4 Blue Jays who need to come up big to help carry the team into the playoffs

With the weekend sweep over the Boston Red Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays suddenly found themselves back in a playoff spot heading into the final two weeks of the season. At the same time, the wins didn’t come all that easy as it required some timely hitting, as well as some impressive shut-down pitching by the Jays’ pitching staff to help nail down the crucial victories.

However, for the key to success in securing a postseason berth by the season’s end, the Jays can’t just continue to rely on timely hits and outstanding pitching each time out, as eventually it will catch up to them and potentially put their season in jeopardy. They will need to rediscover their offensive touch that they had earlier in September, in which they were averaging almost six runs a game for the first ten games of the month.

Their recent struggles on offence have been led in most part by key players on the roster. For those like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., he has begun to get out of his slump and is finally producing for the Jays in their most important stretch of the season. However, there are many others that still haven’t found their groove, despite their offensive capabilities shown from their previous track record suggested otherwise.

Here, we look at four Blue Jays who will need to come up big during these last two weeks of the season to help make sure the ballclub have a shot at qualifying for the postseason.

Alejandro Kirk

After having a breakout season last year with the Jays in becoming a first-time All-Star along with capturing his first ever Silver Slugger award, Alejandro Kirk has had quite the disappointing follow-up season this year. His overall numbers have dropped off somewhat from his previous year’s totals, consequently leading to his decrease in playing time as well.

However, back in early September when catching tandem partner Danny Jansen went down what ultimately turned out to be a season-ending injury to his finger. As a result, Kirk was once again thrusted back into the spotlight as he would be relied upon heavily to help carry the load at the catcher position and the entire Jays’ pitching staff down the stretch. With all due respects to Tyler Heineman, Kirk needs to be the difference maker for the Jays for them to have a chance to reach the postseason and beyond.

So far, the results have been underwhelming, as since overtaking as the team’s starting catcher on September 2nd, Kirk has only eight hits in 49 plate appearances, with 11 walks and seven strikeouts and only one RBI to show for prior to Tuesday’s game. As a result, Kirk will definitely need to finally show that he can produce in the biggest moments of the season, like how he finally homered for the first time since July against the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. So hopefully that is his first step towards providing valuable contributions to the team in these final two weeks.

Matt Chapman

For Matt Chapman, looking back, it certainly looks more and more like April happened to be more of an anomaly than a sign of a potential breakout season for him. After his torrid start to the season, Chapman has certainly fallen back down to earth big time for the rest of the year. Despite still playing solid defence, he really hasn’t come up big for the ballclub since that first month of the season until his game-winning double this past Sunday against the Red Sox to help the Jays finish off the sweep of their divisional rivals.

For the 2023 season, Chapman has hit .246 with a .765 OPS, 62 runs scored, 15 home runs and 51 RBI. However, in his past month and a half, he has posted just a .191 batting average, .542 OPS, with just four runs scored, four doubles, one triple, one home run and seven RBI with 36 strikeouts in just 25 games played prior to Tuesday’s game. He did have an unfortunate finger injury from the weight room near the end of August that ended up putting him out for more than two weeks, but hopefully he has fully recovered from that already.

As someone who has often struggled in the past producing in the final month of the season, Chapman will really need to dig deep and start making things happen in these final few games of the season. Not only will the Jays’ season be on the line, but heading into free agency at the end of the season, he needs to show everyone that he is worth the money in that he can consistently be both productive and valuable in the clutch.

Daulton Varsho

For Daulton Varsho, it has certainly been a mixed bag of results for him with his new ballclub for 2023. Everyone has been definitely more than satisfied with his elite defence in the outfield that he has provided, probably saving the Jays many games in the process. However, his production at the plate has left quite a bit to be desired.

For 2023, Varsho has compiled a .220 batting average with a .662 OPS, along with 60 runs scored, 17 home runs, 53 RBI and 15 stolen bases. However, prior to Sunday’s game, Varsho was only hitting a measly .174 with a .544 OPS, along with seven runs scored, two doubles, one triple and just two RBI in his previous 18 games. So hopefully his big home run against the Red Sox this past weekend is just the beginning of a breakout run he will have in the final couple of weeks.

With Brandon Belt currently on the sidelines due to lumbar spine muscle spasms and his return uncertain at this point, Varsho will be counted upon heavily as the main lefty power bat in the Jays’ lineup during this final stretch of the season. To make everyone forget once and for all about the trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks, this should be his time to shine and silence all his critics by helping the Jays reach the postseason.