4 changes that will help the Blue Jays return to their winning ways in 2024

After a rather disappointing end to a successful 2023 season, the Toronto Blue Jays will be looking to regroup this coming offseason in preparation to compete once again for 2024. To do so, there will undoubtedly be some necessary changes that need to be made in order for the team and the organization to be successful as a whole for both the short and long term. Here, we take a look at four important areas that need to be fixed to help right the ship for the Jays.

Finding the perfect balance between offense and defense

Prior to the 2023 season, the Jays primarily used their potent offense to power their way to victory as a recipe for success. Very often though, they would encounter some lapses on defense that gave away runs to the opposition, leading to some heartbreaking losses. With the realization that defense is ultimately what wins championships, the Jays changed the makeup of their roster this season to focus more on defense rather than offense. As a result, defensive stalwarts such as Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier were added to the ballclub at the expensive of offensive threats Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Gabriel Moreno, and Teoscar Hernández.

The defense certainly made a huge difference for the Jays in 2023, with just Varsho and Kiermaier alone combining to provide the team with a whopping 47 DRS over the course of the season. However, when it came down to crunch time in the Jays’ most important games of the season, it was the offense that ended up failing them the most. In particular, they were only able to muster one run in the AL Wild Card series against the Minnesota Twins, which led to their early exit from the postseason.

So what the Jays need to do for 2024 is to insert back some consistent power and thump back into their lineup to provide the right balance with their already-improved defense and pitching. In doing so, it would make the team much more well-rounded and less likely to have just one aspect of their game severely affecting their overall effectiveness. With both defensive standouts Kiermaier and Matt Chapman heading towards free agency and Brandon Belt pondering retirement, the ideal run-producing power bat or bats the Jays could pursue should replace one or more of those vacated positions for 2024. At the same time, Varsho will be able to continue to provide elite defense in the outfield, and the much-improved Bo Bichette and Gold Glover Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will keep the infield defense at a respectable level.

The coaching staff

Speaking of the Jays offense coming up short in 2023, that was certainly one of the major flaws to a rather strong season for the ballclub this year. In reality, it wasn’t the fact that the Jays couldn’t hit. As a matter of fact, they actually ranked eighth in all of baseball with a .256 team batting average and were sixth overall in hits with 1,423. Their actual Achilles’ heel was the fact that they floundered and failed miserably to come through whenever hitting in the clutch in the biggest moments of the game.

Often when the Jays were rallying and threatening to score, the opportunities would end up being wasted as they would strike out chasing pitches outside the zone, ground into double plays, or outright just pop the ball up for outs. Their failure to make good contact in those situations also included the best hitters in the Jays’ lineup, as they would usually come up short in the end.

In such cases, as much as it had to do with the individual ballplayer himself, the hitting coach should be held partly accountable for their lack of success in delivering in high leverage situations. Being able to instruct the hitters to have right approach and focused mentality entering those situations could potentially make a huge difference in the overall outcome of an at-bat.

Despite being the Jays’ hitting coach since the 2019 season, apparently Guillermo Martínez’s hitting approach hasn’t been working too well, especially with what we have witnessed during the 2023 season. As a result, it may be time for a change to see if a new fresh approach and instruction would provide the right boost to re-ignite the Jays’ potent bats for the near future.

The manager

Since taking over from Charlie Montoyo as manager of the Jays in 2022, John Schneider has led the team to a strong 135-101 overall winning record along with two well-earned postseason berths. So on paper, it appeared as though Schneider had been quite successful in leading the ballclub to success in the position.

However, in the midst of his current tenure with the Jays, Schneider has often made some questionable calls and decisions that ultimately affected the outcome of various ballgames. Most notably were his decisions on when he utilized his pinch-hitting and pinch-running, in addition to his management of pitchers on when they were brought in or taken out of the game. Unfortunately for Schneider, most of them ended up hurting the team more than helping it. In particular, the one that will linger in the minds of many was his pulling of starter José Berríos from the Jays’ do-or-die Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Twins when he was practically unhittable.

Whenever decisions are made by the manager, sometimes they work out, sometimes they backfire. But in the end, the manager should own it and at the same time, have the support of the players as well no matter the outcome. But when even the players were dumbfounded, as they started to disagree and show their displeasure on such moves, the manager could essentially be losing the room and the trust of his players in the process. In Schneider’s case, he is definitely treading on thin ice right now. But if the doubt and uncertainty remains in the leading voice of the clubhouse heading into 2024, it may be the right time for a change at the helm. That way, it would re-establish the clubhouse chemistry and put everyone together on the same page once again in creating a winning formula.