2024 had the potential to be a breakout year for Addison Barger, but it didn’t quite pan out that way. In three separate stints with the Toronto Blue Jays this past season, the 25-year-old had a mixed bag of results during his first year in the big leagues.

The team promoted Barger in late April to fill in for an ailing Kevin Kiermaier, but Barger looked over-matched in the first five games of his debut, going 1 for 18 with a lone single and six strikeouts. Many players have had comparable weeks in their careers, but for someone like Barger looking to break through as a regular, he failed to make an impression off the hop.

Down he went back to Buffalo where his numbers improved to a .218/.344/.391 slash line and some of his signature power came back with nine extra-base hits in 31 games for the Bisons. Those aren’t numbers that warrant a promotion, but with the Daniel Vogelbach experiment not faring much better (he was slashing .186/.278/.300 at the time) the Blue Jays DFA’d Vogelbach in favour of giving Barger another shot.

Barger stuck with the Blue Jays from mid-June until early July, where he had a brief one-week stint in Buffalo before being recalled after Bo Bichette landed on the injured list. Barger posted a .211/.267./.379 slash line during his final 64 games of the season, chipping in seven homers and 11 doubles during his second tour with the Blue Jays down the stretch. One of those homers was a walk-off homer against the Los Angeles Angels, a 439-foot shot to right-centre field.

In the final month of the season, Barger became a mainstay at the hot corner for the Blue Jays, taking the lion’s share of starts at third base. Whether it was third base, left field or right field, he became the club’s de facto super utility player after the exits of Cavan Biggio and Isiah Kiner-Falefa earlier in the season.

With his ferocious swing and tremendous bat speed, Barger ranked second only behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the highest average bat speed on the team in 2024. When Barger makes contact, watch out. However, combined with that 26.7% strikeout rate, he is a feast-or-famine type hitter.

Barger also placed highly on Baseball Savant’s Arm Strength Leaderboard, ranking as the 6th strongest arm in the majors in 2024, ranking in the 99th percentile for arm strength. Whether it’s from third base or the outfield, this dude can get the ball across the diamond in a hurry. In terms of raw skills (whether it’s his bat speed or his arm strength as an infielder or outfielder), it’s easy to see why the Blue Jays are big fans of Barger’s skill set. Given a bit of extra rope at the end of last season, he performed capably, but Barger didn’t have a hot stretch in August or September that put him head and shoulders over other depth guys like Joey Loperfido or Davis Schneider.

One of Barger’s fatal flaws earlier in the season is something that Guerrero struggled with at various points in his career, which is pounding the ball into the ground. At the beginning of the season, Barger hovered around a 50% ground ball rate, but he trimmed it down to 43% by the end of September.

At the end of the year, Barger was also back with his signature uppercut swing, moving the needle towards a 12-degree average launch angle. But one bad habit that crept back in during his third tour with the Blue Jays was Barger’s propensity to chase and miss outside the strike zone.

Anything down and in to the left-handed batter was too tempting for him to resist, whether it was fastballs, breaking balls or off-speed pitches. That was his unhappy zone all season long, but opposing pitchers exploited it in August and September against Barger.

The Blue Jays platooned him almost exclusively against right-handed starting pitchers, as Barger only saw five lefty starters all season. As much as Toronto would love to have another lefty-thumper like Barger in their lineup, he’d mostly sit against left-handed starters and would play against righties or come into the game as a pinch hitter against right-handed relievers.

Despite his struggles in 2024, there’s still a path for Barger to get everyday ABs with the Blue Jays in 2025. If the Blue Jays don’t add to the hot corner by signing Alex Bregman or Yoan Moncada, or beef up their outfield with Anthony Santander or Jurickson Profar, there’s runway for Barger to break camp out of Spring Training.

Both he and Clement shared the third base duties down the stretch for the Blue Jays and the hot corner will be a positional battle for the club heading into Opening Day. Ernie Clement played solid defensively and handled the bat well, but the upside play is to give Barger more time at third to see if he unlocks some potential.

If he falters, the Blue Jays could always go back to Clement at third, but Toronto already has enough glove-first guys in the lineup that they need some everyday thump outside of Vladdy and Clement is a career 81 wRC+ hitter at the big leagues. By comparison, Barger had a 151 wRC+ during his last full season in the minors back in 2022 as a 22-year-old.

There is room for Barger to grow, but depending on how much more aggressively the front office moulds the Blue Jays into a contender in 2025, they may not have the bandwidth to give Barger the benefit of the doubt again.

To make an impact, he’ll have to hit the ground running in Spring Training and continue that momentum into May and June to secure his spot on the roster. Unfortunately for him, he has a lot of competition in this talent pool with Loperfido, Schneider, Wagner and Orelvis Martinez battling for at-bats.

If it feels like it’s been ages since the Blue Jays organization has had a position player draft and development success story, it’s because it has. Not since Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio have the Blue Jays had a draft pick promoted to the big leagues and stick around as an everyday player (we’re not counting international free agent signings here).

If Barger hits, he stays. It’s as simple as that. The Blue Jays gave him a five-game look in April and the trial run didn’t amount to anything. One would hope he’ll get a longer leash in 2025, but Barger has to refine his approach to maximize damage on pitches in the zone and avoid chasing unhittable pitches.