<p>Now that the Toronto Blue Jays have been crowned the 2025 Grapefruit League champions, it&#8217;s time to start chasing the real thing. </p>
<p>Six months ago, this franchise was nearing the end of a disastrous 2024 season that resulted in a playoff-less October and a last-place finish in the American League East, setting the stage for one of the most important off-seasons in recent years. The front office had many, many holes to fill to ensure its roster would be prepared to overcome last year&#8217;s underwhelming performance.</p>
<p>After adding a middle-of-the-order masher in Anthony Santander, a defensive wizard in Andrés Giménez, a future Hall of Famer in Max Scherzer, and upgrading the bullpen with new closer Jeff Hoffman, the return of Yimi García and the addition of Nick Sandlin, last winter went relatively smoothly. It wasn&#8217;t a great off-season, but a pretty decent one.</p>
<p>Toronto&#8217;s roster isn&#8217;t flawless. It could still benefit from another impact bat and reliever. However, there&#8217;s no denying this current group is much improved from last season&#8217;s squad that only won 74 games.</p>
<p>Given how much is riding on the &#8217;25 season, the final year of club control for both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, it&#8217;ll be crucial for the Blue Jays to avoid stumbling out of the gate. But that&#8217;ll be easier said than done, considering their tough road ahead, as they&#8217;ll face the Baltimore Orioles (twice), New York Mets, Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros all before the calendar flips to May.</p>
<p>While the AL East is currently a wide-open race, it still figures to be among the sport&#8217;s toughest divisions even with superstar Juan Soto &#8212; who this team will see next weekend when they visit the Big Apple &#8212; no longer a part of it.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s already clear who the favourites are in this division &#8212; the Red Sox, Orioles and Yankees, with the Tampa Bay Rays and Blue Jays considered more as dark horses. Still, the latter hopes to climb out of the basement and return to a competitive state this season.</p>
<p>Several things must go right for Toronto in &#8217;25, though.</p>
<h2>Offence Must Create More Damage</h2>
<p>Among the most important elements will involve the Blue Jays&#8217; offence, which badly needs to take a step forward after trending in the opposite direction over the last two seasons.</p>
<p>Simply put, this &#8217;25 lineup needs to create more damage. Four years ago, they led the majors in home runs (262) and slugging percentage (.466). Last season, however, only four other teams &#8212; the White Sox (133), Nationals (135), Rays (147) and Marlins (150) &#8212; hit fewer round-trippers than Toronto (156). Making matters worse, they also finished inside the bottom third in SLG (.389) and isolated power (.148).</p>
<p>Adding a thumper like Santander should help push the needle forward, even if he can&#8217;t replicate his 44 home runs from a season ago. Speaking of last season&#8217;s results, a healthy Bichette &#8212; who endured a miserable &#8217;24 campaign &#8212; will also drastically alter the team&#8217;s offensive firepower, essentially serving as a second off-season acquisition.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bo Bichette literally hit this baseball out of the stadium &#8230; <a href="https://t.co/xXGujhV2u8">pic.twitter.com/xXGujhV2u8</a></p>
<p>&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1899159566106976602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Heading into Thursday&#8217;s season opener against Baltimore, Toronto features one of the more potent offensive trios in the American League, with Bichette, Guerrero and Santander. The only question is whether those three will sit atop the batting order on Opening Day or if the coaching staff will assign someone else to the leadoff spot, moving Bichette to the No. 4 hole.</p>
<p>One way or another, that trio will almost certainly hit back-to-back-to-back consistently throughout this season, creating a formidable force, both in the first and ninth innings. As for the bottom half of the order, though, that group&#8217;s production remains a huge question mark.</p>
<p>This is where acquiring another impact hitter would&#8217;ve come in handy. But alas, here we are. There is hope, however, that Alejandro Kirk &#8212; fresh off <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/03/22/report-blue-jays-sign-alejandro-kirk-to-five-year-extension-worth-58-million/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signing a five-year, $58-million extension</a> &#8212; will be able to maintain his impressive spring and finally produce the resurgent offensive performance everyone has been waiting years for.</p>
<p>The elite-defensive backstop has been regarded as a below-average hitter during the past two seasons, recording a sub-100 wRC+ in both years, failing to recapture his career-high 129 mark from 2022. But perhaps this is the year he achieves that feat. Among the encouraging signs we can draw from his spring performance was his increased hard-hit rate, a 56.4-per-cent clip that <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=&amp;hfAB=&amp;hfGT=S%7C&amp;hfPR=&amp;hfZ=&amp;hfStadium=&amp;hfBBL=&amp;hfNewZones=&amp;hfPull=&amp;hfC=&amp;hfSea=2025%7C&amp;hfSit=&amp;player_type=batter&amp;hfOuts=&amp;hfOpponent=&amp;pitcher_throws=&amp;batter_stands=&amp;hfSA=&amp;game_date_gt=&amp;game_date_lt=&amp;hfMo=&amp;hfTeam=TOR%7C&amp;home_road=&amp;hfRO=&amp;position=&amp;hfInfield=&amp;hfOutfield=&amp;hfInn=&amp;hfBBT=&amp;hfFlag=&amp;metric_1=&amp;group_by=name&amp;min_pitches=0&amp;min_results=0&amp;min_pas=10&amp;sort_col=hardhit_percent&amp;player_event_sort=api_p_release_speed&amp;sort_order=desc&amp;chk_stats_pa=on&amp;chk_stats_hardhit_percent=on#results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">finished second only to Addison Barger (57.1 per cent)</a> among Blue Jays hitters.</p>
<p>For reference, Kirk&#8217;s hard-hit rate came in at just over 40 per cent last season, the second-lowest of his five major league seasons. But he wasn&#8217;t the only player who displayed a considerable increase this spring, as Giménez&#8217;s output (44.7 per cent) also saw a significant spike &#8212; he finished with a 28.5-per-cent clip in &#8217;24. The surprising addition of Alan Roden could play a big role, too, considering he concluded a sensational spring with a hard-hit rate of nearly 50 per cent.</p>
