Blue Jays shortstop Andrés Giménez keeps proving he’s more clutch than his stats suggest

Andrés Giménez has been a below-average hitter at the plate since his breakout season in 2022 with the Cleveland Guardians, but you wouldn’t know it if you only looked at how he has performed with runners in scoring position over the past few years.

Giménez has been one of the Blue Jays’ most clutch hitters in 2026, with Monday night’s game-tying home run in the ninth inning the latest entry on his growing resume. 

When considering Giménez’s excellent defence at shortstop, baserunning, and offensive production in key spots, it makes sense that he’s been the Blue Jays’ most valuable position player by fWAR despite a subpar overall slash line. 

Yet it also begs the question: why can’t Giménez hit this well all the time? 

What is Andrés Giménez doing differently with RISP?

Giménez entered Tuesday with a .265 batting average with runners in scoring position in 2026, third on the Blue Jays behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.278) and Alejandro Kirk (.379). He’s delivered 42 RBIs in those spots, which is second only to Kazuma Okamoto. 

These numbers, while not setting the world on fire by any means, are a continuation of what Giménez did in the clutch last season when he hit .253. They also don’t account for his propensity for coming through with the occasional home run in a big spot, which he most notably showed in the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners last October. 

What makes Giménez’s RISP stats more unusual is how they compare to his regular slash line. He’s hitting .244 with a .652 OPS on the season—he’s actually been better in these spots than in his normal, lower-pressure plate appearances. This discrepancy was even more pronounced in 2025 when he hit just .210 in the regular season. 

So what gives? Clutch can’t be quantified, but Giménez certainly seems to dial in his focus when he steps up to the plate with runners on base. He’s always come across as someone with a low heart rate; the moment never seems to overwhelm him. 

Yet, if the secret to hitting better was just focusing more intensely, then it’s fair to wonder why Giménez wouldn’t just lock in the same way for all his at-bats. He would obviously apply whatever mental cues help him in those situations t o every plate appearance.

The answer may instead be that pitchers have to approach Giménez differently with runners on base. When the stakes are lower, they can attack him with more pitches out of the strike zone in hopes of inducing a chase or weak contact. When runners are on, however, they have to go right at him and that plays into his bat-to-ball skill set. 

The data suggests there may be something to this theory in terms of what pitches Giménez sees in these situations. Pitchers have thrown him fastballs 31.6% of the time in 2026 with nobody on, compared to 34.9% of the time with runners in scoring position. He’s hit .276 against heaters this year compared to .203 against breaking balls and .221 versus offspeed. 

What this suggests is that Giménez’s production with runners on may not be the result of him doing anything differently when it matters most, but rather that he is getting more of the pitch he handles the best—and making pitchers pay for throwing him those fastballs. 

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