Blue Jays grades at the quarter mark: Position players
Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
May 24, 2026, 08:00 EDTUpdated: May 23, 2026, 22:30 EDT
It looks like the Toronto Blue Jays’ bats are starting to come alive.
For the first time all season, the Blue Jays have won four consecutive games, moving to two games back of .500. Pitching has been great, in recent times, especially their relief pitch. However, Saturday’s game was the type of game you’d expect the 2025 Blue Jays to play, scoring four earned against Paul Skenes.
Things are starting to look better for the Blue Jays, and they don’t even have their full lineup yet, as both Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger are progressing toward a rehab assignment. Neither player will be included here, nor will Eloy Jiménez, as they have fewer than 50 plate appearances this season.
We’ve already looked at grades for the starters, as well as the relievers, and in this article, we’ll grade the Blue Jays’ position players after the quarter mark of the season. It’s worth nothing that not only performance goes into these grades, but so does expectations.
Yohendrick Piñango
Grade: A+
There were several young players who became regulars for the Blue Jays in 2025, namely Addison Barger, Mason Fluharty, and Braydon Fisher. Well, Yohendrick Piñangno is one of two position player prospects to make their professional debut so far this season.
Piñango deserves an A+ for a handful of reasons. The most important factor is that Piñango has given the Blue Jays 2025-esque plate appearances, rarely chasing and hitting the ball hard. Performance alone earns him an A+ grade, slashing .313/.353/.422 with a home run and four doubles in 68 plate appearances. His 121 wRC+ ranks as the best on the team.
The outfielder has also exceeded expectations, then some. They have to keep him on the 26-man roster when the lineup is healthy.
Brandon Valenzuela
Grade: A-
Since acquiring Brandon Valenzuela for Will Wagner before the 2025 trade deadline, it was clear that he was going to be the backup catcher of the future.
Well that future arrived quickly when Kirk went down with a fractured thumb in early April. Behind the plate, you barely even notice the difference, as Valenzuela has four Defensive Runs Saved and 6 Fielding Run Value in 230.2 innings caught. He ranks tied for third in DRS, and tied for first in FRV.
He’s also proven to be a capable big league hitter since joining the Jays. The 25-year-old is slashing .232/.315/.390 with four home runs in 93 plate appearances. There’s some swing and miss in his game, which knocks his grade down a bit, but he should remain on the roster when Kirk returns.
Daulton Varsho
Grade: B+
Daulton Varsho has had a weird season. When healthy in 2025, he was one of the Blue Jays’ best power bats with terrific defence. It looked like his hot bat would continue after a strong Spring Training, but Varsho was slashing just .230/.302/.379 with three home runs over his first 96 plate appearances this season.
Over his next 96 plate appearances, Varsho slashed .314/.385/.488 with two home runs and seven doubles for a 146 wRC+. Altogether, Varsho is slashing .267/.342/.426 for a 116 wRC+, second best on the team.
He’s always been a streaky hit, but the decline of his defence in a contract year is worrisome. From 2022 until 2025, he accumulated 85 DRS, 50 Outs Above Average, and 52 FRV in over 3,000 innings in the outfield. But to start the 2026 season, Varsho has just 1 DRS, 1 OAA, and 1 FRV in nearly 400 innings.
Varsho’s jump on balls hit in his direction is a big reason for his decline, and because of the drop in defence, he earns a B+.
Jesús Sánchez
Grade: B
Acquired by the Blue Jays for Joey Loperfido before the start of the season, Jesús Sánchez has gotten hot recently and is now slashing .284/.321/.446 with five home runs in 162 plate appearances for a 112 wRC+, third on the team.
The tools are there to be an excellent righty masher, but he also chases outside the zone, as his 39.4 chase % is in the seventh percentile. Sánchez has also been below average in the two corner outfield spots, posting a -2 DRS, -2 OAA, and -2 FRV.
Still, the bat has been solid, so he get a B.
Ernie Clement
Grade: B
Ernie Clement had a record-breaking postseason run with the Blue Jays, setting the all-time hit record in a single postseason with 30. Over 77 plate appearances, the utility infielder slashed .411/.416/.562 with a home run, scoring the Blue Jays’ final run of the 2025 season.
He’s off to a career-best start with the bat, slashing .297/.323/.432 with three home runs in 205 plate appearances, with a 3.9 BB% and 8.8 K%. He also leads Major League Baseball with 17 doubles.