<p>Those improvements, plus the trio of Bichette, Guerrero, and Santander, will, hopefully, alter the course for an offence that struggled with its quality-of-contact metrics last season, placing tied for 21st in barrel rate (7.2 per cent) and 25th in hard-hit rate (36.5 per cent).</p>
<h2>Ace Kevin Gausman Returns</h2>
<p>As much as this season will revolve around Bichette and Guerrero, at least on the offensive front, few players on the pitching side, if any, mean more to the Blue Jays than Gausman. And they desperately need him to become their ace again.</p>
<p>The 34-year-old has set a high standard for himself. Between his breakout 2021 campaign, where he earned a 4.8 fWAR rating before cashing in on a now team-friendly five-year, $110-million contract with Toronto during the ensuing off-season, and serving as a five-win pitcher per fWAR in &#8217;22 and &#8217;23, performing as anything but an elite front-line starter is considered a major disappointment.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s precisely what last season was for Gausman &#8212; a disappointment. He had to play catch-up after making only one spring start, which, as most remember, amounted to a troubling first-half performance. In the end, despite finding his footing down the stretch of a meaningless remaining schedule, he was only worth 2.9 fWAR over 31 starts &#8212; matching his number of starts from the previous two seasons.</p>
<p>Gausman was among the main reasons the Blue Jays&#8217; rotation placed third in starter&#8217;s ERA (3.85) and sixth in fWAR (12.6) two years ago. Though he wasn&#8217;t solely responsible for last year&#8217;s decline, as the starting staff tied for 14th in ERA (3.95) and 17th in fWAR (10.6), his diminishing production certainly factored into that disappointing fate.</p>
<p>This time around, though, Gausman&#8217;s situation appears far more promising. Healthwise, he&#8217;s entering the regular season miles ahead of where he was last year. On the mound, there aren&#8217;t as many concerns regarding his fastball velocity, which proved inconsistent in &#8217;24, after his four-seamer averaged 95 m.p.h. in two of his three Grapefruit League outings.</p>
<p>We didn&#8217;t witness a ton of swing-and-miss generated by the right-hander&#8217;s splitter in camp, although that isn&#8217;t abnormal for this time of year. However, that pitch will receive considerable attention since it was among the main culprits behind his strikeout rate falling by nearly 10 per cent.</p>
<p>But the belief is that Gausman&#8217;s reformed fastball velocity and newly designed slider should help get his splitter back on track, which, in turn, should do the same for the two-time All-Star.</p>
<h2>Maintain A Healthy Bullpen (Rocky Start So Far)</h2>
<p>It wouldn&#8217;t be an exaggeration to say the Blue Jays rostered the worst bullpen in baseball last season. Why is that? Well, let me present you with this: their &#8216;pen ranked 29th in ERA &#8212; finishing ahead of only the Rockies (5.41) &#8212; and 30th in FIP (4.84) and fWAR (-2.5). Plus, they surrendered the most home runs (92) of any big-league club.</p>
<p>The &#8217;24 campaign was a rough year for Toronto&#8217;s relief corps, to say the least.</p>
<p>But the &#8216;pen is in a drastically better position a few days out from Opening Day, at least compared to how bleak it was at the end of last season. Granted, injuries to Erik Swanson, Zach Pop and Ryan Burr have already begun to test this team&#8217;s reliever depth, particularly as they move forward without Swanson at the back end.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Blue Jays relievers Erik Swanson, Zach Pop, &amp; Ryan Burr will begin year on MLB IL</p>
<p>Swanson’s the closest to returning. He received a cortisone shot recently to address a nerve entrapment in right elbow and has resumed activity. He’s about a week or two from throwing off a mound</p>
<p>&mdash; Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/1903895086787924407?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>That said, deploying the likes of Chad Green, García and Hoffman in late-game, high-leverage situations must feel extremely comforting for the Blue Jays, given how few reliable arms they could turn to in those spots from last year&#8217;s bullpen.</p>
<p>The key now, however, will be staving off any further injuries. Outside of Mason Fluharty, who isn&#8217;t currently on the 40-man roster, there aren&#8217;t any other high-upside relievers close to the majors within Toronto&#8217;s pipeline. So, they won&#8217;t receive much assistance if their big-league depth &#8212; a group already thinned out &#8212; takes another hit or two.</p>
<h2>Receive Help From Division Rivals</h2>
<p>Not only did the Blue Jays suffer from their own shortcomings in &#8217;24, but they were also a victim of sharing the same division with two of the AL&#8217;s top teams &#8212; the Yankees and Orioles, each surpassing the 90-win mark. Neither are as strong as they were, though.</p>
<p>The Bronx Bombers are back to relying heavily on the success of Aaron Judge and will be without ace Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery) and reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (strained lat). Meanwhile, the O&#8217;s will start this season without Gunnar Henderson (strained intercostal) and several key starting pitchers &#8212; including Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells. That&#8217;s without mentioning Corbin Burnes, who they let walk out the door.</p>
<p>Injuries have also been a concerning storyline for the Red Sox, with Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Lucas Giolito all set to begin the year on the IL. The Rays&#8217; rotation will also be shorthanded once the &#8217;25 season opens Thursday, as Shane McClanahan &#8212; hasn&#8217;t pitched in the majors since August &#8217;23 &#8212; will be unavailable for at least the first few weeks.</p>
<p>The AL East is up for grabs, which should be music to the ears of the Blue Jays brass. They received very little help, if any, from their division last season. But that script has already begun to flip this time around, though, and the regular season hasn&#8217;t even opened yet.</p>
<p>If that trend continues, Toronto&#8217;s odds of climbing up the standings will gain more and more traction as the year progresses, boding well for their chances of improving from a miserable 21-31 record against AL East opponents &#8212; by far the worst in the division a season ago.</p>

