Blue Jays fans won't understand Toronto's undeserved power rankings dip

Power rankings (in any sport) are an exercise in futility. It's impossible to rank an entire league of teams based on the most recent transactions or set of games — much less Spring Training games — without getting at least one thing wrong.

Still, what's happened recently that justifies them getting displaced from the No. 2 spot in the MLB rankings? They're still the reigning World Series runner-up who had a really strong offseason. An offense led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kazuma Okamoto and a pitching staff led by Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease should form the foundation of an elite roster with few holes.

And yet, FanSided found enough reason to drop the Blue Jays in their pre-Opening Day power rankings, slotting them in third place behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

Blue Jays' injury woes are team's lone red flag heading into Opening Day

In fairness to our colleagues over on the FanSided.com homepage, the Blue Jays have been struck by the injury bug in historic fashion in recent weeks. Three-fifths of their projected starting rotation — Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, and Jose Berrios — have landed on the shelf, as has top option Bowden Francis.

In their place, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer, and Eric Lauer will take on a load of starts in the beginning of the season. Those three players are more than capable of holding down the fort, but it's not ideal to dig so deep into the reserves before Opening Day even rolls around.

That is a genuine concern, and it's fair to suggest the Blue Jays might slip early while waiting out returns from some of their better pitchers. But the MLB season is also a long grind, and none of the starters currently injured (besides Francis) are projected to miss that much time.

The only hurt players on the roster are Anthony Santander and Yimi Garcia, the former of whom was replaced by Jesús Sánchez in a trade with the Houston Astros. Garcia, meanwhile, has started throwing off a mound and should also be back in short order.

The depth of this team is being put to the test already, but it's a testament to the front office's work that said depth is even in place. The Blue Jays survived a myriad of injuries en route to an AL pennant last year, and this team is better than that one was, at least on paper.

Third place out of 30 isn't bad (or even unfair), but what have the Cubs done to overtake Toronto? They've got their own injury issues to deal with, including ones to star players Seiya Suzuki and Justin Steele.

It seems like the Blue Jays are going to have to spend the 2026 season proving the doubters wrong. Again.