3 areas where the Blue Jays have elevated their offence since last season

The 2025 version of the Toronto Blue Jays are playing a much more exciting and successful brand of baseball than they managed last season. Through their first 72 games last season, Toronto was 35-37, 14 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and five games out of a wild card spot, with a run differential of -35.

Heading into Wednesday’s game against the Diamondbacks, the Blue Jays sit 39-33, just three games behind the Yankees and up by two games in the wild card picture. Sure they are still in the negative with a run differential of -11, but they have been doing so many other things the right way this season that has helped push them into playoff contention over the last month and half.

3 areas where the Blue Jays have elevated their offence since last season

1. Mixing power with small ball

The Blue Jays have changed the narrative somewhat on the lack of power in the lineup. No one individually is setting the world on fire, but compared to last year, the Blue Jays are in a much better position. Last year, the Blue Jays had 60 home runs through June 17, while this year they have hit 73. 13 more home runs don’t seem like a ton, but considering they hit just 15 in the month of April, tacking on 58 home runs over the last six weeks has been a big reason as to why the Blue Jays have one of the best records in baseball since May 1.

The Blue Jays are projected by FanGraphs to hit 161 home runs this season, which just barely eclipses their total of 156 from last year, but this is also with the caveat that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette will only hit 20 home runs and Anthony Santander will only hit 13. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that all three players could bypass those totals once they really get going.

And if they don’t, the Blue Jays are mixing in effective small ball play to make up for the lack of power. This was done as a necessity in the early portion of the season but has remained a staple for the Blue Jays as they racked up wins throughout May and into June. Toronto is second in the MLB in sacrifice bunts this season with 16 and fifth with 23 sacrifice flies; veteran outfielder George Springer leads the team with four of those.

As a team they have worked 510 walks, which is ninth in the league and have the sixth lowest strikeout total with 1233. Opposing pitchers are working hard to retire the Blue Jays hitters this season.

2. Hitting with RISP

The Blue Jays have been one of the best teams in baseball in getting runners home in scoring position. When the Blue Jays have a runner on third with less than two outs, they have driven home that runner 90 times out of 105 chances. They are hitting .343 in those situations with an OPS of .819 while Bichette leads the team with a .412 average and 1.123 OPS

The Blue Jays .274 average (fourth in MLB) and .337 OBP (eighth in MLB) in those situations is ahead of their .255 and .334 numbers respectively from last season. They have 172 hits in those situations (fourth in MLB) and have driven in 220 runs with these at-bats, representing 74% of their total runs scored. 

3. Hitting against left handers

For the last few seasons, the knock on the Blue Jays offense has been that they are too right-handed, and don’t hit well against lefties. Last year, their .228 batting average was 27th and .303 OBP was 21st. They had 304 strikeouts against southpaws (fourth worst in MLB) and were dead last in home runs with only 25.

Those numbers have taken a sharp upward turn in 2025. They sit third in MLB in average (.271) and OBP (.343) and they have the third lowest strikeouts against (126). An area that still needs improvement is their home run hitting against lefties with only 15 of those to date, but that’s just ten off their total output from a year ago. Maybe the most surprising statistic, is that Ernie Clement leads the Blue Jays with four home runs against lefties with a .406 average and .725 slug.

The Blue Jays goal in 2025 is to reach the postseason and by continuing to reverse these numbers that were so bad in 2024, the Jays will position themselves well for a return to October baseball.