Now that the Toronto Blue Jays have been crowned the 2025 Grapefruit League champions, it's time to start chasing the real thing. 

Six months ago, this franchise was nearing the end of a disastrous 2024 season that resulted in a playoff-less October and a last-place finish in the American League East, setting the stage for one of the most important off-seasons in recent years. The front office had many, many holes to fill to ensure its roster would be prepared to overcome last year's underwhelming performance.

After adding a middle-of-the-order masher in Anthony Santander, a defensive wizard in Andrés Giménez, a future Hall of Famer in Max Scherzer, and upgrading the bullpen with new closer Jeff Hoffman, the return of Yimi García and the addition of Nick Sandlin, last winter went relatively smoothly. It wasn't a great off-season, but a pretty decent one.

Toronto's roster isn't flawless. It could still benefit from another impact bat and reliever. However, there's no denying this current group is much improved from last season's squad that only won 74 games.

Given how much is riding on the '25 season, the final year of club control for both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, it'll be crucial for the Blue Jays to avoid stumbling out of the gate. But that'll be easier said than done, considering their tough road ahead, as they'll face the Baltimore Orioles (twice), New York Mets, Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros all before the calendar flips to May.

While the AL East is currently a wide-open race, it still figures to be among the sport's toughest divisions even with superstar Juan Soto -- who this team will see next weekend when they visit the Big Apple -- no longer a part of it.

It's already clear who the favourites are in this division -- the Red Sox, Orioles and Yankees, with the Tampa Bay Rays and Blue Jays considered more as dark horses. Still, the latter hopes to climb out of the basement and return to a competitive state this season.

