Ross Atkins voices support for Ernie Clement following second half slump ‘he’s such a good player’
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Oct 1, 2026, 11:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 30, 2026, 21:44 EDT
The Toronto Blue Jays’ 2026 season is one that many around the organization will quickly be looking to put behind them.
Fresh off their trip to the 2025 World Series in which they eventually were defeated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7, the Blue Jays entered the 2026 campaign with sky-high expectations.
The club ultimately fell short of these expectations, finishing with a 79-83 record and last place in the American League East. Even amidst a season in which it took only 84 wins to claim the AL’s last Wild Card spot, the Blue Jays just couldn’t string together a prolonged stretch of baseball that resembled much of last year’s second half.
In a year where so much went wrong, especially in the first half of the season as the offence struggled to generate much of anything, infielder Ernie Clement was the one constant who provided a spark on most nights.
Clement was named an All-Star for the first time in his career and was the AL’s starting second baseman after slashing .292 with seven home runs and 28 RBIs over his first 77 games. Clement was leading the AL in doubles with 20 at the time of the announcement and was carrying over his heroics from the 2025 playoff run, when Clement set a hits record with 30.
Unfortunately for Clement, his first half heroics went away in the second half as the 30-year-old appeared to run out of gas. Clement finished the season by appearing in a career-high 158 games, and during that span batted .259 with nine home runs and 48 RBIs.
Clement’s struggles became apparent during the month of September, when he batted .150 with a .186 on-base percentage and only five RBIs over 80 at-bats during the regular season’s final month.
Speaking at his end of season press conference, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins touched on how he views Clement.
“He’s such a good player,” Atkins said. “Every time he comes to play, I feel like he’s going to do something special and I think he does too.”
Much of Clement’s offensive success over the past two seasons has come from the utility player’s ability to ambush early in the count. Clement would often swing at the first pitch, and Atkins admitted that his approach may be something he needs to tweak if he wants to sustain success at the big-league level.
“That has been part of the challenge with him as an offensive player, his aggressiveness. That early contact became very dependent on hitting line drives and gaps,” Atkins said. “We don’t ever expect Ernie to have an elite on-base, but I think in time, he’s going to learn how he’s being attacked. Some players will take opportunities to take a chance to drive the ball and I think he’s going to take the chance to be more disciplined.”
With a season that frustrated many from start to finish, Clement was one of the major bright spots in the first half, and as the club turns the page to 2027, a great focus could be implemented on ensuring he doesn’t run out of gas.
“We need to be cautious of how much pressure we put on players and make sure that we can support them,” Atkins said. “Sometimes supporting them means they aren’t relied on for 162 [games].”
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