits, though, are less keen on his team, despite a potent lineup featuring Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and 50-homer free-agent acquisition Anthony Santander. “I think a lot of people are picking us to be last in the American League East, and that’s OK with us; that’s just how we like it,’’ Clement said. “I think we are going to surprise a lot of people.”

Though they can’t be measured by analytics, the Jays value the intangibles Clement brings to the team, on and off the diamond.

“A 162-game season is such a grind,’’ he said. “You’re spending 10 hours a day with these guys, so it’s important to get along with each other and keep things fun and loose and in perspective. You have to alleviate the job stress as much as possible. We love to play Cribbage and other games. And later in the season, we run our fantasy football leagues.”

A lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, Clement arrived at spring training last month wearing Josh Allen’s No. 17 jersey. His teammates immediately offered him condolences for the way the Bills season ended, with yet another loss to their arch nemesis, the Kansas City Chiefs. “When, I showed up, it was like, ‘Dude, we’re so sorry,’ ’’ Clement said. “I told them it was alright. There’s always next year.”

And perhaps “next year” can be “this year,” not only for Allen and the Bills, but also for Clement and the Jays.

“I can’t wait to get started,’’ he said. “I’ve experienced plenty of failure in this game, but I think I’m at a point in my career where I’ve learned from those failures and I’m in a good place. I’m so grateful. I’m lucky to be playing baseball. It really is my favorite thing in the world.”

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.