3 underrated players the Blue Jays are missing from the past five years 

During this part of the decade, the Toronto Blue Jays in large part have been led by many star players, including the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, Teoscar Hernández, Kevin Gausman and Jordan Romano to name a few. However, the Jays have also had a handful of lesser, underrated players move through their system that either played a role in their success or could have had they stayed longer with the club. These are three players the Blue Jays weren't building their team around, but could have been very useful on the 2025 version of the team.

3 underrated players the Blue Jays are missing from the past five years 

P Steven Matz

Despite having struggled massively in the year prior, Jays fans will remember the big bounce back season that Steven Matz had in his lone year with the team in 2021. Acquired by Toronto from the New York Mets during the 2020-21 offseason, Matz helped stabilize their back end of the rotation by compiling a career-high 14 wins to go along with a solid 3.82 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 150 2/3 innings over 29 starts. More significantly, his four key wins during his last five starts down the stretch for the Jays that year helped keep the team in playoff contention right to the very end.

Since then, Matz has evolved into a valuable swingman pitcher during the past few seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. Maintaining close to a respectable ERA of four while striking out close to a batter per inning over that time, the 34-year-old left-hander has even surprised with a renaissance season so far in 2025. Matz has posted a 3-2 record with a stellar 2.41 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, giving up zero home runs with 32 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings of work over 19 games to date. More impressively, in his two starts that he was called upon to undertake, he went 1-0 while yielding just one run on seven hits with 11 strikeouts in nine innings pitched. 

For a Jays team that were quite desperate for pitching help both in the rotation and the bullpen throughout this season so far, Matz would have been the ideal swingman to have on hand to effectively fill those needs for Toronto.

P Anthony Banda

When it comes to reliever Anthony Banda, many Blue Jays fans may have already forgotten that he had actually played for the team. That was because Banda appeared in only seven games for Toronto in 2022 after he was acquired in a trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates to help bolster their relief corps for the stretch run. The left-handed reliever ended up posting an 0-1 record with a 4.26 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, giving up three runs on seven hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings pitched. Apparently, that didn’t cut it for the Blue Jays as he was designated for assignment just one month after his acquisition.

Banda he has since shown he was good enough for the eventual World Series champion in the Los Angeles Dodgers. After joining the Dodgers in May of 2024, the 31-year-old reliever slowly but surely became a mainstay in their elite bullpen. In 48 games, Banda compiled a 3-2 record with two saves, a stellar 3.08 ERA while registering a strikeout per inning pitched. More significantly, he became a part of the Dodgers’ bullpen posse during the postseason to help lead the club to many key victories, when they barely had two healthy starters throughout the playoffs. Banda would register an exceptional 1.13 ERA along with 11 strikeouts in just eight innings over 10 playoff appearances as the Dodgers successfully captured their second championship title in five years.

With Banda continuing his excellence in 2025 with Los Angeles, he would have been the perfect arm to have in the bullpen to provide consistent and reliable innings for the Jays in their redemption season.

OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

In recent years, a lot of the spotlight fell on the shoulders on the stars Guerrero, Bichette, Hernández and Springer when it came to elite run production for the Jays. As a result, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. often fell under the radar in terms of his offensive contributions during his tenure with the club. Gurriel had been one of the more consistent producers on the team over that same time, averaging over 20 home runs and 80 RBIs annually over a full 162-game schedule while batting over .275 in the process.

There is no question that Daulton Varsho has flashed Gold Glove-calibre defense throughout his tenure so far with the Jays, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Toronto have been looking for a power bat in the outfield to provide some much-needed offense from the position during the past few seasons since the departure of Gurriel due to the Varsho trade. Had the Jays somehow got the deal done without including Gurriel at the time, they may already have their solution for their outfield situation instead of going through all the options in recent years and still without the exact answer.

On top of that, Gurriel was the party in the clubhouse and kept the game fun and entertaining for Jays’ nation as a whole. As a result, among all of the underrated players that have suited up for the Blue Jays during the past five seasons, Gurriel is the one that the club and the fans likely miss the most in more ways than one.