Brett Bateman arrived in Toronto with a reputation built on contact, not thunder. The Blue Jays didn’t bring him in expecting a bat that could change a game with one swing. Two days into his Major League run, though, he’s already forced a rewrite.
Bateman entered Friday night’s series opener against the Baltimore Orioles still searching for his first career home run. By the end of the next night, he had two.
The first came in a 7-4 loss, and it gave Toronto a brief late jolt. Bateman went deep to right field for a 403-foot shot in the bottom of the ninth, driving in two runs. It didn’t change the result, but it did mark the start of something new for a player who wasn’t supposed to be doing this.
Back at the top of the order Saturday, Bateman struck again. He opened the bottom of the third inning with a home run over the right-field wall, his second big league homer. That blast put Toronto up 3-0, and Alejandro Kirk followed later with a two-run homer as the Blue Jays stretched the lead to five.
This time the early power actually stuck. Toronto beat Baltimore 7-3 and moved to 74-75, keeping itself in the American League Wild Card race.
The numbers behind Bateman’s first month in the majors already paint the picture of a hitter who has settled in fast. Through his first 29 games, he was batting .339 with a .402 on-base percentage and an .826 OPS, with 40 hits in 118 at-bats. That’s the profile Toronto expected when it put him at the top of the lineup: a contact hitter who could keep the offense moving.
The surprise is the extra gear.
Bateman and infielder Ty Southisene were acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline in exchange for starting pitcher Kevin Gausman. Five days later, Toronto selected Bateman’s contract and brought him to the majors. Since then, he’s done more than hold his own.
Two home runs don’t suddenly make him a power bat. But for a player who arrived with that label nowhere near his game, the early burst is enough to turn heads.
Toronto made a move for the future. Right now, that future is showing up in the present.
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