Several things must go right for Toronto in '25, though.
<h2>Offence Must Create More Damage</h2>
Among the most important elements will involve the Blue Jays' offence, which badly needs to take a step forward after trending in the opposite direction over the last two seasons.

Simply put, this '25 lineup needs to create more damage. Four years ago, they led the majors in home runs (262) and slugging percentage (.466). Last season, however, only four other teams -- the White Sox (133), Nationals (135), Rays (147) and Marlins (150) -- hit fewer round-trippers than Toronto (156). Making matters worse, they also finished inside the bottom third in SLG (.389) and isolated power (.148).

Adding a thumper like Santander should help push the needle forward, even if he can't replicate his 44 home runs from a season ago. Speaking of last season's results, a healthy Bichette -- who endured a miserable '24 campaign -- will also drastically alter the team's offensive firepower, essentially serving as a second off-season acquisition.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1899159566106976602

Heading into Thursday's season opener against Baltimore, Toronto features one of the more potent offensive trios in the American League, with Bichette, Guerrero and Santander. The only question is whether those three will sit atop the batting order on Opening Day or if the coaching staff will assign someone else to the leadoff spot, moving Bichette to the No. 4 hole.

One way or another, that trio will almost certainly hit back-to-back-to-back consistently throughout this season, creating a formidable force, both in the first and ninth innings. As for the bottom half of the order, though, that group's production remains a huge question mark.

This is where acquiring another impact hitter would've come in handy. But alas, here we are. There is hope, however, that Alejandro Kirk -- fresh off <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/03/22/report-blue-jays-sign-alejandro-kirk-to-five-year-extension-worth-58-million/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signing a five-year, $58-million extension</a> -- will be able to maintain his impressive spring and finally produce the resurgent offensive performance everyone has been waiting years for.

The elite-defensive backstop has been regarded as a below-average hitter during the past two seasons, recording a sub-100 wRC+ in both years, failing to recapture his career-high 129 mark from 2022. But perhaps this is the year he achieves that feat. Among the encouraging signs we can draw from his spring performance was his increased hard-hit rate, a 56.4-per-cent clip that <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=&amp;hfAB=&amp;hfGT=S%7C&amp;hfPR=&amp;hfZ=&amp;hfStadium=&amp;hfBBL=&amp;hfNewZones=&amp;hfPull=&amp;hfC=&amp;hfSea=2025%7C&amp;hfSit=&amp;player_type=batter&amp;hfOuts=&amp;hfOpponent=&amp;pitcher_throws=&amp;batter_stands=&amp;hfSA=&amp;game_date_gt=&amp;game_date_lt=&amp;hfMo=&amp;hfTeam=TOR%7C&amp;home_road=&amp;hfRO=&amp;position=&amp;hfInfield=&amp;hfOutfield=&amp;hfInn=&amp;hfBBT=&amp;hfFlag=&amp;metric_1=&amp;group_by=name&amp;min_pitches=0&amp;min_results=0&amp;min_pas=10&amp;sort_col=hardhit_percent&amp;player_event_sort=api_p_release_speed&amp;sort_order=desc&amp;chk_stats_pa=on&amp;chk_stats_hardhit_percent=on#results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">finished second only to Addison Barger (57.1 per cent)</a> among Blue Jays hitters.

For reference, Kirk's hard-hit rate came in at just over 40 per cent last season, the second-lowest of his five major league seasons. But he wasn't the only player who displayed a considerable increase this spring, as Giménez's output (44.7 per cent) also saw a significant spike -- he finished with a 28.5-per-cent clip in '24. The surprising addition of Alan Roden could play a big role, too, considering he concluded a sensational spring with a hard-hit rate of nearly 50 per cent.

Those improvements, plus the trio of Bichette, Guerrero, and Santander, will, hopefully, alter the course for an offence that struggled with its quality-of-contact metrics last season, placing tied for 21st in barrel rate (7.2 per cent) and 25th in hard-hit rate (36.5 per cent).
<h2>Ace Kevin Gausman Returns</h2>
As much as this season will revolve around Bichette and Guerrero, at least on the offensive front, few players on the pitching side, if any, mean more to the Blue Jays than Gausman. And they desperately need him to become their ace again.

The 34-year-old has set a high standard for himself. Between his breakout 2021 campaign, where he earned a 4.8 fWAR rating before cashing in on a now team-friendly five-year, $110-million contract with Toronto during the ensuing off-season, and serving as a five-win pitcher per fWAR in '22 and '23, performing as anything but an elite front-line starter is considered a major disappointment.

