April In Review: A look at the first month of the season for the Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays had one of their best opening months to the season in over two decades, posting a stellar record of 17-10 (18-10, if including the season opener on March 30th), despite starting their first ten games on the road. It wasn’t without adversity though, as they began the month with many up and down, unpredictable games. But both their hitting and pitching have began to stabilize and become more consistent near the latter half of the month. Let’s take a further look with an in-depth summary of the Jays’ performance for the first month of the 2023 season.

Current rankings

Entering May, the Blue Jays currently sit third in the AL East, 4.5 games behind the division leading Tampa Bay Rays, along with an impressive record of 9-3 at home. The Jays also are currently ranked as high as No. 3 and as low as No. 7 in MLB Power Rankings across the main reputable sources.

In the AL, as a team their hitting currently rank 3rd in batting average, 6th in OPS, 7th in runs scored, 9th in home runs, 7th in runs batted in and 8th in stolen bases. This shows that the Jays of 2023 are relying less on the big blasts and more on contact hitting and speed when generating runs, as they usually ranked in the top three in home runs in the past few years.

For pitching, after starting the year near the bottom in the AL in almost every relevant category, they are now back up to 8th in team ERA, 5th in WHIP, 4th in OBA, 6th in walks, 4th in strikeouts and 1st in saves. As much as people thought their pitching was struggling badly, their recent run has put them back into somewhat respectable territory.

Highlights of the month

• Dramatic 12-11 comeback win against the Angels on April 9th after being down 6-0.

• Reopening of newly renovated Rogers Centre, with Hall of Famer Fred McGriff tossing out the ceremonial first pitch in the home opener on April 11th.

• Anthony Bass created media distraction with the United Airlines incident on April 16th - both Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman have one of their worst starts in their career, each giving up seven earned runs in less than five innings pitched.

• Jays took two out of three from the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees and swept the Chicago White Sox.

• George Springer, Santiago Espinal, Chris Bassitt all avoid stints on the IL with minor injuries that looked serious at first.

• Jays’ starters go a string of eight consecutive games with quality starts from April 18th to April 26th.

• They nearly get no-hit by rookie Easton McGee and the Seattle Mariners, but pull out a 1-0 win in extra innings on April 29th.

Top performers

Matt Chapman:  .384 AVG, 1.152 OPS, 17 R, 5 HR, 21 RBI

Chapman has put together his best ever start to the season in his career. He was named AL player of the week and have now seen more time in the cleanup spot behind Vladdy. He currently leads the AL in hits, batting average and on-base percentage, and leads MLB in extra base hits, total bases, slugging percentage and OPS. What more can the Jays ask for?

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.:  .309 AVG, .885 OPS, 20 R, 5 HR, 15 RBI, 2 SB

Guerrero has come out of the gate red hot, looking to regain his MVP-like form from the 2021 season. His plate discipline has been the best in his career so far, with a walk to strikeout ratio about 1:1, and he has also been proving that his 2022 Gold Glove was no fluke.

Bo Bichette:  .317 AVG, .862 OPS, 18 R, 6 HR, 18 RBI

Forming a booming trio with Chapman and Guerrero in the heart of the Jays’ order, Bichette also has had an explosive start to the season, unlike last season in which he had a miserable April. This bodes well for the rest of the season as he tends to get better as the season goes on.

Yusei Kikuchi:  5 GS, 4-0 W-L, 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 27.0 IP, 28 K

To the surprise of many, Kikuchi has been one of the most consistent Jays starter in all of April, giving them a chance to win each time out, making him one of the Jays most valuable and reliable pitchers for the month.

Kevin Gausman:  6 GS, 2-2 W-L, 2.33 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 38.2 IP, 54 K

Other than one horrendous start in Houston, Gausman has been vintage KG and more for the Jays in 2023 thus far. He is currently on pace for the best K/9 ratio and BB/K ratio of his entire career.

Erik Swanson:  14 GP, 8 HLD, 1.32 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 13.2 IP, 19 K

Swanson had been the Jays most dependable reliever to date, no matter what role he played. Look for Swanson to breed his success and get even more high leverage situations in the near future.

Underperformers

Cavan Biggio:  .111 AVG, .428 OPS, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 19 K

Biggio has endured his worst start to the season in his career, with numbers way below his career averages across the board. He will need to pick it up or else risk losing even more playing time or even his roster spot entirely in the near future.

Santiago Espinal:  .186 AVG, .511 OPS, 1 HR, 7 RBI

The main reason why Biggio still has such a long leash is because Espinal has also been struggling at the plate. He is performing slightly better than Biggio and his defence still remains elite, thus being the main selling points to keep him in the lineup.

Brandon Belt:  .169 AVG, .534 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 27 K

Belt was acquired in the offseason to help bring leadership and experience to the clubhouse. Unfortunately, the only thing he is leading the team currently is the strikeout rate (27 strikeouts in 59 at-bats). He will need to show that he can provide more value to the team to stay in the lineup.

Daulton Varsho:  .194 AVG, .588 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 4 SB, 28 K

Varsho was expected to provide some solid offensive production to go along with his defensive prowess. However, he has been disappointing thus far, in particular going stone cold in the latter half of the month, hitting close to .100 with only one home run. It’s only April, but he needs to show soon that the trade with Arizona was worth it.

Alek Manoah:  6 GS, 1-1 W-L, 4.88 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 31.1 IP, 20 BB, 28 K

After coming off a Cy Young-calibre season in 2022, many were expecting more of the same in 2023. However, Manoah has been off to a rough start, struggling with command and walking an abnormal amount of batters. Can he regain his 2022 form sooner than later?

Anthony Bass:  10 GP, 7.00 ERA, 1.78 WHIP, 9 IP, 4 BB, 7 K

Bass was expected to provide effective relief innings after his career year in 2022 with the Miami Marlins and Jays. However, he appears totally lost out there this year and time may be running out if he doesn’t resolve his issues soon.