<p>Baseball is a sport of individual battles, but the players will tell you it&#8217;s a team sport. They&#8217;re playing for the greater good, but personal accolades are just a bonus if that player can do their part while pushing the team over the top.</p>
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<p>These players are focused on winning unless teams build statistic-based incentives into contracts. If they reach a nice round number of hits, home runs, strikeouts, innings or games played, that’s merely an interesting footnote in their books.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s interesting to us, the outside observer. The Blue Jays are playing to get back into the postseason this year, but several of their key players are also coming up on some big milestones in their careers. These are the noteworthy benchmarks on the horizon for Blue Jays players in 2025.</p>
<h2>Max Scherzer: 3,000 innings pitched (2,878 IP currently)</h2>
<p>This is the most impressive of any upcoming milestones for a Blue Jays player. It&#8217;s going to be a tall order for Max Scherzer to pitch 122 innings or more this year, but if he can, he&#8217;ll become just the 20th pitcher in MLB history to toss 3,000 or more innings.</p>
<p>Scherzer and his former Detroit Tigers teammate Justin Verlander currently sit 1-and-2 for the most innings pitched among active MLB pitchers. If Scherzer does get to this benchmark, it won&#8217;t only be a huge milestone for him but will indicate he&#8217;s had a healthy season.</p>
<h2>Bo Bichette: 100 home runs (93 HR currently)</h2>
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<p>Typically, shortstop isn’t a position of power, but Bo Bichette has bucked that trend since his debut in 2019. All signs point towards a big comeback season for the 27-year-old, and he&#8217;s only seven home runs away from reaching 100 total.</p>
<p>Depending on how you define a &#8220;shortstop&#8221;, Bichette already has the Blue Jays franchise record for home runs by a shortstop. Alex Gonzalez sits second on the list with 87 career round-trippers.</p>
<h2>Vladimir Guerrero Jr: 1,000 hits (905 H currently)</h2>
<p>Crossing that 3,000 hit threshold is a surefire way to get yourself into Cooperstown, but Vladimir Guerrero Sr. &#8220;only&#8221; had 2,590 hits over his 16-year career. His son is already one-third of the way there through six years in the big leagues.</p>
<p>With a healthy season, Vladdy Jr. should join the 1,000-hit club with ease in 2025.</p>
<h2>Anthony Santander: 200 home runs (155 HR currently)</h2>
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Every Anthony Santander Home run vs Toronto Blue Jays (21)" width="1424" height="801" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uzjNhsyFffo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Any time a Rule-5 player sticks around in the big leagues, it’s found money. But when a Rule-5 guy like Anthony Santander not only sticks but hits, that&#8217;s the bet that never stops paying out.</p>
<p>Santander is currently sitting on 155 career home runs, so it would take a hell of a season exceeding his 2024 home run total to bring that up to a nice round 200 career home runs.</p>
<p>Before signing in Toronto, Santander was a Blue Jays killer, with 21 career home runs against Toronto. That was the fourth-most of any active MLB hitter. This offseason, the Blue Jays proved: &#8220;If you can&#8217;t beat &#8217;em, sign &#8217;em.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Vladimir Guerrero Jr: 200 doubles (177 2B currently)</h2>
<p>I&#8217;m not sure if doubles are factored when it comes to exchanging arbitration numbers, but if they are, perhaps Vladdy&#8217;s camp included a bullet point about his career 177 doubles.</p>
<p>He posted a career-high 44 doubles last year and is only 23 away from hitting 200 total in his career.</p>
<h2>Anthony Santander: 500 runs batted in (435 RBI currently)</h2>
<p>This might be a testament to the talent Santander had around him these last few years, but he&#8217;s close to eclipsing 500 RBIs, which should be doable in his ninth season in MLB. Santander currently ranks 75th among active hitters in RBIs, with Guerrero at 57th and Springer at 26th.</p>
<h2>Max Scherzer: 3,500 strikeouts (3,407 SO currently)</h2>
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Max Scherzer Strikes Out 9 vs White Sox, Becomes 10th Pitcher in History to Strike Out 3400 Batters!" width="1424" height="801" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5r-4m1bVGpA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Even if Scherzer never gets another K in his career, his 3407 strikeouts are the 11th most in MLB history. A healthy season with 150+ strikeouts could move him up to 8th on that list. But in the near term, the three-time Cy Young winner is only 93 Ks from crossing 3,500 career strikeouts.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to watch what happens with Verlander as well, as Scherzer&#8217;s 3,407 SO is slightly behind Verlander&#8217;s 3,416. They sit at number one and two among active strikeout leaders, with Gausman sitting ninth and Jose Berrios at 20th.</p>
<h2>Kevin Gausman: 300 games started (293 GS currently)</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to believe there was a time when Kevin Gausman converted into a reliever and found himself non-tendered in late 2019 after a half-season stint with the Cincinnati Reds. Gausman refined his split-finger fastball the following season with the Giants and reinvented himself into a strikeout savant.</p>
<p>There was a while when it felt like Gausman might never reach this juncture, but he&#8217;s 10 games away from starting 300 games in his career.</p>
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Baseball is a sport of individual battles, but the players will tell you it's a team sport. They're playing for the greater good, but personal accolades are just a bonus if that player can do their part while pushing the team over the top.
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These players are focused on winning unless teams build statistic-based incentives into contracts. If they reach a nice round number of hits, home runs, strikeouts, innings or games played, that’s merely an interesting footnote in their books.

