Toronto Blue Jays playoff hero almost gave up on baseball entirely

For those tuning in to the Toronto Blue Jays this week for the first time in a while, Nathan Lukes wouldn't really look all that out of place from any other player on the team.

In 12 at-bats, Lukes put up four hits and picked up five runs batted in to help the Blue Jays knock off the New York Yankees in a four-game ALDS series.

Lukes' biggest moment came with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 4, delivering a two-run single that would end up bringing home the series-winning run.

Nathan for You

Nathan Lukes delivers a clutch 2-run single in the 7th! pic.twitter.com/cIvnwP7ExS

— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2025

But Lukes, who made his MLB debut at age 28 with the Blue Jays back in 2023, admitted this week that he almost retired from baseball while still in the minors.

A 2015 seventh-round draft pick by Cleveland out of Sacramento State, Lukes' path to playoff hero wasn't exactly straightforward. Only a year after being drafted, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays organization, where he'd spend the next five years.

Like many minor league players, he didn't play a single game in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year later, he'd sign with the Blue Jays, but still faced an uphill battle.

By the time he made Toronto's roster in 2023, he'd spent seven years in the lower rungs of professional baseball, riding out buses and making paycheques far less than his major league counterparts.

"It had always gone through my mind when I hadn't debuted [in MLB] yet — I told my wife in my first year of free agency [2022], 'Let's do this year, see where it leads, and then I think it could be time to just be a dad,'" Lukes said earlier this week, per Sportsnet's Kristina Rutherford.

"It was at the end of that year Ross [Atkins, the Blue Jays general manager] called me and told me I was on the 40-man roster. So, I mean, that's the golden ticket."

For Toronto fans, they can only be grateful that Lukes stuck it out as long as he did, as they might've faced a different outcome against the Yankees if not for his clutch postseason batting.