Ranking the 3 most important Blue Jays players for 2026

Spring Training is well underway for MLB, and the Toronto Blue Jays have begun their lineup and pitching testing before the regular season gets underway next month. Heading into Wednesday's game (Feb. 25) the Blue Jays are 1-3 in the early days of Grapefruit League action, with lots more to play in the coming weeks.

As Toronto enters March, there may be some early indications of who needs to have a big year in order to get back to October baseball and which players will be the most instrumental in making that happen.

Ranking three important players for the 2026 Blue Jays

#3 - Ernie Clement

One of the lasting moments of the 2025 Postseason run was Ernie Clement's historic offensive performance. Clement broke the record for most hits in a single postseason with 30 and broke out as one of the Blue Jays' most important pieces last October.

Clement benefited from more playing time after Bo Bichette was out for most of the playoffs and Clement got settled at second base with Andrés Giménez at shortstop. After a performance like that, how would you not want to find a way to reward a player like that with more starting time? Had Bichette stayed with the Blue Jays, Clement most likely would have shifted more into a utility role with Giménez for second base.

However, Bichette is no longer a Blue Jay, and that opens the door for Clement. With Giménez now making shortstop his permanent home, Clement can go into second and get his everyday playing time. Now that the opportunity has fallen into Clement's lap, it's something he can't throw away, and needs to continue to build on, into 2026.

#2 - Trey Yesavage

What more needs to be said about growing superstar Trey Yesavage? His rapid minor league rise in 2025 turned heads and forced the Blue Jays to bring him up to Toronto in September. From there, he never looked back and had an incredible run that also saw history made in the postseason. Not only did he strike out 11 in his first postseason appearance, a Blue Jays record, but he struck out 12 Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, most as a rookie in a World Series.

Yesavage took the baseball world by storm, and it's something he must capitalize on as he enters his first full season in the big leagues. Now an integral part of the starting rotation, Yesavage needs to continue to build and prove he wasn't just a flash in the pan last October. If he can get the likes of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani swinging, then the sky's the limit for the young phenom.

#1 - Kazuma Okamoto

If you had to apply "pressure" to a Blue Jay, or rather, place the most emphasis, it's most likely going to be on Kazuma Okamoto. One of the biggest signings of the offseason, Okamoto comes to MLB hoping to replicate his production in Japan. His career 882 OPS, with 248 home runs and 717 RBIs, helped establish him as a slugger over in the Nippon Professional Baseball League, and that's exactly who the Blue Jays need in 2026.

Now finding their third baseman, the Blue Jays are also hoping Okamoto replaces the productive bat that Bichette was in 2025 before his injury. Losing Bo's production left many wondering whether Toronto would ever find that production again, which may result in the offense taking a hard hit in 2026.

If there's anybody who could fill those big shoes, it's most likely going to be Okamoto. So far, he's impressed in the early Spring Training campaign, as he crushed a towering 431-foot blast to dead center field this past Monday. Apart from that, Okamoto also made a nice defensive stop in the Blue Jays' first game of the Spring. There's definitely potential for Okamoto on this Blue Jays roster, and he'll be ready to prove that in 2026.