3 Blue Jays players whose great starts are for real and 2 who’ll return to their former selves

2 players whose magical start appears to have ended

Matt Chapman

Set to enter free agency at the conclusion of the 2023 MLB season, Matt Chapman appeared to be a man on a mission with something to prove for his next contract when he burst out of the gate with his best first month ever in his entire career. He saw the ball really well and appeared totally locked in and was practically unstoppable as he led MLB in multiple hitting categories. He batted .384 with an OPS of 1.152, with 17 runs scored, 15 doubles, five home runs, 21 RBI, 14 walks, 26 strikeouts, and a stolen base to boot.

That outstanding performance netted him AL Player of the Week honours, as well as AL Player of the Month honours for April. Many people were happy to see Chapman helping the Jays to great success in April, but at the same time was beginning to worry if he was starting to slowly price himself out of town as a result.

However, when May rolled around, the complete reversion of Chapman back to his old self emerged, which was the one with a low batting average to go along with a lot of strikeouts. In the month of May, he regressed to a .202 batting average, to go along with a .585 OPS, 12 runs scored, six doubles, two home runs, seven RBI, nine walks and an astounding 34 strikeouts. It might have been either his luck was starting to run out, or more likely the pitchers have found a way to slow him down by exploiting his weakness of swinging at many pitches from the past. His stats were actually even below his career averages of .244 for batting average and .801 for OPS, so one could call it officially a struggling month for Chapman.

More than likely he will eventually get back up to his normal career numbers in the coming months, but his blazing run from the beginning of the season will not likely be replicated. On the bright side, knowing that this is likely the Chapman to stay for the rest of the season, at least the Jays will now have a better chance to resign him at the end of the season.