Clement is making good contact, but he’s chasing outside the zone 45% of the time, which is in the first percentile in the big leagues. The infielder has always been an aggressive hitter, but that’s up from 36.4% from last season.
More worrisome is Clement’s drop in defence. Last season, he split his time between third, second, and shortstop, accumulating 21 DRS, 13 OAA, and 9 FRV at the three positions. But two months into the season, Clement already has a -3 DRS, -5 OAA, and -3 FRV in 327.2 innings at second base.
Clement needs to be better in that regard, so he is graded at a B.
Andrés Giménez
Grade: B
Admittedly, I was duped by Andrés Giménez’s strong start to the season once again. From the start of the season until April 17th, Giménez slashed .290/.329/.493 with three home runs, three doubles, and a triple in 74 plate appearances.
Since then, Giménez has pretty much been a free out, slashing .200/.237/.311 with two home runs in his last 97 plate appearances, good for a 52 wRC+. The shortstop has had good games in that stretch, such as his two home run game on May 11th, but with a season slash line of .235/.271/.380, he needs more on the offensive side of things.
There are two main saving graces for Giménez. He’s been their most clutch hitter this season, batting .342 with three doubles, a triple, and a home run in 44 plate appearances with runners in scoring position. In turn, his 27 RBIs are tied for first.
Giménez has also fit like a glove after moving to shortstop, posting a -1 DRS, 4 OAA, and 3 FRV in 392.1 innings at one of the hardest positions to field.
For those two reasons, Giménez gets a B.
Kazuma Okamoto
Grade: B-
Two months into the season, I’m still not really sure what to make of Kazuma Okamoto. One thing I do know is that he’s been streaky.
From the start of the season until April 7th, the third baseman was slashing .262/.340/.429 with two home runs in 47 plate appearances, but also had a 40.4 K%. Okamoto went cold for the next two weeks as pitchers adjusted to him, slashing .143/.217/.238 with one home run in 46 plate appearances for a 30 wRC+, from April 8th until April 21st. One area of note was that his K% dropped to 26.1%.
It was Okamoto’s turn to make adjustments, slashing .321/.419/.736 with seven home runs and 16 RBI in his next 62 plate appearances, good enough for a 218 wRC+. But now pitchers have made adjustments to the adjustments Okamoto made. Since May 9th, the third baseman is slashing just .109/.176/.152 with no home runs and two doubles in 51 plate appearances, giving him a -7 wRC+.
Okamoto still leads the team in home runs by a wide margin, and is tied for the team lead in RBIs as well. Moreover, his defence has been a pleasant surprise, but he’s striking out at a 32% clip, a bit worrisome.
Right now, Okamoto earns a B-.
Myles Straw
Grade: C+
This season, Straw is slashing .247/.319/.358 with two home runs and three doubles in 92 plate appearances for a 94 wRC+. That’s pretty much his career-norm, and his defence lies in his value.
Unfortunately, Straw’s defensive numbers have taken a step back, posting a -3 DRS, -1 OAA, and – FRV in 52 innings at centre field. That’s well down from 15 DRS, 7 OAA, and 7 FRV in 532.1 innings last season.
A fifth outfielder for the Blue Jays, the expectations for Straw weren’t that high, so despite a below average bat and a drop in defence, he’s graded a C+.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Grade: C
This is a grade predicated on expectations, rather than performance. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been a far better player than Straw, but is slashing just .287/.377/.372 with three home runs and two doubles over 220 plate appearances. His 115 wRC+ is third-best on the team, but his slugging percentage is ninth.
Walking more than he’s striking out and hitting .287 is well and good, but the Blue Jays need Guerrero Jr. to be hitting home runs, or at the very least, doubles. He’ll probably get back on track, but for now, he earns a C a quarter of the way through the season as he hasn’t met expectations.
Nathan Lukes
Grade: C
Earning the fourth outfielder role last season, Lukes was an effective player for the Blue Jays, slashing .255/.323/.407 with 12 home runs in 438 plate appearances, with above-average defence.
But just over two weeks into the season, Lukes was slashing .065/.118/.065 with two singles in 34 plate appearances, good for a -49 wRC+. It turned out he had vertigo, saw a specialist in Phoenix, then got hot.
Over the next week, Lukes slashed .524/.545/.714 with 11 hits in 22 plate appearances, striking out once in the seven games. However, as he hit his fourth double in that stretch on April 24th, he left the game with a left hamstring strain.
