The Blue Jays are finally starting to resemble the club people pictured back in March. Toronto has gone 12-7 in August after Thursday’s win over the Tampa Bay Rays, and the month is shaping up to be one of the few times this season the team has looked consistently like a winner.
That surge, though, doesn’t erase the damage from the first four months. The Jays are still alive enough to make September matter, but a handful of extra wins earlier in the year would have made this race look a lot different. And when a season gets this tight, the offseason choices start to loom larger.
Three of them stand out now.
The first was the bet on Jesús Sánchez to patch the outfield power gap.
Once it became clear Anthony Santander would be unavailable for much of the season, Toronto needed another left-handed bat with some pop. Sánchez made sense on paper, even if the expectation was limited to a platoon role against righties.
The issue is that the offense hasn’t come close to outweighing the defensive problems. He has eight home runs, 0.5 offensive fWAR and a -10.8 defensive fWAR, and he added another rough night against the Rays on Wednesday in a game Toronto had a real chance to win.
The deal itself hasn’t turned into a total loss, since Joey Loperfido hasn’t exactly forced the Blue Jays to regret moving him to Houston. But the bigger question hangs over the front office: could that trade chip have been used on a more dependable slugger if Toronto had pushed harder?
The second miss was underestimating what Bo Bichette still meant to the roster.
For a while, it looked as if the Blue Jays might be able to move on cleanly after Bichette left for Queens. His early stint with the New York Mets was rocky, the transition to third base was uneven and the bat didn’t immediately carry the lineup. Mets fans weren’t especially patient, either.
Then Bichette came back to Toronto with the Mets in July, and the emotion around that return told its own story. He had been one of the faces of this era, and the way he talked about his teammates, the city and his time with the organization only reinforced how much Toronto lost when he walked away.
His value went beyond sentiment. Bichette helped shape the clubhouse, and he also gave the Blue Jays flexibility all over the infield.
Last year’s World Series run worked in part because Toronto could move pieces around the middle of the diamond with ease. Andrés Giménez, Bichette and Ernie Clement gave the club options at shortstop, second base and third base.
This winter’s plan was different. Giménez was set to take over at shortstop, Kazuma Okamoto was brought in for third base and the infield was supposed to hold together without Bichette.
Okamoto has been a terrific addition, but Toronto may have underestimated just how much Bichette still brought in every area that mattered. Since the start of June, he has hit .317/.355/.471 with seven home runs in 66 games.
The Blue Jays reportedly kept in touch with him through the offseason, but a formal deal never came together, and Bichette landed a three-year, $126-million contract with the Mets.
The third decision was not giving themselves more protection against Jeff Hoffman risk.
After Hoffman gave up the game-tying solo homer to Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, the Blue Jays seemed to know the back end of the bullpen needed a fresh look. Ross Atkins even said during the offseason that neither the team nor Hoffman was necessarily locked into the idea of Hoffman remaining the closer in 2026.
That instinct proved right, just not in the way anyone wanted. Hoffman lost the job quickly after a rough April, when he gave up 11 runs, nine earned, in 12.2 innings. Louis Varland eventually settled the ninth inning down, but Toronto had already spent the opening month scrambling for wins it might be sitting on now.
Since that change, and after Brendon Little was demoted early, the bullpen has been excellent. Varland has handled the role well, Tyler Rogers has been a strong pickup and Rule 5 selection Spencer Miles has become a reliable part of the group.
Still, that only sharpens the criticism. If the Blue Jays already had doubts about Hoffman as a permanent closer, they probably needed more than one proven major league bullpen arm.
Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams, Kenley Jansen and Kyle Finnegan were all on the market. None would have guaranteed perfection, and some have had issues of their own this season.
But another legitimate late-inning reliever could have changed how Toronto managed April and given the team more room to maneuver before the closer situation forced the issue.
Instead, the Blue Jays are left trying to make up ground the hard way. They’re still hanging around, and in August that counts for something.
In Other News...
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The drop was tied in part to Buck Martinezs retirement, a shift that naturally altered the familiar rhythm for Blue Jays fans. Even so, the result shows the audience has not drifted far from the crew, and it also places Toronto in a category that included the Padres Don Orsillo and Mark Grant at No. 1 for a second straight year, a useful benchmark for how strong the competition remains. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays May Have Found A Serious Bat Far Later Than Expected
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What makes Bennett especially interesting is how much room there still is for the Blue Jays to sort out the rest of the profile. His defensive home is not settled yet, with catcher, first base and designated hitter all in the mix, which leaves Toronto with a pretty straightforward question: how much of his value will come from the bat alone? For now, the organization can at least feel encouraged that a late-round pick is already forcing a closer look. [Read more 🡒]