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Barger, Varsho among Blue Jays off to slow starts offensively
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Photo credit: © Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images
Ben Wrixon
Apr 3, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 3, 2026, 14:31 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays own a 4-2 record six games into the young 2026 season. Their starting pitching has been fantastic, most of their relievers have pitched well; yet, their offense isn’t quite firing on all cylinders after carrying the team for much of last year. 
While Andrés Giménez and newcomer Kazuma Okamoto have come out of the gate swinging hot bats, several mainstays in the lineup have struggled in the early going—with lefty sluggers Addison Barger and Daulton Varsho chief among them. 
Barger is hitless through 13 at-bats to open the campaign, while Varsho has just one hit in his last 10 trips to the plate. Neither has looked like their usual dangerous selves. 
It goes without saying that it’s still incredibly early. The best hitters in the game endure multiple stretches such as these throughout the regular season. Still, this duo’s early struggles do come as somewhat of a surprise, given they both tore the cover off the ball throughout spring training. Something appears to have been lost in translation from exhibition games to the beginning of meaningful play. 
The Blue Jays haven’t exactly been facing elite pitching, either. The Athletics and Colorado Rockies fielded two of baseball’s worst pitching staffs in 2025, and neither group projects to be much better this season. The likes of Luis Severino and Ryan Feltner aren’t exactly comparable to Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 
While none of them have been elite, the Blue Jays have faced several left-handed starters. That has likely contributed to Barger and Varsho’s slow starts, given their known struggles against same-handed pitchers. Facing a few right-handed pitchers in a row should help them both get into a better rhythm. 
It’s not just them scuffling, either. Alejandro Kirk hasn’t done much outside of his game-tying home run against the Athletics on Saturday. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has yet to record an extra-base hit, either. Just about everyone on the team has struggled with runners in scoring position. 
The great news for the Blue Jays is that they’ve already managed to win four games despite these slow starts. Last year’s team, with its inferior pitching, likely wouldn’t have been able to scratch out these wins if the offence was this cold. It bodes extremely well for the rest of the season when these talented hitters start hitting as well as they can. 
Baseball is a marathon—Barger and Varsho don’t need to have come out sprinting to ultimately win the race. 

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