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Blue Jays: Davis Schenider is being too patient for his own good
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Photo credit: © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
Ben Wrixon
Apr 27, 2026, 17:30 EDTUpdated: Apr 27, 2026, 15:25 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays are hitting much better as of late, having won two consecutive series for the first time this season. Ernie Clement is on fire, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is getting on base non-stop, and Kazuma Okamoto is hitting for power since returning to the Rogers Centre. 
The lineup is finally rolling, but Davis Schneider has unfortunately not gotten in on the recent fun.
His slash line dropped to .140/.302/.256 on the year after a 0-3 performance at the plate in Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians. He’s hitless in his last 19 at-bats dating back to April 14th. To say he’s ice-cold would be an understatement. 
Schneider has been a streaky hitter since he arrived in the Major Leagues, but he hasn’t looked this lost at the plate since some of his cold stretches during the 2024 campaign, finishing the year with a .625 OPS across 135 games. So, what exactly is going wrong right now? 
The strikeouts aren’t helping. Schneider has struck out 32.1% of the time so far this year, which is right in line with 2024 and up significantly from the 26.4% K-rate he recorded last season. Anything above 30% is encroaching on dangerous territory.
Schneider isn’t striking out more because he’s suddenly turned into a free swinger; he’s actually swinging a career-low 35.5% of the time. This has led him to swing at pitches out of the zone less often. The issue is that he’s also now swinging at pitches in the strike zone less, just 55.6% of the time compared to 68.6% last season. 
Simply put, Schneider is being too passive at the plate. He’s walking at a ridiculous 18.9% clip, but what at cost? He’s watching too many hittable pitches go by and working himself into deep counts. Those can end in walks, yes, but they’re also more likely to end in strikeouts or weak balls in play on pitches that aren’t strikes. 
The data supports this, as Schneider has made significantly more contact on pitches in the “shadow zone” this year—essentially pitchers’ pitches. His contact rate on pitches in the heart of the zone, meanwhile, has dropped from 90.2% in 2025 to just 79.5% this year. His average exit velocity is also down over two miles-per-hour.
Schneider’s tremendous plate discipline has actually been to his detriment thus far. The solution isn’t to start imitating Clement, but swinging at more strikes early in the count could be helpful. He’s not giving himself enough chances to hit the ball with authority right now. 
The good news for Schneider and the Blue Jays is that this is a fixable problem. He doesn’t need to hit .300 to be useful, especially if he keeps drawing his walks. He can be incredibly productive with a batting average in the .210 range, given his combination of power and on-base ability. This is an approach issue rather than a skill issue. 
The Blue Jays may opt to have Schneier work through this in Triple-A Buffalo when George Springer returns. Even if they do demote him temporarily, he’ll be back and contributing again later this year once he starts being more aggressive.

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