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.

Left Field

Following the trade of Kevin Kiermaier to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline, the Jays moved left field mainstay Daulton Varsho over to centre, leaving a gaping hole that needed filling in the process. So far, the Jays have used a cast of players in the spot, including the likes of Davis Schneider, Joey Loperfido, Nathan Lukes and Steward Berroa. To date, they have displayed varying degrees of success and failure.

Collectively on the season entering Tuesday, Jays’ left fielders have hit a measly .206 with a .655 OPS, along with 72 runs scored, 28 doubles, 7 triples, 18 home runs and 63 RBI over 157 games. But if you take away Varsho’s output where he put up a .223 average and .737 OPS with 24 runs scored, 8 doubles, 4 triples, 7 home runs and 21 RBI in 52 games as a left fielder, one could easily see the huge drop off in the numbers accumulated by the rest.

With the corner outfielder often known to be a power-producing position, the Jays need to find the ideal replacement candidate for 2025. In reality, since their loss of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernández over a couple of years ago, they still haven’t found someone that could replicate their offensive production. The Jays could have an internal solution soon as the fast-rising Alan Roden was recently named the team MVP by the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons. In addition, there are some solid options that could be found in the upcoming free agency, including Canada’s own Tyler O’Neill, along with Jurickson Profar and Michael Conforto. But the obvious crown jewel of them all that could potentially change the entire landscape for the Jays is none other than superstarJuan Soto. If the Jays intend to accomplish something big this offseason, the pursuit of Soto should be their main focus.

Bullpen (again and again and again)

Without a question the greatest weakness of the Jays from the 2024 season had been the abysmal performance of their bullpen. Their relief corps currently rank near the bottom of league across various major pitching categories including ERA (4.76 - 28th), WHIP (1.33 - 22nd), strikeouts (485 - 29th) and home runs given up (89 - 30th).

The usually-reliable studs in Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and Trevor Richards all had seasons worth forgetting, while the bulk of the rest of the group had endured some on-and-off struggles over the course of the season. Even the infallible Chad Green has also been shaky in recent weeks, with practically only deadline acquisition Ryan Yarbrough being the most dependable arm out of the bullpen right now. As a result, the Jays will need big bounce back seasons from their main core, along with undergoing a huge makeover for the remaining relief corps pieces to bring them back to respectable levels.

Fortunately, this year’s free agent market is loaded with relievers, including some bonafide closers. With the uncertainty of Romano’s rebound next season, added to Green’s recent struggles, it would be wise for the Jays to invest in relief options that are capable of closing games if needed. Among some of the top options include Paul Sewald and Carlos Estévez. Veterans Kenley Jansen, Aroldis Chapman and Craig Kimbrel are also available, but their steady decline in recent years no longer make them as reliable. Other solid relief options that could perform well in high leverage situations include Tanner Scott and Brent Suter.

However, if the Jays wanted to take a flyer on a proven veteran, Kirby Yates would fit the bill. Despite being aged 37, Yates put together his best season since 2019 by going 7-2 with 31 saves, along with an outstanding 1.21 ERA, 0.84 WHIP with a whopping 84 strikeouts in just 59.2 innings pitched in 59 appearances with the Texas Rangers this year. His first go-around with the Jays didn’t go well when his season ended before it started with Tommy John surgery back in 2021. Perhaps a second chance with the club would work wonders this time around.