But it's interesting to us, the outside observer. The Blue Jays are playing to get back into the postseason this year, but several of their key players are also coming up on some big milestones in their careers. These are the noteworthy benchmarks on the horizon for Blue Jays players in 2025.
<h2>Max Scherzer: 3,000 innings pitched (2,878 IP currently)</h2>
This is the most impressive of any upcoming milestones for a Blue Jays player. It's going to be a tall order for Max Scherzer to pitch 122 innings or more this year, but if he can, he'll become just the 20th pitcher in MLB history to toss 3,000 or more innings.

Scherzer and his former Detroit Tigers teammate Justin Verlander currently sit 1-and-2 for the most innings pitched among active MLB pitchers. If Scherzer does get to this benchmark, it won't only be a huge milestone for him but will indicate he's had a healthy season.
<h2>Bo Bichette: 100 home runs (93 HR currently)</h2>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evcqi9Ho3JI

Typically, shortstop isn’t a position of power, but Bo Bichette has bucked that trend since his debut in 2019. All signs point towards a big comeback season for the 27-year-old, and he's only seven home runs away from reaching 100 total.

Depending on how you define a "shortstop", Bichette already has the Blue Jays franchise record for home runs by a shortstop. Alex Gonzalez sits second on the list with 87 career round-trippers.
<h2>Vladimir Guerrero Jr: 1,000 hits (905 H currently)</h2>
Crossing that 3,000 hit threshold is a surefire way to get yourself into Cooperstown, but Vladimir Guerrero Sr. "only" had 2,590 hits over his 16-year career. His son is already one-third of the way there through six years in the big leagues.

With a healthy season, Vladdy Jr. should join the 1,000-hit club with ease in 2025.
<h2>Anthony Santander: 200 home runs (155 HR currently)</h2>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzjNhsyFffo

Any time a Rule-5 player sticks around in the big leagues, it’s found money. But when a Rule-5 guy like Anthony Santander not only sticks but hits, that's the bet that never stops paying out.

Santander is currently sitting on 155 career home runs, so it would take a hell of a season exceeding his 2024 home run total to bring that up to a nice round 200 career home runs.

Before signing in Toronto, Santander was a Blue Jays killer, with 21 career home runs against Toronto. That was the fourth-most of any active MLB hitter. This offseason, the Blue Jays proved: "If you can't beat 'em, sign 'em."
<h2>Vladimir Guerrero Jr: 200 doubles (177 2B currently)</h2>
I'm not sure if doubles are factored when it comes to exchanging arbitration numbers, but if they are, perhaps Vladdy's camp included a bullet point about his career 177 doubles.

He posted a career-high 44 doubles last year and is only 23 away from hitting 200 total in his career.
<h2>Anthony Santander: 500 runs batted in (435 RBI currently)</h2>
This might be a testament to the talent Santander had around him these last few years, but he's close to eclipsing 500 RBIs, which should be doable in his ninth season in MLB. Santander currently ranks 75th among active hitters in RBIs, with Guerrero at 57th and Springer at 26th.
<h2>Max Scherzer: 3,500 strikeouts (3,407 SO currently)</h2>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r-4m1bVGpA

Even if Scherzer never gets another K in his career, his 3407 strikeouts are the 11th most in MLB history. A healthy season with 150+ strikeouts could move him up to 8th on that list. But in the near term, the three-time Cy Young winner is only 93 Ks from crossing 3,500 career strikeouts.

It will be interesting to watch what happens with Verlander as well, as Scherzer's 3,407 SO is slightly behind Verlander's 3,416. They sit at number one and two among active strikeout leaders, with Gausman sitting ninth and Jose Berrios at 20th.
<h2>Kevin Gausman: 300 games started (293 GS currently)</h2>
It's hard to believe there was a time when Kevin Gausman converted into a reliever and found himself non-tendered in late 2019 after a half-season stint with the Cincinnati Reds. Gausman refined his split-finger fastball the following season with the Giants and reinvented himself into a strikeout savant.

There was a while when it felt like Gausman might never reach this juncture, but he's 10 games away from starting 300 games in his career.

<hr />

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