He’s on a rehab assignment and will be back sooner rather than later. If he can pick up where he left off, expect his grade to rise rapidly.
George Springer
Grade: C-
Last season, George Springer took a dip in the fountain of youth, slashing .309/.399/.560 with a team-leading 32 home runs in 586 plate appearances. He also walked 11.8% of the time, by far the highest BB% he had since joining the Blue Jays in 2021. Overall, he finished with a 166 wRC+ and 5.2 fWAR, and was the team’s MVP.
He just hasn’t looked like the same hitter. Over his first 62 plate appearances, he slashed .185/.290/.370 with two home runs and four doubles for an 89 wRC+. On April 11th, he was pulled from the game after fouling a ball off his toe, fracturing it.
Returning on April 29th, Springer slashed .188/.250/.208 with no home runs in his first 53 plate appearances. More worrisome is the decline in his bat speed. Thankfully, he’s in his best stretch of the season, hitting three home runs and two doubles in his past six games.
A decline of Springer was expected, but a decline this steep is a big part of the Blue Jays hitting woes. If he can turn it around like it appears he’s doing, he’ll get a higher grade than C-.
Davis Schneider
Grade: D
Davis Schneider has had a weird big league career. Everyone remembers the final two months of the 2023 season when he hit .276/.404/.603 with eight home runs in 141 plate appearances. His first two months of the 2024 season were terrific as well, but he struggled mightily from June until the end of the season.
The right-handed batting left fielder/second baseman made the Blue Jays roster out of Spring Training in 2025, but was optioned in mid-April after slashing just .067/.333/.067. Upon his return in June, Schneider became a valuable member of the Jays bench, slashing .249/.364/.468 with 11 home runs in 206 plate appearances for a 135 wRC+.
Schneider got off to a good start this season, slashing .294/.478/.529 with a home run in 23 plate appearances for a 189 wRC+ over his first 23 plate appearances. Since then, his playing time has been sporadic, and he’s hit just .077/.238/.115 with a 37.5 K% for a 16 wRC+.
The 27-year-old has shown he’s capable of hitting at a big league level, but maybe a reset in Triple-A is what he needs. It seems to work out for him and the team last season.
Tyler Heineman
Grade: D
It’s been a rough season for Tyler Heineman. Last year, he was arguably the best backup catcher in the big leagues, slashing .289/.361/.416 with three home runs in 174 plate appearances for a 120 wRC+. That doesn’t even mention his defence, finishing the year with 10 DRS and 7 FRV.
His defence is still there this season, posting 2 DRS and 5 FRV in 175.1 innings behind the plate, but Heineman has been a non-factor with the bat. Heading into Saturday’s game, Heineman had a negative wRC+, sitting at -8 (remember 100 is considered average). A home run boosted that to 8, but he’s still slashing just .152/.188/.197.
With Kirk nearing a rehab assignment, a tough decision will need to be made about who is the backup catcher moving forward. Valenzuela has performed far better, but has options. If the Jays wish to send Heineman down, he’ll need to clear waivers and will still have the option to elect free agency.
It’s probably leaning in the direction of having Valenzuela as the backup catcher upon Kirk’s return.
Lenyn Sosa
Grade: F
The Blue Jays got a first hand look at Lenyn Sosa when they visited the Chicago White Sox early in the season. They seemed to like him, trading prospect Jordan Rich to the American League East team for the recently DFA’d infielder.
Sosa has not been good with the Blue Jays. Since joining the team, Sosa is slashing .192/.189/.288 with a home run and four doubles for a 33 wRC+. The power is there, but Sosa has a 53.3 chase percentage. That means over half the pitches that are thrown outside the zone, Sosa decides to swing at. It also means he’s not generating hard contact.
While Clement has a 45 chase percentage through two months, he’s one of the best hitters at not just making contact outside the zone, but also making good contact. Sosa does not do that.
It’s best put like this: This season, Sosa has a .198 batting average, but is below the Mendoza Line in terms of OBP, with a .196 on-base percentage. Sosa also hasn’t drawn a walk this season. There are a handful of batters with 30 or more plate appearances who haven’t drawn a walk, but no one comes close to matching Sosa’s 108 plate appearances without earning a free pass. He’d be a more effective hitter if he just didn’t swing.
Of any player we’ve looked at in the three articles, Sosa is the lone player who has earned an F grade. His time as a Blue Jay is coming to an end when everyone returns to full health, but hopefully he can figure it out elsewhere.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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