4 areas where the Blue Jays need to invest the most in this winter

After a less-than-stellar 2024 season for the Toronto Blue Jays, there will be plenty of work to do this offseason to get them back to their winning ways. Their main goal will be to retool properly and field a competitive team for 2025. In order to do so, there are multiple positions from their roster that needs to be addressed.

As a result, here we will examine four areas that the Jays will need to invest in this winter for the team to have success once again going forward.

Catcher

What was once a position of strength for the Jays just not too long ago has now suddenly become a weakness as we reach the conclusion of the 2024 season. Just two years ago, the Jays was backed by the strong tandem of Danny Jansen and former All-Star and Silver Slugger Alejandro Kirk at the catcher’s position. Not only that, they also had the game’s No. 1 prospect at the time in Gabriel Moreno coming up the ranks. Consequently, the team appeared to be pretty much set in the position for a long time. 

Now, two major trades later resulting in the departures of Jansen and Moreno, the Jays are now left with only Kirk with no serviceable backup or tandem catcher in sight. Brian Serven had his opportunity to solidify his spot on the team following the trade of Jansen. However, Serven failed in his audition both offensively and defensively, as he hit .159 and produced only 3 RBI over 28 games while allowing 3 passed balls, 4 wild pitches and an 88% stealing success rate. If we dug deeper to take a look at what’s available from their pipeline, there isn’t a single catching prospect to be found among the Jays’ top 30 prospects list.

As a result, this becomes once aspect that they will need to seriously address in the coming months. In terms of the free agent market, there are a couple of intriguing options in Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings. If the Jays were interested in a potential reunion, Travis d’Arnaud and even Jansen are available. The biggest name in the market is veteran Yasmani Grandal. He is likely past his best before date, but he would bring some valuable experience to the club. However, with the quality of the pickings being quite slim, the Jays may ultimately need to utilize the waiver wire or the trade route to get the job done.