Blue Jays' pitching staff almost powers them to the top of FanSided's power rankings

The first sounds of spring were heard at the Toronto Blue Jays Player Development Complex in Dunedin last week as pitchers and catchers reported for duty. It's a group that the Blue Jays brass are high on as they enter 2026. They made it a priority to revamp this group during the offseason and that work has seemingly paid off, even before the regular season gets going.

Despite a few injuries, the Blue Jays' projected five-man rotation in 2026 is being mentioned as a reason they should be successful this up coming season, and the team as a whole is entering the year in one of the top spots in the power rankings.

Blue Jays' pitching staff almost powers them to the top of FanSided's power rankings

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, much like their 2025 season ended, the 2026 power rankings has them sitting right behind the LA Dodgers. Still, being second out of 30 teams isn't a bad place to start at all.

Chris Landers with FanSided writes, "While Toronto’s offseason didn’t go as planned offensively, Ross Atkins was able to remake his pitching staff, adding Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce to the rotation and Tyler Rogers to the bullpen. Question marks still abound, though: Will Cease be able to harness his command and look more like 2024 than 2025? Will the league adapt to Trey Yesavage, and how will he adapt in response? Can Shane Bieber stay healthy? What, if anything, can the Jays expect from José Berrios after he was left off the postseason roster entirely last year?

The floor here feels reasonably high. The ceiling, however, is very much up in the air, and if the offense takes a step back without Bo Bichette and Anthony Santander, Toronto might need its staff to pick up the slack."

And those are all fair questions about both the lineup and the pitching staff. The one thing the Blue Jays can point to in their defence, before a pitch has even been thrown, is that they come into the year with much more depth than they started with in 2025. As mentioned, there have been a few injuries. Bieber will not start ramping up his throwing activities until the regular season begins, while Bowden Francis will be out for the season.

But even then, the Blue Jays still go into the year with a solid five-man group led by Kevin Gausman and followed by Cease, Yesavage, Ponce and Berrios. Meantime, Eric Lauer, who started 15 games in 2025 and had a 12 game stretch where he had a 3.05 ERA in 62 innings, will surely be called upon as the first man up in the event of another injury. Last season, the Blue Jays were fairly thin to begin the year and after Max Scherzer was hurt, and Francis began to falter, it took the Blue Jays a while before they found some stability in Lauer joining the rotation.

Last year, the Blue Jays finished 19th in the league in ERA (4.19), 16th in WHIP (1.27) and tied for 12th with a .241 batting average against. This current crop entering 2026 figure to improve upon those numbers as long as they stay healthy.