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Springer needs to find his 2025 form to help with Blue Jays turnaround
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Photo credit: © Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Jun 5, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 5, 2026, 13:45 EDT
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It’s been a tough season for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Coming off a season where they won the American League pennant and were inches away from winning the World Series, they’re still below .500 in early June. The tough start itself is nothing new, but by this point last season, the Jays were in the midst of their 13-3 stretch that put them in a position to win the division.
This year, injuries have played a massive factor in their 30-33 start, but just like 2024, there has been some regression as well. It’s apparent in one player in particular, George Springer.
Signing a six-year deal with the Blue Jays in the 2021 off-season, Springer slashed .266/.346/.502 with 47 home runs in 925 plate appearances over his first two seasons. While he was often injured, he was still a productive member of the lineup, posting a 135 wRC+ in that stretch.
But then, the decline began. It was slow at first, as Springer slashed .258/.327/.405 with 21 home runs in 683 plate appearances for a 103 wRC+. A strong start to the 2024 season gave some hope that the 2023 season was just unlucky, as he slashed .182/.341/.424 with two home runs in his 41 plate appearances.
By the end of the 2024 season, Springer was slashing just .220/.303/.371 with 19 home runs in 614 plate appearances, giving him a career-worst 94 wRC+. With two years left on his contract, it seemed as if Springer could be traded or DFA’d, just to get him out of the lineup.
Springer returned to the Blue Jays for the 2025 season and began the year batting in the middle of the lineup. Again, he started the season hot, slashing .459/.524/.730 with two home runs in 43 plate appearances. But unlike the 2024 season, Springer didn’t slow down.
When it was all said and done, Springer was the Blue Jays’ MVP in 2025, slashing .309/.399/.560 with a team-leading 32 home runs and 166 wRC+. After two seasons of mediocre play, Springer had one of his best seasons of his career, and just about led the team to winning a World Series ring. He also hit the biggest Blue Jays’ home run of the 21st century.
Unlike the past two seasons, Springer didn’t have a hot start to his 2026 season, slashing .195/.290/.370 with two home runs over his first 62 plate appearances before fouling the ball of his toe and missing two and a half weeks.
He’s been worse than that since returning, slashing .216/.281/.342 with three home runs in 123 plate appearances, good for just a 76 wRC+. That said, there is some hope, as he’s slashing .238/.304/.444 with all three home runs coming in his past 70 plate appearances. There was a stretch of five games where he looked like the 2025 version of himself.
The thing is, Springer is just one of a handful of players you can point to when discussing regression. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has just three home runs, none of which have come at home. The team has shown glimpses of what made them successful in 2025, but have also looked like their 2024 selves when they finished with a 74-88 record.
Both the 2024 and 2025 season started off similarly to the 2026 season. The 2024 also had a 30-33 record after 63 games, got to a 35-36 record on June 16th before losing their seven games, a stretch they never recovered from.
On the other hand, the 2025 Blue Jays received a massive two-run home run from Bo Bichette on May 28th, which kick-started a stretch of 13 wins over their next 16 games. Entering that game on May 28th record, they had a 26-28 record, before improving to 38-30 on June 11th. At the 63 game mark last season, the Jays had a 34-29 record.
The difference between the 2024/2025 Jays and this year’s team is that the Jays didn’t suffer nearly the same number of injuries to key players as they have this season. Springer missed sometime with a fractured toe, joining Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, and plenty of starting pitchers who missed a chunk of the season.
It’s far too early to give up on the season, because of a handful of players returning soon, they are half a game back of the final wild card and are only 10 games back of the division lead. But they have to start winning soon, and Springer getting hot is a big part of that.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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