The Toronto Blue Jays have struggled for most of the 2026 season. They dropped to last in the AL East ahead of the All-Star break and have looked no better since returning.

It’s a far cry from the 2025 All-Star break, when the Blue Jays sat two games ahead of the New York Yankees for the division lead with a 55-41 record. Lacklustre seasons across the American League mean that hope is not totally lost for the Blue Jays, but they have a lot of work to do if they want to get back to the postseason.

Injuries have played a major role in why the Blue Jays haven’t been able to replicate last season’s success, but more importantly, their top players are all performing well under expectations.

In 2025, the top three players for the Blue Jays in fWAR were George Springer (5.2), Alejandro Kirk (4.7), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (3.9). So far in 2026, they rank seventh (Guerrero: 1.0), ninth (Kirk: 0.3), and 14th (Springer: 0.0).

All three players have struggled with injuries, but they are all putting up some of the worst numbers of their careers.

Aside from injuries, the biggest story of the 2026 season for the Blue Jays has been Guerrero’s loss of power. Guerrero has only six home runs on the season, none of which were at Rogers Centre. He’s slugging .357, which is significantly worse than his next lowest slugging percentage of .433 from his rookie season in 2019.

Guerrero’s struggles are especially startling after his brilliant postseason when he slashed .397/.494/.795 with eight home runs and 15 RBIs in 18 games. His eight home runs not only set a franchise record for the most for a Blue Jays player in a single postseason, but also the most career postseason home runs. His 29 hits are second only to Ernie Clement for the most in a single postseason.

It’s also alarming in the first year of his 14-year, $500-million contract with the Blue Jays. While Guerrero hasn’t spent any time on the IL in 2026, he has been affected by a lower back issue. Despite his disappointing first half, fans still voted him into the All-Star Game. He chose not to participate to try and deal with the back issues.

Guerrero’s back problem could be, in part, because of the extra work he’s been doing to try to figure out his swing. He’s been taking up to 300 swings pre-game and 100 post-game. The effort is admirable, but it’s a lot of strain on the body.

Guerrero’s average exit velocity is down from 92 mph in 2025 to 90.1 mph in 2026. That drops him from the 88th percentile to the 65th. His barrel rate has also dropped from 12.2 percent to seven percent, while his hard-hit rate has dropped from 50.7 percent to 44.3 percent.

His bat speed is also down slightly from 76.7 mph to 76.1 mph, but that still leaves him in the 92nd percentile. The issue seems to stem from timing rather than speed. His square-up rate has dropped from 29.4 percent to 25.1 percent.

Another issue for Guerrero seems to be plate discipline. His chase rate is up from 21.5 percent to 31.1 percent. His whiff rate has actually dropped from 21.5 percent to 20.7 percent. His strikeout rate has also dropped from 13.8 percent to 13 percent. While his increased chase rate hasn’t caused him to strikeout more, it’s probably hurting his ability to make effective contact.

Guerrero has earned his place as the face of the Blue Jays. He’s consistently been the anchor of the team and has chosen to spend his career in Toronto. As the leader of the team, it’s no surprise that the Blue Jays have struggled as much as they have given his performance.

It was always going to be a tall ask for Springer to recreate his production from 2025. At 36-years-old, he was one of the top regression candidates for the Blue Jays entering the season.

Springer’s .309/.399/.560 slash line with 32 home runs from 2025 was an outlier compared to his recent season. It was especially unexpected after he slashed .220/.303/.371 with 19 home runs in 2024.

While it was unlikely for Springer to recreate his 2025 form, fans were probably hoping he wouldn’t revert to 2024. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. Springer is slashing .219/.302/.381 with 10 home runs.

He is second in home runs to Kazuma Okamoto (22). He also has the same number of home runs through his first 68 games as he had in 2025. The difference is that he’d hit that point by mid-June in 2025. Springer did miss time on the IL with a fractured toe and has started to look better the further away from the injury he gets.

While Springer has shown some positive signs recently and is not too far off of where he was through as many games in 2025, he’s running out of time to turn it around with the Blue Jays. The trade deadline is looming, and with the Blue Jays falling behind in the playoff race, it’s looking more and more likely that the team will be sellers. Springer is in the final year of his contract with the Blue Jays, making him a likely trade candidate if the team sells.

Kirk has been the most impacted by injury in 2026. He fractured his thumb on April 3 against the Chicago White Sox and was added to the IL the following day. He did not return until June 12 against the New York Yankees.

Due to the injury, Kirk has only played in 27 games for the Blue Jays in 2026. While active, he has been putting up some of the worst numbers of his career. His .209/.290/.309 slash line is the worst of his career and well below his career average .265/.342/.394. He has a 71 wRC+, which is the second-worst among Blue Jays with at least 100 plate appearances, ahead of only Davis Schneider.

Kirk can be given more benefit of the doubt due to how much time he missed on the IL. He has two home runs on 18 hits with nine RBIs. That’s not too far off his first 25 games of 2025, when he had two home runs on 26 hits and 12 RBIs. Kirk was slashing .260/.286/.350 with a 76 wRC+ in that span. As he gets more playing time and further away from his injury, he could start to look more like himself.

While Kirk is struggling offensively, he has still been very effective defensively for the Blue Jays. He has been one of the best framing catchers in MLB throughout his career, and that hasn’t changed in 2026. He’s also still very effective at blocking, ranking in the 96th percentile this season.

Kirk has adapted well to the introduction of ABS. He ranks 15th in net overturns among MLB catchers with 7.5. He has a 69 percent success rate on 35 challenges while catching. That’s the 12th-highest success rate among catchers with at least 20 challenges.

A lot has gone wrong for the Blue Jays in 2026. There’s no one reason why the Blue Jays haven’t been able to recapture the magic from 2025, but if there’s one issue more glaring than the rest, it’s that the players who are supposed to be leading the team are struggling the most.