Addison Barger is quickly becoming the heartbeat of the Blue Jays' lineup

One of the most exciting parts of a baseball season is watching younger players contributing and helping the team win games. The Toronto Blue Jays are receiving that kind of production from Addison Barger, and they can use more of it in the future.

Barger's biggest problem in the last two seasons was inconsistent playing time and constant shuffling between Triple-A Buffalo and Toronto. While that seemed to be the right answer at that time, the 2025 season has demonstrated just how good he can be when left to his own devices.

Barger had two different stints with the Blue Jays last season, and hit just .197 in 69 games with seven home runs with 28 RBs. Still, he finished strong in the second half and put together a solid spring.

While he didn't make the Opening Day roster, it seemed like he'd the first player called upon when the moment arose.

That moment arrived in mid-April when Nathan Lukes was placed on the paternity list.

Barger seems to be putting things together on the offensive side after initial struggles. He's now slashing .267/.330/.442, which has raised his OPS+ to 117.

A native of Washington, Barger probably had his best stretch of baseball this season he went 6-for-13 during the Blue Jays' trip to Seattle.

Addison Barger is quickly becoming the heartbeat of the Blue Jays' lineup

He also had a recent stretch where he put nine straight balls in play that had an exit velcoity great than 98 miles per hour, which shows just how much power he possesses. He has a max exit velocity of116.5 mph, which is the top 3% in MLB.

He hits the ball hard and would rank in the top percentile in average exit velocity if he had enough at-bats to qualify for Baseball Savant's leaderboards.

It's not just the offensive side. His standout defensive game was against the Seattle Mariners at Rogers Centre where he had three outfield assists in his season debut.

Barger's offensive surge means that manager John Schenider and the rest of the Blue Jays decision makers will be facing a playing time decision soon since Andrés Giménez is due to return from the injured list soon. The Blue Jays should be doing all they can to maximize the offensive production, and Giménez (.195 batting average) wasn't cutting it before going on in the IL.

It wasn't that long ago when fans were lamenting the Blue Jays' offensive struggles. Barger's been hitting the cover off the ball and should be in the lineup everyday.

Barger must adapt as opposing pitchers make their own adjustments in how they pitch him. He's whiffed at 31.3% of the breaking balls he's seen so far in 2025, which is a tick lower than his 35.3% mark last season. However, his overall strikeout rate is lower than last season's, which shows that he's making progress in the batter's box.

And it doesn't like Barger won't have any problems will have any problems adapting to whatever's thrown at him. Earlier this week Sportsnet's David Singh published an article about Barger's unique background that included a stint in the Dominican Republic.

While the Blue Jays have played well in May, they'll need plenty of strong performances from players like Barger if they want to have a chance to make soem noise in the loaded American League East.