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You worry about the kids being traumatized. You worry about the kids all the time in a world where dreadful things happen every day. Springer grew up in Connecticut. The horror of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School felt very close to home. And just a few days prior to this conversation, two youngsters were slain in another deranged shooting in Minneapolis as they attended Mass at their school.

“When you drop off your kids at school, you expect them to come home. As a dad, your heart hurts for the families.’’

But that was an extraordinary event. Or not so extraordinary anymore in America.

Getting struck by a pitch, however, is a particular hazard of this particular job. And Springer has been hit a lot. Been concussed a lot.

“Concussions are weird but this one was different, unlike any I’ve ever had before and I’ve played a lot of sports,’’ Springer said in a recent dugout interview. “I actually felt OK after. But the next day, I wasn’t feeling so good. I didn’t feel like myself and I was having problems with my vision.’’

Where the team had expected Springer to go on the seven-day concussion injured list, he actually missed 16 games. The Blue Jays went 9-7 in his absence.

“With a head injury, the best thing to do is be smart. And be honest.’’ So Springer didn’t withhold his lingering symptoms from medical staff.

In his second game back, he cranked his 19th home run of the season, a no-doubter that travelled 434 feet. Because that’s what he does, leading the team with 27 homers after a pair left the ballpark Tuesday in Cincinnati, the fourth time this season he has hit two in one game, and another cleared the fence Wednesday. On the first one Tuesday, he set a new franchise record for leadoff homers, overtaking Devon White. He is now hitting .307 with 72 RBIs and has 17 dingers in his last 48 games. It’s just fun to say, “Springer dinger.’’

And still that performance, for sheer spectacular-ness, didn’t rise to the level of Nos. 23 and 24, on Aug. 26 against the Twins: 433 and 445 feet, respectively. The last player to hit two home runs farther was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. more than six years ago.

The Jays have several straws who stir the drink and non-stars who assume the role on any given night. A team MVP for 2025 is difficult to choose. But Springer, amidst a career renaissance, is arguably the heartbeat of this outfit. Manager John Schneider expressed it well following Tuesday’s 12-9 slugfest with the Reds.

“George set the tone for sure. There’s been times since he’s been here where it feels like he can put the team on his back. He has a track record to do that at this time of the year and into the playoffs (19 homers in 63 playoff games).

“Really, really happy with the way he’s been playing, after coming off a tough year last year, the way he’s responded. He’s been the driving force behind what we’re doing this year.’’

It had been, indeed, a terrible, horrible no-good year for the Jays as a team and for Springer personally circa 2024. They finished in the American League East basement; he ended up with a miserable slash line of .220/.303/.371, the worst numbers of his career. Baseball analytics geeks looked at the stats and concluded that Springer had entered his declining years, as happens to all ballers. Further, in four years with Toronto, he had failed to lead the team where they had expected he would take them. There were just two blink-and-they’re-gone post-season exits on the resumé.

Springer was the brightest, shiniest object in the free-agent aisle when he signed with the Jays — and that came as a shocker, with the Mets in hot pursuit — on Jan. 23, 2021. He was clanging with accolades, two times a Silver Slugger, thrice an all-star and the 2017 World Series MVP. emerging untainted from Houston’s bang-the-trash-can-scandal. He was procured for six years at $150 million (U.S.), the richest contract given by º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøto that point. General manager Ross Atkins could hardly contain himself at Springer’s introduction to the media.

“George, your character, your perseverance, your experiences, obviously the championship-calibre ability on both sides of the ball, has been extremely attractive to us, and it’s the perfect fit for this team. We’ve worked hard to understand everything about you. We couldn’t be more proud to have you join this organization.’

“You’re going to love it here. Fans are going to love you.’’

That part was definitely true.

Except some of the love wore off last season. What few had foreseen is that Springer would rise from his own ashes. But he knew it. So if he went home at season’s end despondent, he wasn’t irreversibly crushed or panicking that the end was racing toward him on his baseball voyage.

“Once it’s over, it’s over,’’ he said, meaning the season, not the whole damn thing. “You have to take the good and the bad from every year and learn from it. Every year of my career has been different, every month has been different, every week has been different. For us as a team, it obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to last year, but that’s in the past. We’ve learned a lot from it.’’

But on another occasion, he also put it more succinctly: “Last year sucked for me.’’

In the throes of bad stretches — actually it was pretty much all one bad stretch — Springer didn’t even recognize himself. “Over the course of my career, I’ve shown that’s just not who I am. If you play this game long enough, there are going to be years when stuff doesn’t go right or there’s going to be lopsided numbers. I knew that’s not who I was as a player and I learned from it.’’

This is George. And this season, he’s transitioned mostly to DH — 64 games there but also 51 games in the outfield. He has hit leadoff in the last 17 games. It has been a splendid acquittal for a 35-year-old, with the assumption that’s headed toward the down slope.

“Thirty-five doesn’t mean I’m old,’’ Springer said. “In human years, I’m not old at all. In baseball years, I get it. But I believe in my preparation, I believe in myself. I know I can still run. It may take me a little bit longer to get going in the morning but that’s fine.’’

He’s obviously still got the legs, stealing 16 bases on 16 attempts this season. His foot speed on the bases is in the 73 percentile range, though it’s more a matter of savvy, understanding pitchers, picking his spots. It’s an area of discussion with the coaching staff before every game.

“You’ve got to be smart with it,’’ he said of his takeoff tactics. “Who we’re facing, who might come into the game. Timing. Anything that might give me a little bit of an edge getting to second base.’’

Surely, though, it must have jangled, wounded the ego, being retrofitted as a designated hitter when for so long he had been just about the most complete ballplayer around?

“Nah, it was easy,’’ he said. “I’ve played the field my whole career, my whole life essentially. You can say, ‘Oh, he’s getting older,’ but it really is about what’s best for the team. There’s guys out there who can run, who are young, who are agile. So when they said DH, I was cool with it. I’m here for the team.’’

Just as evident has been that restricting Springer’s deployment in the outfield has kept him fresh, averting fatigue in the grind of a 162-game season. There is a constant spring in his step, a buoyancy, matched by endless good cheer in the dugout and in the clubhouse, where he can yammer away in Spanish to his Latino teammates, sing, bust some moves, pulling stunts on his locker mate and best “bro,” Daulton Varsho. “I love the guy to death.’’

Springer is again what he has been in the past — the player who gets it done when it counts the most. He thrives on those expectations.

“Crazy as it sounds, I just try to enjoy. I think the media, the outside world, put so much emphasis on it. But we’ve already played the teams we’re most likely going to be facing in the post-season. There’s no point in me going out there and trying to do something that I don’t know how to do, be something that I’m not. I’ve always been understanding of the moment.’’

He is savouring this sweet spot in his career, individually and as part of the team as the Jays segue into the home stretch of September, squatting atop the American League.

“That’s who I am. I’ve always enjoyed being around the ballpark, being around the boys. And I really love when other guys succeed. Like Vladdy and Bo hitting a big home run, I love those big moments. But small moments over the span of a game equals big results, too.’’

That recent series with the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers provided longer-term insight about the team’s vulnerabilities. “I don’t think it was a statement series for them,’’ he said.

And looking ahead to a three-game set in the Bronx this weekend, with both the Yankees and Red Sox nipping at the Jays’ heels, doesn’t loom a specifically crucial series either, in Springer’s estimation. 

“At this point, every series is big, doesn’t matter who you’re playing. We don’t need to lay any extra hoopla on playing the Yankees.’’