Three Blue Jays players who need to step up

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The Toronto Blue Jays' Opening Day excellence seems like nothing more than a euphoric rush a week later.

Since the 8-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jays have gone 2-4 with an offensive meltdown of epic proportions in a series against the Houston Astros, including being no-hit in the series opener.

Toronto picked up nine hits in the three game set, with also just two runs scored in total. Given the offensive struggles the team faced in 2023, the new year looks to be a replica seven games in, and it has fans worried about their outlook for the rest of the year.

While it's going to take a collective effort to revive the club's identity as a genuinely quality ball club, the onus lies solely on internal improvement for the time being. There are three players in particular who have the biggest responsibilities to improve relative to the team's needs and their expectations going into the year.

Just missing the list is Bo Bichette, who has consistently looked lost at the plate; George Springer, who just can't get it going offensively and Yusei Kikuchi, who has one start under his belt but in that start he looked nothing like his 2023 self.

To be clear, this is a team sport and everybody needs to step up. But we've identified three of the players whose bounce-backs are more crucial than others to this 2024 Blue Jays squad.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It's not hard to imagine why the Blue Jays need Guerrero to take a step forward. It's simple math that you need your once best hitter to be your best hitter to thrive, especially in a year where offense isn't the team's strength anymore.

In seven games to begin the year, the former Silver Slugger is slashing .208/.367/.333 with an OPS+ of 108. While these numbers aren't horrible and a clear result of a small sample size, it's reflective of a more passive approach that he's taken so far in 2024.

Sure, it would be nice to see him have a year where he walks 100 times, and there's a genuine shot that happens this year and we see on-base numbers similar to what he put up in 2021, but without the power and extra-base potential, the impact is far less meaningful.

It's not that Toronto needs him to set a new career high in home runs, but the power aspect has been a decreasing factor since his breakout campaign, and for a club that was notoriously bad at cashing in with runners in scoring position the prior year, there aren't many other reliable options following an off-season that saw little change.

Guerrero should maintain a keen eye at the plate, but missing on pitches that are tailor made for him to crush make his steady approach all the less important, and he needs to get himself back to the player that wasn't late on fastballs time in and time out.

Chris Bassitt

It's been an ugly first two starts for Bassitt to say the least.

A 7.71 ERA and WHIP of 2.14 are areas of concern, especially in a year dependent on bounce backs and consistency from quality performances last year. He's having trouble finding his spots and it reflects in his career high marks in mean exit velocity and barrel percentage.

The reality is the Blue Jays need a solid year from Bassitt in order to contend for a postseason spot this year, and his stuff needs some polishing if that's going to be possible. Fortunately, his 66% ground ball rate is a sign that this could be another year where he just needs time to gel to not be hit so hard.

If anyone can be trusted to right their own ship, it's going to be Bassitt. The 35-year-old hurler has made a career out of consistency, sporting an ERA under four in all but one year (which was his third year in the majors where he made five starts).

We saw it last year where had a foul start in the opening series against the St. Louis Cardinals, yet despite that, he shrugged it off and finished the year as a top 10 Cy Young candidate. If this happens again, Toronto has at least three starters who can be trusted to bring their A-game every time, which makes a world of a difference given the a lack of consistent scoring and questionable bullpen health.

Bassitt doesn't need to win the Cy Young, the club just needs him to be Chris Bassitt.

Alejandro Kirk

This one is pretty obvious. Kirk had the worst year of his career in 2023, and it's only gotten worse to start 2024.

The backstop has just two hits in six games so far, with just one walk. His -32 OPS+ is the fourth worst among qualified hitters in the MLB so far.

It may be a lot to ask out of him to revert to his 2020 to 2022 self given just how different his offensive game has looked since, but with Danny Jansen's health being an annual cause of concern, the Blue Jays need Kirk to provide at least marginal offensive value from the catcher's spot.

It used to be the case where the Blue Jays had arguably the best offensive catching tandem in the league just two years ago, and while Jansen has proven to be a hard hitting machine when healthy, Kirk was no slouch as a pure hitter. His .788 OPS through 2020 to 2022, along with his 1.09 K/BB rate in 2022 is the version of Kirk that Toronto sorely misses now with an offense that struggles to string together good plate appearances.

If Kirk isn't able to provide a shred of power anymore, fans could hope (in theory) that he'll clean up his approach and become the usual player he is that can at least stretch at-bats and get on-base to help set up the bottom of the lineup.

But, without even his ability to simply get on-base at an above-average level, there are going to be growing concerns as to whether or not there's enough juice beyond 1-4 in the lineup to even sniff October baseball.

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Three Blue Jays players who need to step up before the season spirals

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