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The Toronto Blue Jays are running out of time to find their identity in 2026
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Ben Wrixon
Jun 15, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 15, 2026, 14:29 EDT
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The 2025 Toronto Blue Jays had a clear identity: do the little things right as a team. 
This memo applies to all facets of the game, from making the correct play on defence to executing with runners in scoring position. They understood that little victories add up throughout a game and over the course of a 162-game baseball season. 
The 2026 Blue Jays feel like an entirely different team despite returning much of the same personnel as last year. It’s not early anymore; they would miss the playoffs if the season ended today. This current group is running out of time to establish its identity. 
The strength of this year’s squad on paper is unquestionably pitching. That’s a stark contrast to last year, when the Blue Jays generally had to hit their way to wins. Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, and Trey Yesavage are a legitimate trio atop the rotation, while Louis Varland and Tyler Rogers are arguably the best back-of-the-bullpen duo in MLB. 
Yet the Blue Jays don’t feel like a “pitching and defence” team for two reasons.
One is that a ridiculous number of injuries have forced them to use so many ineffective pitchers. The other reason is that they haven’t upheld the second half of that combination after half a decade of being one of baseball’s best defensive teams.
The injuries are nobody’s fault, but the Blue Jays are to blame for their defensive struggles in 2026. Jesús Sánchez and Yohendrick Piñango have been abysmal in the outfield, while the usually sure-handed Ernie Clement has been shaky at second base. Everyone is to blame, however, as just about all of them have had some shaky moments.
Things are even murkier on offence. The Blue Jays led the American League in batting average, OPS, and wRC+ with runners in scoring position last year. Flash forward to 2026, and they are dead last in all of MLB in OPS (.661) and wRC+ (81) in those same situations with a bottom-five average. This regression is at the crux of the team’s offensive woes. 
Clearly, the Blue Jays aren’t the clutch-hitting team anymore. They certainly are not a power-hitting team either, considering only one hitter—Kazuma Okamoto—has hit more than seven home runs, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is on pace for single-digits. 
They also aren’t a speed team, given that they have stolen the fourth-fewest bases in the league. Sprint speed declines from Daulton Varsho and Andrés Giménez over the last two years have left the fleet-footed Myles Straw as the team’s only dangerous baserunner. 
So what are these Blue Jays supposed to be? It’s hard to know at this point. They lack raw tools as a team, but they didn’t need them to be successful last year. The 2025 Blue Jays amounted to more than the sum of their parts, while this group has done the opposite. That has to change before this season slips away—and the clock is ticking louder every day.

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