Chris Bassitt singing a different tune this season after Blue Jays' turnaround

The Toronto Blue Jays didn't have a good time last year. Something felt "off" with the team as we watched them stumble their way to a 74-88 record. Looking in from the outside, it was difficult to put a finger on just one reason for their 2024 season seeming so forgettable.

In the clubhouse, there was one Blue Jays player who knew what the problems were. Veteran starter Chris Bassitt wasn't shy about airing his concerns last year, to an extent. From honest assessments about his own game to voicing internal clubhouse frustrations to touching on organizational flaws, Bassitt hasn't been afraid to speak his mind and tell it how it is.

But that was last season.

Chris Bassitt sings Blue Jays front office's praises after positive start to the season

The Blue Jays' 2025 season has a different feel about it. There's an air of positivity and optimism around the club that wasn't there last year. It has resulted in a winning record early on.

Vibes. Culture. Call it whatever you want.

Blue Jays players and coaches have spoken openly about being on the same page this season — suggesting that they weren't in 2024 — and it shows. They're keeping pace in what should eventually be a challenging and tight American League East, with all five teams potentially sporting above-.500 records.

Now that the Blue Jays and Bassitt have turned the page into a successful start to the 2025 season, the right-hander is singing a different tune. After his most recent outing where he shut out Atlanta over five dominant innings, Bassitt was quick to praise the higher ups in the organization for the team's turnaround from a year ago.

"I give all the credit to the front office, not just the team they built but the changes we made in the offseason, how open they were to talking and listening to us," he told reporters after the game.

So, what the heck happened last year?

Bassitt was critical of Blue Jays 'unfixable' problems in 2024

Late in the 2024 campaign, after the season was already lost, Bassitt made waves in Toronto when he aired his cryptic grievances on the Chris Rose Rotation podcast in August.

"I think we do a lot of things right here [in Toronto] ... but I don't want to identify the problems because some of the problems I don't think are fixable," Bassitt told Chris Rose.

Asked to elaborate, Bassitt wouldn't air the team's dirty laundry, but indicated there were plenty of issues that led to the team's horrible season.

"There's so many things that you could talk about," Bassitt said at the time. "I can literally talk for 45 minutes on this, on things that didn't go great, and I can talk about things that literally, I don't know how to fix with our situation. But I don't think saying those things publicly is what is best for this organization."

Bassitt, Blue Jays have turned things around early in 2025

The on-field product suffered due to whatever turmoil was going on behind the scenes. Bassitt wasn't immune. He turned in a disappointing second season as a Blue Jay. His 4.16 ERA was the highest full-season mark of his career, as were his 1.46 WHIP and 14 losses.

Now, at a spry 36 years old, he has helped lead the Blue Jays to an 11-8 record as one of the top starters in the game. His 0.77 ERA and 0.98 FIP lead all qualified pitchers heading into Friday's action. His 11.96 K/9 ranks sixth, and he has already accumulated the second-most fWAR (1.2).

There's still plenty of season left, and it remains to be seen if he can sustain this level of play over the next five months.

Even if he regresses closer to his mean, Blue Jays fans can rest assured that his, and the team's, performance won't have the weight of behind-the-scenes dysfunction dragging them down in 2025.