<p>The Toronto Blue Jays enter the 2025 season looking to find a last-minute spark to contend in the AL East. The club will have a lot of question marks by the time November rolls around and everyone is fully aware the front office is in the hot seat to win this season or else heads will roll and some familiar faces will be looking for a new employer.</p>
<p>For Toronto, the biggest areas that needed to be addressed last winter included the bullpen and adding some power to the lineup.</p>
<p>The relief corps underwent a massive overhaul this winter, with closer Jordan Romano being given his walking papers while the front office brought in some familiar faces in Yimi Garcia and Jeff Hoffman while adding some depth around the middle in Nick Sandlin.</p>
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<p>The same could be said for the power side in some regard, as the club added Anthony Santander this winter as well, who boasts 30+ home run campaigns over the past three seasons, but a fair argument could be made that another power bat was needed to compliment the current roster and that bat, unfortunately, hasn&#8217;t turned up (at least as of yet). That is unless new Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins can turn recently acquired second baseman Andres Gimenez into a slugger in short order.</p>
<p>However, underneath the surface, the Jays do have some power hiding within the internal trenches. One could easily point to Orelvis Martinez, who is already off to a hot start and has led the Jays farm system in round-trippers on numerous occasions, but another name to consider is Joey Loperfido, who was acquired at the trade deadline last year as part of the trade package for Yusei Kikuchi from the Houston Astros.</p>
<h2>Loperfido found home-run success in the minor leagues</h2>
<p>In the minor leagues, Loperfido mashed. Drafted in 2021, the lefty-batting slugger collected a couple of home runs to finish out the draft year in single-A and added 12 more across two levels in 2022. In 2023, when he made the jump to double-A, Loperfido found his swing, collecting 19 home runs with Corpus Christi alone and adding six more between single-A and triple-A to round out the season.</p>
<p>Last year, when he wasn&#8217;t in the big leagues, he was mashing in triple-A Sugar Land, where he collected 13 home runs through 39 games for a .296 ISO and a .568 SLG with a 124 wRC+. Of his 44 hits, 29.5% of them left the yard.</p>
<p>That being said, he wasn&#8217;t perfect at the plate.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big changes on the hand placement for Joey Loperfido. He said he&#39;s &quot;in a better spot to handle verty stuff and has a little more depth in his bat path&quot; 👀👀 <a href="https://t.co/4NPRmgNwxj">pic.twitter.com/4NPRmgNwxj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Avery Chenier (@AveryChenier) <a href="https://twitter.com/AveryChenier/status/1877500367673381047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Like a prototypical slugger, he struggled with the strikeouts, racking up 53 in triple-A last year and adding 95 more when he was in the big leagues split between Houston and Toronto across 81 games. It&#8217;s a trend that has followed the Pennsylvania product since he turned pro, authoring a 21.9% K rate in 2022, a 24.8% rate in 2023, and a 28.0% and 36.3% in 2024 at triple-A and MLB respectively. It comes with the territory in some regards but at the same time, there&#8217;s a limit before it starts to be a concern. And in the big leagues, he looked outmatched at times while he was adjusting to big league pitchers during his rookie season (which can be said for many hitters before him).</p>
<p>For a Jays squad that needs some production at the plate in the form of power and extra-base hits, Loperfido sits in a spot that could benefit him if he can find the barrel to the ball with consistency out of the gate. On <a href="https://twitter.com/AveryChenier/status/1893367259638243785">social media</a>, one can see that Loperfido has made tweaks to his batting stance during the offseason and it will be interesting to see how they play out this spring.</p>
<h2>Competition in the outfield is brewing</h2>
<p>Toronto is currently slated to enter the season without Daulton Varsho in centre field as he recovers from shoulder surgery, which means playing time is up for grabs in the outfield regardless of how the team decides to position the rest of the depth.</p>
<p>Even when Varsho returns, the club could slot Anthony Santander or George Springer in the DH spot and open a corner outfield spot for an internal player such as Loperfido. But <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-loperfido-or-clase-a-look-at-which-outfielder-fits-best-on-the-2025-roster">alongside the slugger</a> are other names vying for playing time such as Davis Schneider, Steward Berrora, Jonatan Clase, and Alan Roden (amongst others) and there&#8217;s competition brewing for bench spots at the moment.</p>
<p>Overall, considering the Jays need to find some offensive production to contend in the AL East this year, if Loperfido can make the adjustments to mash the ball as he did in triple-A over the past two seasons, he stands a good chance of finding playing time in the Major Leagues this season amongst his internal competitors.</p>
<p>However, if the strikeouts continue to be an issue and the power bat lacks from time to time, a move to triple-A is not out of the question for the former Astros prospect who still has two options remaining, and it will be the next man up to prove they can find the gaps and drive in runs in an ever so crucial season for the Blue Jays.</p>
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The Toronto Blue Jays enter the 2025 season looking to find a last-minute spark to contend in the AL East. The club will have a lot of question marks by the time November rolls around and everyone is fully aware the front office is in the hot seat to win this season or else heads will roll and some familiar faces will be looking for a new employer.

