3 creative moves Blue Jays could still make to sneakily improve their 2025 roster

Toronto needs to find a righty to platoon with Joey Loperfido

The Blue Jays will likely give Joey Loperfido a long leash to solidify himself as an everyday left fielder in Toronto. Loperfido has loads of upside and there is a world where he establishes himself in 2025 as an everyday player who Toronto

Barring that, the Blue Jays could look at platooning him with a right-handed batter who has performed particularly well against lefties. One guy still on the market that posses that strength is Austin Hays.

Hays didn’t have a great 2024 season, battling a calf injury early in the year and after he was traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Philadelphia Phillies, he got injured just ten games into his tenure with the Phils.

But out of the 235 at-bats he had in 2024, 82 of them came against lefties – and he smashed them with a .354/.404/.537 slash line and .941 OPS.

And it wasn’t an outlier. In almost every season of his big-league career, Hays has had better than league average outcomes against lefties.

In 2023, when he was an All-Star, he had a .786 OPS in 149 at-bats.

In 2022, a down year for Hays, he still managed a .703 OPS.

In 2021 he hit 11 home runs against left-handed pitchers with a .346 OBP.

If you combine what Fangraphs is projecting for both Hays and Loperfido for 2025, you get a left fielder who will hit 21 home runs, drive in 83 runs, and has a slash line of .233/.293/.385

While those numbers don’t jump off the page, the Blue Jays left fielders last year combined for 19 home runs with a slash line of .207/.281/.378.

The Blue Jays could also use an upgrade against left-handed pitching as they hit just 25 home runs against south paws and slashed .228/.303/.349. Adding Hays should, in theory, see those numbers improve.  

At 29-years old, Hays might not want to sign a deal to be in a platoon role – but with no current full-time designated hitter on the Toronto roster, Hays could earn himself more at-bats in that role, while also looking to outperform Loperfido for more playing time.

He’d also be a good fit to get incumbent right fielder, George Springer, more days off his feet.