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Gil Kim went from sleeping in a bathroom to the head coach of the Dunedin Blue Jays

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Published  June 17, 2025 4:21pm EDT
Sports
FOX 13 News
From bathroom to the Blue Jays

From bathroom to the Blue Jays

Dunedin Blue Jays manager Gil Kim said sleeping on a mattress in the bathroom when he played baseball in Venezuela was one of the best experiences of his life. FOX 13’s Mark Skol Jr. reports.

The Brief

    • Blue Jays manager Gil Kim lived on a mattress in a bathroom in Venezuela back in 2008.
    • That opportunity allowed him to begin to learn Spanish.
    • It helped him get an opportunity within the Blue Jays organization.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Dunedin Blue Jays manager Gil Kim loves being a baseball coach.

"I'd always had a passion for baseball," Kim said. "Just the gains that you're able to see with people is so fulfilling, so energizing."

Kim has dedicated his life to the game.

Dunedin Blue Jays manager Gil Kim

"It's really a unique opportunity to be able to do this," Kim said. 

However, the word "unique" doesn't even begin to describe how far Kim has come on his baseball journey.

What they're saying:

"I am fortunate enough to have better sleeping arrangements since then," Kim said.

Back in 2008, Kim played in Venezuela for Tiburones de La Guaira for a month. However, he did not have any housing back then so Kim decided to sleep on a mattress in the clubhouse bathroom.

"It was one of the best experiences I've ever had in baseball," Kim said. "The only catch was that there wasn't enough room always to be in the clubhouse, so sometimes I'd sneak that mattress out into the edge of the bathroom and would sleep there."

Not only was it a great experience, it was by far his easiest commute. However, it was also the easiest decision of his baseball career to call that bathroom his home. 

"The opportunity to play for that team, to play with all those players and experience a pro ball type of schedule and level was something that I never dreamed I'd be able to do," Kim said. "The opportunity to be there and play baseball there. That was the biggest thing for me, and so, wherever I was sleeping, anything like that was really secondary."

Sleeping there ended up becoming life-changing for Kim. He started to learn Spanish speaking with the clubhouse attendants and got the hang of the language a few years later in Mexico. Then, in 2016, the Blue Jays organization hired him to be their first director of player development where speaking Spanish was a critical part of the job. He now speaks to Spanish players and English players in their native language.

"At the time, it was in an effort to be able to enter houses in the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, and Mexico, and establish a relationship with families and earn the trust of that family that their son would be taken care of in our organization. Whether it's language or just showing that you care and making extra efforts to learn who they are, where they come from, what's important to them, meet them halfway at certain times. I think those things just as much as the language, anything that shows that you care and that you're invested in who they are as people, are things that the players appreciate."

The Toronto organization approved of his efforts and promoted Kim to the big-league staff in 2020, where he was on the bench until last season.

"I think maybe the majority of my career I was focused on, how could I improve, how could we sign the best players, how could we develop the most amount of players for the Blue Jays in the major leagues," Kim said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to do that, and I think it definitely in recent years, I've learned to be more appreciative and more grateful about the journey, allow myself to feel fortunate and lucky to be doing what I'm doing."

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Now his focus on High-A is a little different.

"It's more about those steps in between that we're trying to attack," Kim said. "It takes discipline to do that, but, but watching everybody's journey and to see them accomplish what they set out to do, it's the reason why we do our jobs. It's why it's fulfilling to do our jobs. It's why it's energizing, and it never gets old to celebrate those successes."

Dunedin Blue Jays manager Gil Kim

He loves being in Dunedin and the Blue Jays love having him. 

"I think it's really awesome," Blue Jays' infielder Manny Beltre said. "He always gives me a lot of confidence, you give me all the advice and just push me to be a better person and player." 

Kim wants to see himself do the same. 

"I've learned to be more appreciative and more grateful about the journey," Kim said.

And it's all because he slept in a bathroom for a month 17 years ago.

"The different circumstances you find yourself in pale in comparison to the excitement, the opportunities that you're able to enjoy," Kim said.

What's next:

Kim and the Blue Jays begin a six-game series on Tuesday night against the Clearwater Threshers.

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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Mark Skol, Jr.

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