Vancouver Canadians’ hometown boy Brent Lavallee ‘excited’ to be back managing club

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Brent Lavallee is getting a second helping of his minor-league dream job.

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The 36-year-old from North Delta returns to manage the Vancouver Canadians this season after debuting at the helm a year ago. The Toronto Blue Jays made it official on Wednesday as part of the unveiling of the coaching staffs of their farm clubs.

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The C’s open up the 132-game high-A Northwest League schedule on April 7, hosting the Spokane Indians. Lavallee guided the C’s to the league finale last year, where they were swept in the best-of-five set by the Eugene Emeralds.

Lavallee grew up playing in the North Delta Baseball Association. He’s a product of the Premier League Delta Blue Jays, the program that also counts Justin Morneau, Jeff Francis and James Paxton as alums.

Lavallee talked Wednesday about how lucky he’s been. He got to coach with his Louisiana Sate University-Shreveport Pilots alma mater after his playing career was done. He got hired by the Blue Jays, Canada’s lone major-league team. The Blue Jays put him with the C’s, a team he grew up watching at the Nat.

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“I’m excited about the whole dynamic,” he said over the phone from Dunedin, Fla., where he’s taking part in Blue Jays’ spring training. “I’m excited about being in Vancouver, and the crowd at the Nat every night and having my family and friends so close. 

“I’m excited about the chance to do the whole thing over from a professional sense. It’s obviously cool to have new roles and new challenges, but there’s something also cool about repeating at this level, knowing what I know about it now. I think we’re going to be able to help the players even more. There’s a greater understanding of the schedule and of the demands.”

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His parents Tammy and Wes still live in White Rock. The same goes for his brothers Milan, who’s a firefighter, and Reed, who’s a hitting coach with the independent league Trois-Rivières Aigles. 

That’s some built-in help with the kids when wife Katie comes to town midway through the season from their Florida home with son Griffin, 9, and daughter Paige, 3.

The Blue Jays originally hired Lavallee away from his head-coaching gig with the Pilots for the 2020 minor-league season and named him C’s manager. That season wound up being cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minor leagues were completely revamped the following winter, and it looked for a time like the C’s and Blue Jays might end their affiliation. They eventually signed a 10-year licence in February 2021.

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Lavallee managed the Blue Jays’ Florida Complex League team that season before being assigned to Vancouver for last year.

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He’s joined on the C’s staff by bench coach Danny Canellas, pitching coach Joel Bonnett, hitting coach Ryan Wright, bullpen coach Austin Bibens-Dirkx and position coach Ashley Stephenson.

Stephenson, who’s from Mississauga, Ont., is the former women’s national team star player and manager that the Blue Jays announced as a hire and assigned to the C’s last month. Lavallee says she’ll work largely on defence and base running.

Stephenson is a secondary school physical education teacher by trade. She had been working Blue Jays’ summer youth clinics for years as a side job.

“Her resume is obviously amazing. Being a fan of baseball in Canada, there’s a nationally known name in this game,” Lavallee said. “We have some mutual connections. Everything I’ve heard about her has been great. 

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“I’m really excited to get her in here and learning our system and seeing what she can bring. She comes with a fresh set of eyes at this. She’s very bright and she asks really good questions. She’ll have an interesting perspective.”

Lavallee isn’t sure yet what the C’s roster will look like. They’re the second rung on the Blue Jays’ four-step system of full-season, minor-league affiliates. The single-A Dunedin Blue Jays made it to the Florida State League championship series last year, so that should bode well for the group that Lavallee gets in Vancouver.

The Northwest League is once again a six-team loop, with the C’s joined by Spokane (Colorado Rockies affiliate), Eugene (San Francisco Giants), Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners), Tri-City Dust Devils (Los Angeles Angels) and Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks). With few exceptions, teams will play six-game series every week all season, with Mondays being a travel day.

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