For Toronto, the biggest areas that needed to be addressed last winter included the bullpen and adding some power to the lineup.

The relief corps underwent a massive overhaul this winter, with closer Jordan Romano being given his walking papers while the front office brought in some familiar faces in Yimi Garcia and Jeff Hoffman while adding some depth around the middle in Nick Sandlin.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion" data-property-id="330" data-promotion-id="18983" data-context="“web-content-promocard&quot;"></div>
The same could be said for the power side in some regard, as the club added Anthony Santander this winter as well, who boasts 30+ home run campaigns over the past three seasons, but a fair argument could be made that another power bat was needed to compliment the current roster and that bat, unfortunately, hasn't turned up (at least as of yet). That is unless new Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins can turn recently acquired second baseman Andres Gimenez into a slugger in short order.

However, underneath the surface, the Jays do have some power hiding within the internal trenches. One could easily point to Orelvis Martinez, who is already off to a hot start and has led the Jays farm system in round-trippers on numerous occasions, but another name to consider is Joey Loperfido, who was acquired at the trade deadline last year as part of the trade package for Yusei Kikuchi from the Houston Astros.
<h2>Loperfido found home-run success in the minor leagues</h2>
In the minor leagues, Loperfido mashed. Drafted in 2021, the lefty-batting slugger collected a couple of home runs to finish out the draft year in single-A and added 12 more across two levels in 2022. In 2023, when he made the jump to double-A, Loperfido found his swing, collecting 19 home runs with Corpus Christi alone and adding six more between single-A and triple-A to round out the season.

Last year, when he wasn't in the big leagues, he was mashing in triple-A Sugar Land, where he collected 13 home runs through 39 games for a .296 ISO and a .568 SLG with a 124 wRC+. Of his 44 hits, 29.5% of them left the yard.

That being said, he wasn't perfect at the plate.

https://twitter.com/AveryChenier/status/1877500367673381047

Like a prototypical slugger, he struggled with the strikeouts, racking up 53 in triple-A last year and adding 95 more when he was in the big leagues split between Houston and Toronto across 81 games. It's a trend that has followed the Pennsylvania product since he turned pro, authoring a 21.9% K rate in 2022, a 24.8% rate in 2023, and a 28.0% and 36.3% in 2024 at triple-A and MLB respectively. It comes with the territory in some regards but at the same time, there's a limit before it starts to be a concern. And in the big leagues, he looked outmatched at times while he was adjusting to big league pitchers during his rookie season (which can be said for many hitters before him).

For a Jays squad that needs some production at the plate in the form of power and extra-base hits, Loperfido sits in a spot that could benefit him if he can find the barrel to the ball with consistency out of the gate. On <a href="https://twitter.com/AveryChenier/status/1893367259638243785">social media</a>, one can see that Loperfido has made tweaks to his batting stance during the offseason and it will be interesting to see how they play out this spring.
<h2>Competition in the outfield is brewing</h2>
Toronto is currently slated to enter the season without Daulton Varsho in centre field as he recovers from shoulder surgery, which means playing time is up for grabs in the outfield regardless of how the team decides to position the rest of the depth.

Even when Varsho returns, the club could slot Anthony Santander or George Springer in the DH spot and open a corner outfield spot for an internal player such as Loperfido. But <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-loperfido-or-clase-a-look-at-which-outfielder-fits-best-on-the-2025-roster">alongside the slugger</a> are other names vying for playing time such as Davis Schneider, Steward Berrora, Jonatan Clase, and Alan Roden (amongst others) and there's competition brewing for bench spots at the moment.

Overall, considering the Jays need to find some offensive production to contend in the AL East this year, if Loperfido can make the adjustments to mash the ball as he did in triple-A over the past two seasons, he stands a good chance of finding playing time in the Major Leagues this season amongst his internal competitors.

However, if the strikeouts continue to be an issue and the power bat lacks from time to time, a move to triple-A is not out of the question for the former Astros prospect who still has two options remaining, and it will be the next man up to prove they can find the gaps and drive in runs in an ever so crucial season for the Blue Jays.

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