The Blue Jays' first look at Jonatan Clase provided plenty of hype for his future with the team

All throughout the 2024 regular season, the Toronto Blue Jays underperformed in basically every sense of the word. Bullpen, offensive production from top to bottom, you name it.

One area they really had a tough time in is the complete lack of production from their outfielders. Now that all is said and done, Blue Jays outfielders finished 26th in the league in wRC+ (85) while sporting the league's lowest batting average (.210). This simply won't cut it moving forward.

In total, eight different players appeared in at least one game in left and center fields and seven in at least one game in right field. George Springer is likely going to return to his spot in right next season with Gold Glove Award-winning Daulton Varsho in center. This leaves left field open for the taking.

There are going to be a ton of players competing for time there; including Joey Loperfido, Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider, Steward Berroa and even Addison Barger. One player who quietly came up to the bigs and took care of business in 2024 is Jonatan Clase, who does not have a nailed-down role on next year's club yet. His performance this past year showed that he deserves a lengthy look, though.

Jonatan Clase's brief 2024 audition with the Blue Jays turned heads

Acquired alongside Jacob Sharp from the Seattle Mariners in the Yimi Garcia trade, Clase is still just 22 years of age but he appears to already boast some intriguing tools that will help the Blue Jays for years to come.

The Dominican ranked in the No. 9 spot in The Athletic and Just Baseball's 2024 preseason Mariners prospects lists and was able to make his MLB debut for Seattle before the trade went down.

Clase's best attributes are easily his baserunning (he stole 79 bases in 2023) and defensive prowess - predominantly in center field. There's no guarantee he'll hit enough to be considered a strong big-league hitter, but his wheels and defense will provide a ton of value in their own right.

Throughout his minor league career, Clase has hit double-digit home run totals in each of the past four seasons but he typically doesn't post high averages and also strikes out a bit too frequently. Prior to his promotion to the Blue Jays, he hit just .244 with a .651 OPS through 35 games in Triple-A, which is nothing to write home about.

Once he got up to The Show, Clase made it into just seven games, but he went 7-for-20 (.350) while posting a .985 OPS and 52 errorless innings in center field to go along with it. For one of the first times in his pro career, he showed a solid bat. It was a (very) small sample size, but perhaps there's some hope for his future on the Jays.

It remains to be seen how exactly Clase fits into the Blue Jays' future. If he can continue to produce with the bat, there's a decent chance he turns into a starter out in left field, but he could top out as a defensive-specialist. The only problem with the latter is that Varsho and Berroa already fill similar roles, so there isn't a whole lot of room for a player whose value only comes from his glove.

Long story short: Clase's seven-game showing provided some hype for his future in Toronto, but he'll need to keep hitting if he's going to become a long-term cog on this roster.