quite on the hot seat<\/a> this winter but was the source of significant fan frustration.\u00a0 \u201cWe needed to make an adjustment. We thought long and hard about our process and the alignment we had.\u201d<\/p>\nIn 2021, Toronto scored 846 runs (5.22 runs a game). By last year, a team built more on run prevention scored just 671 runs (4.14 per game). Small tweaks, Atkins acknowledged, weren\u2019t working. The 2024 Jays featured a middling offense that hit the fifth-fewest home runs in baseball and ran the bases terribly. Only the Yankees (-16 runs) got less out of their legs than the Jays (-14), according to Statcast.<\/p>\n
The offseason overhaul began with the hiring of hitting coach David Popkins, who made such an impression during his interview that he was offered the job that night. \u201cEasiest hire of my managerial career,\u201d said Schneider, who felt like his players were eager for more information and a modernized approach. Popkins and assistant hitting coaches Lou Iannotti and Hunter Mense have received rave reviews for overhauling pregame and in-game prep and taking a creative approach to scoring. The Jays put the ball in play more than anyone in baseball (they entered Wednesday with an MLB-best 17.1 percent strikeout rate), and the trio of hitting coaches emphasize each player\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe who you are,\u201d is one of Popkins\u2019 popular phrases, which has resulted in Myles Straw bunting, contact master Ernie Clement tapping out 112 hits in his first 112 games and George Springer being on track to have his best offensive season since joining Toronto before the 2021 season. The Jays were a good contact team last year (20.3 percent K-rate), but they\u2019re better this year, with improved power and a deeper, more multi-faceted lineup. The Jays have scored the sixth-most runs in baseball (556) this year with an MLB-best .267 batting average. They could be the first team to finish a season with a sub-18 percent strikeout rate since the 2017 Houston Astros.<\/p>\n
The Jays have won thanks to multi-homer games by Springer (who is rehabbing from a concussion). They\u2019ve also won with small ball. In keeping strikeouts low and the ball in play, there\u2019s constant pressure on opposing teams. \u201cKnow what club to take out of the bag,\u201d is another Pop\u2019ism, an ode to golf and a directive toward situational hitting. If a spot calls for a bunt, take out your putter. If it calls for a home run, get the driver. Players have bought into that approach, one made considerably easier on a team that uses its whole roster to mix and match and maximize every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the message from Day 1 of spring training,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cEveryone is going to be a part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not starting for the Jays, you\u2019re probably still playing. Toronto routinely uses 11 or 12 of its 13 position players in games, with 15 players who have at least 100 at-bats. The roster is built for flexibility. Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido and Straw can handle all three outfield spots, Addison Barger moves between third base and right field, Davis Schneider (no relation to John) bounces from left field to second base to designated hitter, and Clement can pretty much slot in anywhere on the dirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis glove is one of the best infielders I\u2019ve been around,\u201d marvels Jays starter Kevin Gausman.<\/p>\n
Regulars like Bo Bichette \u2014 who leads the team with 74 RBIs \u2014 call the Jays\u2019 part-time players the heartbeat of the team. Bichette, who homered twice in Monday\u2019s rout of the Rockies, has done his part too. He leads baseball with 143 hits, 10 more than the next closest player (Manny Machado) as of Wednesday. Bichette\u2019s renaissance after his career-worst season in 2024 has been one of the biggest storylines of the season. His pending free agency could be the biggest story of the team\u2019s offseason.<\/p>\n
On the baserunning side, the Jays were abysmal in an 11-14 April that looked like 2024 all over again. The coaches challenged the players to improve. The Jays don\u2019t have the pure speed of a team like the Milwaukee Brewers, but they can \u2014 as assistant manager DeMarlo Hale points out \u2014 make smart decisions. And they started to. In June, the Jays were among the league\u2019s best baserunning teams and, according to Schneider, the top team on advancing on hits. Toronto has its own internal baserunning scoring system (they rank 20th on the season by Statcast) that has helped foster players\u2019 competitive spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a guy scores from first on a double and they know what it means, they know what that does for your score,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool, you know? And then it gets a little contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The Jays have been smartly aggressive on the bases in 2025. (Cole Burston \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Jays take the season in two-week bites, called \u201cState of the Squad,\u201d where they look at what the team is doing well over the previous 14 days and what it can do to improve. Players and coaches alike have commended this year\u2019s group on the ability to live in the moment, good or bad. The last two weeks have been a mixed bag, with series wins against the Tigers and Rockies and losses to the Orioles and Royals, as well as some personnel upgrades. In need of pitching help, Toronto added relievers Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez and Louis Varland, starting pitcher Shane Bieber, first baseman Ty France and catching prospect Brandon Valenzuela at the deadline, losing three of their top five pitching prospects in return.<\/p>\n
Bieber, who is rehabbing back from Tommy John surgery, has the highest upside of the additions, as the former AL Cy Young award winner could give the rotation a potential ace down the stretch if he can regain his past form. The Jays\u2019 current group features Gausman, Eric Lauer (who has been a revelation), Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos, Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer, who has looked more like a future Hall of Famer in each of his last two outings.<\/p>\n
Scherzer, who turned 41 last month, signed with the Jays because of their aggressiveness in wanting to win. Despite significant financial resources that put them in baseball\u2019s upper payroll tier, recent offseasons have often been defined by their failure to sign big free agents. Last winter, they missed on superstar Shohei Ohtani. This winter, the pursuits of Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Roki Sasaki were futile. Signing outfielder Anthony Santander (who has been injured since May) and Scherzer helped shift the narrative.<\/p>\n
So did keeping Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. On April 9, the Jays agreed to a 14-year, $500 million extension with their homegrown slugger. It was one of the biggest moves in franchise history, and declared Toronto\u2019s intention to stay competitive for the foreseeable future. But trying to win and actually winning are two very different things. It\u2019s fair to wonder if Toronto\u2019s style of play is sustainable and if the Jays \u2014 the only team with an entire country behind them \u2014 can finally avenge their October woes, which include playoff losses in 2020, \u201822 and \u201823.<\/p>\n
The Jays players believe this year\u2019s team can do it, with some spotlighting their fundamentals (they also rank eighth in defense runs saved) and others highlighting how low-strikeout lineups tend to fare well in the postseason. Almost everyone mentioned team chemistry as evidence that this season is more than a hot streak. There is something about this team, players and coaches believe.\u00a0 Gausman said they haven\u2019t had to force any team bonding. Guys want to be around each other, and the younger guys are so into the game\u2019s minutiae and improving on the margins that Gausman endearingly calls them baseball rats.\u00a0 Ask Schneider \u2014 at the helm since he was named interim manager in 2022 \u2014 what stands out about this group, and he mentions the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no jerks,\u201d said Scherzer, who balks at the question of whether the Jays can sustain their torrid pace. To him, it\u2019s not about the results. It\u2019s about the process, both in getting to October and playing your best baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat teams are a sum of their parts. \u2026 Here, everybody recognized their (past) mistakes in this whole organization,\u201d Scherzer said. \u201c(The front office) upstairs, coaches, players \u2014 everybody really wanted to fix everything, and they wanted a total overhaul of operations. It\u2019s tough to know how bad the past was. I just get to see what the changes are, and right now this is a well-functioning team in every facet.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photo of Lukes and Clement: Duane Burleson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On April 30, the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 odds to win the American League East were at 7 percent.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,1290,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-126835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114988560204138381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}