The Blue Jays have forced their way back into the conversation.
After going 12-8 since the trade deadline, Toronto has clawed its way into a more respectable spot in FanSided’s latest MLB power rankings, landing at No. 15. That’s a notable jump for a team that sold off some key veteran pieces and still managed to keep itself afloat with one of its best stretches of baseball all season.
FanSided gave the Blue Jays credit for the work coming from both the rotation and the offense over the past few weeks, and even closed its Toronto writeup by suggesting that in a weak American League, it would be smart to bet on the reigning pennant winners. The AL East may already be out of reach, but the Wild Card race is still there for the taking.
A big reason for the surge is that the top players are finally looking like top players. Alejandro Kirk has been a force with a 181 wRC+ and 1.4fWAR, while Andrés Giménez has chipped in seven steals and a .703 OPS. They’ve helped set the tone for younger names like Charles McAdoo, who has posted a .436 slugging percentage, and Brett Bateman, who has put up a 107 wRC+ in August.
Toronto’s offense still isn’t firing on every cylinder. The Blue Jays are sitting in the middle of the pack in runs scored and wRC+ this month. But the position-player group has made up ground in other ways, using strong baserunning and defense to compile the 10th-most fWAR in the league since the trade deadline at 3.2.
The pitching has been just as important. Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber, and José Soriano have formed a dominant “Big 3,” combining for a 3.06 ERA over 70.2 innings since being grouped together.
That kind of production has helped stabilize a rotation that looked like it might be in trouble after Kevin Gausman was dealt and Trey Yesavage went down with injury. As a staff, Toronto ranks 10th in ERA at 3.53 since the deadline.
And the path ahead looks manageable. The Blue Jays survived a tough August slate by winning series against the Astros, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays. Now, they won’t face a single team currently above .500 the rest of the way, with the Cleveland Guardians the only playoff team left on the schedule.
With that kind of runway, No. 15 may not last long.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Rotation Just Took A Hit They Couldn't Afford
Shane Biebers latest stint on the mound had given the Blue Jays a much-needed lift, which is what makes this blow so frustrating. Toronto placed the right-hander on the 15-day injured list Thursday with right teres major inflammation, retroactive to Aug. 21, and turned to Chad Dallas as the corresponding move, recalling and activating the right-hander from Triple-A.
For a rotation that has already had to stay on guard all season, losing Bieber now removes one of the more dependable arms in the mix. The Blue Jays had been encouraged by how he had been throwing before the injury surfaced, but his absence leaves Toronto with another hole to patch at a time when every healthy start matters. [Read more 🡒]
Ernie Clement Hints Blue Jays Have A New Spark Behind This Surge
The Blue Jays have spent August looking more like the team they expected to be, and with 30 games left they are suddenly within striking distance of the third American League wild card. A big part of the mood shift has been the sense that Toronto is playing with more confidence and purpose, something Ernie Clement pointed to when he joined a podcast and discussed the clubs recent turnaround, along with the impact of the front offices trade deadline additions.
Clement also suggested there may be more going on behind the scenes than what shows up in the box score, hinting at a secret clubhouse superstition that has helped fuel the surge. He stopped short of revealing what it is, but the note adds another layer to a team that now has real postseason hope and a little extra intrigue as it tries to finish the job. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Fans Will Recognize The Houston Exit That Revives Two Trades
The Astros and general manager Dana Brown have mutually agreed to part ways during the season, ending a run that began in January 2023 and brought two division titles without the kind of October breakthrough Houston had come to expect. For Blue Jays fans, the news carries a familiar echo, because Browns front-office footprint still runs through Toronto thanks to the Daulton Varsho deal, one of the moves that helped define his time in Houston.
Browns tenure also included the trade for Yusei Kikuchi, another transaction that will look familiar to Toronto followers who tracked how Houston tried to reshape its roster. With Brown out, those moves take on a little extra weight as reminders of how much turnover can live inside a relatively short stretch of front-office leadership, especially when a club keeps winning in the regular season but never quite turns that into the deeper postseason run it wants. [Read more 🡒]