What’s Going On With The Blue Jays?: ‘We Just Haven’t Gotten On A Roll’

NEW YORK — The Blue Jays look a little different right now than they did last October. Back then, Toronto’s bats were clicking. The 2025 Blue Jays knocked out the powerhouse New York Yankees, outscoring them 34-19, in a four-game ALDS that was just the start of their special postseason run to the Fall Classic. They rubbed it in, beating up on the Yankees for winning the division and eventually, the American League pennant. Now? The Blue Jays (21-27) entered their ALDS rematch with the Bronx Bombers (30-19) this week in third place in the AL East, fighting to get to .500, 11 ½ games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. Through Tuesday, Toronto’s offense is ranked 25th in the major leagues (91 wRC+). The Jays’ .306 on-base percentage is ranked 26th in MLB. While the Yankees have started the year red-hot, the elements that made Toronto’s offense feel suffocating to opposing teams last year are not quite showing up the same way. “Since I’ve been a Blue Jay, [the Yankees] always seem to start off really hot,” Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman told me on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “So you try to take it with a grain of salt. Try not to put them too high on a pedestal. “And then, as bad as we would say we’ve played, we’re still right there. We just haven’t gotten on a roll. We have a good series, and then a bad one. The consistency, really on all aspects of our team, just needs to kind of tip higher, especially on the defensive side. Just not as clean on the defensive side as we were last year.” Gausman is being a little hard on his fielders, but only because they’ve clearly taken a step back from how excellent the defense has been the past few years. So far this season, the Jays are ranked fourth in MLB in Fielding Run Value with 12. Ask the last-place Mariners, who have a FRV of -13, and they would take that any day of the week. But the Blue Jays are used to leading the big leagues in defensive metrics, because they have done exactly that from 2020-2025, so they expect better from themselves. But it’s not like their overall offensive identity has changed. As a team, the Jays still strike out the least in MLB. They’re still emphasizing the same style of play. It’s just that, so far, some of their most important bats haven’t been nearly as impactful as they were at the end of last year. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the biggest culprit. The 27-year-old slugger has homered just three times so far this season, and it’s not exactly trending up. This month, Guerrero has been the worst hitter in the Blue Jays lineup. He’s been so forgettable in May that his 34 wRC+ is ranked 174th out of 184 qualified major-league hitters. Springer, too, has struggled to get his bat going. He only has three home runs this year, while recording a career-low .604 OPS. There is belief within the Blue Jays organization that last year’s World Series run could have something to do with the offense’s sleepier performance so far this season. The team played long, grueling, and difficult games in the postseason that were both physically and emotionally draining. Game 3 of the World Series against the Dodgers stretched to 18 innings. Game 7 went to 11. Their ALCS against the Mariners also went the distance to Game 7. As a result of their extended season, several players had delayed ramp-ups in spring training this year. For some Blue Jays players, that slow build-up might be bleeding into the beginning of the regular season right now. They call it a World Series hangover for a reason. A couple of players who are exempt from that phenomenon include the Blue Jays’ new $210 million man, right-handed ace Dylan Cease, and new Japanese third baseman Kazuma Okamoto. Cease, since signing his seven-year contract with Toronto this past offseason, owns a 2.98 ERA in 10 starts. Okamoto leads the team with 10 home runs, 27 RBI and a .436 slugging percentage. They have both done their jobs. So has the pitching staff, for the most part. The Jays’ rotation is keeping the team afloat with a 4.06 ERA that’s ranked 12th in the majors. The bullpen is beginning to get taxed due to the burden of pitching in tight, one-run games of late. It’s the offense that’s sleepwalking. The Blue Jays play their best brand of baseball when they’re applying pressure in all sorts of ways. Chief among them is their ability to put the ball in play. Last year, the Blue Jays were celebrated as one of the best high-contact teams in recent baseball history. They led the league with the lowest strikeout rate and the highest batting average when they ended the regular season, and they carried that masterful offensive approach into the postseason. It helped them eliminate the Yankees in the ALDS, stunning New York by forcing it to execute fundamentals, something the team has struggled with in recent years. “They put the ball in play,” Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm told me regarding what impressed him about the Blue Jays offensive approach last year. “They make you make plays. That’s the hardest thing to do in baseball. You gotta make plays. Especially in that environment here. But they didn’t just do it to us. They did it everywhere.” But, what made Toronto’s approach work best was how excellent they were at slugging, in addition to playing small ball. The Blue Jays finished the 2025 season ranked seventh in MLB with a .427 slugging percentage. It helped that Springer hit 32 home runs last year for the first time since 2019. It also helped that Addison Barger, Bo Bichette, and Alejandro Kirk combined for 54 of their 191 total home runs in 2025. Of that trio, two are currently on the injured list and one is playing for the Mets. So the current version of the Jays’ offense is in desperate need of some pop, and help should be coming relatively soon. Barger (right elbow inflammation) is expected to receive clearance to begin throwing and hitting this week, with a target to return to the lineup at the end of this month or the beginning of June. Kirk (left thumb fracture) has been out since April 4, but he has started catching and hitting, and the Jays should have a clearer timeline on his return toward the end of this week. “The biggest thing is probably injuries,” Gausman said on why the team is underpeforming. “We’re missing a lot of guys. So we’re trying to figure a lot of that stuff out.” At this point in the season last May, the Blue Jays weren’t playing all that differently to how they are right now, counting most offensive metrics. They were still in third place in the AL East, two games under .500, looking up at the Yankees in the standings. Last year, they didn’t really start clicking until the last few days of May. A key sweep of the Yankees in July vaulted them into first place, and then they never looked back. So, there’s still time for the defending AL champions to turn things around. There’s no panic in the Blue Jays clubhouse. If things go as they planned, the AL East will have to go through Toronto. Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.