5 bold internal moves the Blue Jays could make to jumpstart the offense

Time to deal with the potential problem at the source 

If all of the player movements don’t turn out, perhaps the Jays should take a look at another potential source of the problem, which could be found at the coaching level. Hitting coach Guillermo Martínez has been part of the Jays’ organization since he was hired as a minor league hitting and infield coach back in 2012. Finally in 2018, Martínez was promoted to the big league club and has been their primary hitting coach ever since.

Martínez brought some success in the earlier parts of his tenure with the Jays, as the team finished in the top 10 in league for home runs and RBI between 2020-22, and in the top 3 for batting average and OPS for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. However, those numbers have been on a rapid decline since then, in particular this year with the team ranking near the bottom in most of the major offensive categories. Have opposing teams adjusted accordingly to counter Martínez’s implemented plate approach for the Jays, or has he lost the room in terms of getting his players to buy into his hitting strategies?

Whatever may be the case, perhaps a change at the helm could prove to be the jolt needed to kickstart the offense. If that is indeed the case, the Jays should promote someone internally in the name of assistant hitting coach Matt Hague. Hague has done wonders with many of the organization’s prospects over the past few seasons in the minor leagues. The progressive evolution of solid hitters such as Davis Schneider, Orelvis Martinez, Horwitz and Barger in recent years have all come at the hands of Hague and he is a figure in the clubhouse in which players love and actively respond to. Perhaps by giving Hague more power and authority than he currently has as just an assistant, it will enable him to get the most out of the Jays’ current hitters, especially helping those in a huge funk. At this point, anything is worth a try if it gives the offensively-challenged team a better chance of success going forward.