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.

Back-End Rotation Depth

Heading into the 2025 season, the bulk of the spots in the Jays’ starting rotation appears pretty much set. Barring any unexpected trades, Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt will be back to anchor the front end of the pitching staff. One could also argue that with the breakout second half performance by Bowden Francis, he has also already locked up a fourth spot in the starting five.

Yariel Rodríguez will be back next season, with Alek Manoah also a possibility in the latter half of 2025 to compete for the final rotation slot. Both had shown signs of success in the role in 2024, but both also had their run into injuries along the way. In particular for Manoah, he even had to undergo season-ending hybrid Tommy John surgery to repair his UCL. On top of that, many of the Jays’ starting pitching prospects in their minor league system were also decimated by injuries, including top pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann.

Therefore, the Jays really need to invest in an arm or two to add valuable starting pitching depth to the organization this winter. That is because based on what has transpired the past couple of years, they will likely end up needing it badly. Jack Flaherty, Nick Pivetta, Luis Severino and their old buddy Yusei Kikuchi are solid back end of the rotation options that could be found in this year’s free agency. If some decide to get out of their options, Sean Manaea and Michael Wacha would become viable options as well. However, if the Jays want to aim big and go for a big fish to head the rotation while pushing the rest back a rung, then we may be talking about adding a Corbin Burnes, Shane Bieber, Max Fried, or even the improbable Gerrit Cole if he ends up opting out.