And that's precisely what last season was for Gausman -- a disappointment. He had to play catch-up after making only one spring start, which, as most remember, amounted to a troubling first-half performance. In the end, despite finding his footing down the stretch of a meaningless remaining schedule, he was only worth 2.9 fWAR over 31 starts -- matching his number of starts from the previous two seasons.

Gausman was among the main reasons the Blue Jays' rotation placed third in starter's ERA (3.85) and sixth in fWAR (12.6) two years ago. Though he wasn't solely responsible for last year's decline, as the starting staff tied for 14th in ERA (3.95) and 17th in fWAR (10.6), his diminishing production certainly factored into that disappointing fate.

This time around, though, Gausman's situation appears far more promising. Healthwise, he's entering the regular season miles ahead of where he was last year. On the mound, there aren't as many concerns regarding his fastball velocity, which proved inconsistent in '24, after his four-seamer averaged 95 m.p.h. in two of his three Grapefruit League outings.

We didn't witness a ton of swing-and-miss generated by the right-hander's splitter in camp, although that isn't abnormal for this time of year. However, that pitch will receive considerable attention since it was among the main culprits behind his strikeout rate falling by nearly 10 per cent.

But the belief is that Gausman's reformed fastball velocity and newly designed slider should help get his splitter back on track, which, in turn, should do the same for the two-time All-Star.
<h2>Maintain A Healthy Bullpen (Rocky Start So Far)</h2>
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the Blue Jays rostered the worst bullpen in baseball last season. Why is that? Well, let me present you with this: their 'pen ranked 29th in ERA -- finishing ahead of only the Rockies (5.41) -- and 30th in FIP (4.84) and fWAR (-2.5). Plus, they surrendered the most home runs (92) of any big-league club.

The '24 campaign was a rough year for Toronto's relief corps, to say the least.

But the 'pen is in a drastically better position a few days out from Opening Day, at least compared to how bleak it was at the end of last season. Granted, injuries to Erik Swanson, Zach Pop and Ryan Burr have already begun to test this team's reliever depth, particularly as they move forward without Swanson at the back end.

https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/1903895086787924407

That said, deploying the likes of Chad Green, García and Hoffman in late-game, high-leverage situations must feel extremely comforting for the Blue Jays, given how few reliable arms they could turn to in those spots from last year's bullpen.

The key now, however, will be staving off any further injuries. Outside of Mason Fluharty, who isn't currently on the 40-man roster, there aren't any other high-upside relievers close to the majors within Toronto's pipeline. So, they won't receive much assistance if their big-league depth -- a group already thinned out -- takes another hit or two.
<h2>Receive Help From Division Rivals</h2>
Not only did the Blue Jays suffer from their own shortcomings in '24, but they were also a victim of sharing the same division with two of the AL's top teams -- the Yankees and Orioles, each surpassing the 90-win mark. Neither are as strong as they were, though.

The Bronx Bombers are back to relying heavily on the success of Aaron Judge and will be without ace Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery) and reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (strained lat). Meanwhile, the O's will start this season without Gunnar Henderson (strained intercostal) and several key starting pitchers -- including Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells. That's without mentioning Corbin Burnes, who they let walk out the door.

Injuries have also been a concerning storyline for the Red Sox, with Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Lucas Giolito all set to begin the year on the IL. The Rays' rotation will also be shorthanded once the '25 season opens Thursday, as Shane McClanahan -- hasn't pitched in the majors since August '23 -- will be unavailable for at least the first few weeks.

The AL East is up for grabs, which should be music to the ears of the Blue Jays brass. They received very little help, if any, from their division last season. But that script has already begun to flip this time around, though, and the regular season hasn't even opened yet.

If that trend continues, Toronto's odds of climbing up the standings will gain more and more traction as the year progresses, boding well for their chances of improving from a miserable 21-31 record against AL East opponents -- by far the worst in the division a season ago.

Following ’24 last-place finish, how can Blue Jays avoid repeating history inside vulnerable AL East?

Instant Reaction: Blue Jays’ Yesavage, Guerrero make history in commanding win over Yankees

Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage proves he is built for the big moments

Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. shines in ALDS Game 1

Blue Jays GDB – ALDS Game 2: Toronto turns to Yesavage for pivotal matchup at the Rogers Centre

Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk (30) hits a home run in the eighth inning against the New York Yankees during game one of the ALDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Rogers Centre.

Recent articles from Thomas Hall

Breaking News