The Blue Jays' offseason is off to a poor start and it hasn't even officially begun

While we sit back and watch former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernandez hit grand slams into the playoff's night sky, the Toronto Blue Jays themselves already have their eyes on the upcoming offseason.

There's not going to be a whole lot of change in the way of departing free agents, as the Blue Jays sent all of their players on expiring contracts packing at the 2024 trade deadline. Sure, there are a few candidates to be non-tendered in arbitration, but there's a chance that a lot of the pieces from this year's roster will be returning to next year's squad.

In a surprising development, this will apparently include the situation the Blue Jays have at catcher. When Danny Jansen was traded to the Red Sox, Alejandro Kirk took over the starting backstop role and did an outstanding job. Behind him, though? Not so much. Brian Serven and Tyler Heineman served as scarcely used backups who couldn't be trusted to contribute in any way from an offensive standpoint.

As relayed by The Athletic's Kaitlyn McGrath (subscription required), Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins recently said that the Jays are happy with their catching tandem heading into 2025. Atkins even went as far as to say that adding another catcher is "not something that we are going to put at the top of our list."

Blue Jays not looking to upgrade at catcher this offseason

To translate: the Blue Jays' offseason hasn't officially started yet and things are already not going well.

Kirk's part of the equation is pretty simple here. He's always been more of an offensive-minded backstop than a defensive one, which is fine. He showed that off with a .719 OPS in this year's second half, which is a huge step up from the .631 mark he had in the first half. Kirk finished his year with a .297 average in 20 games across Sept/Oct.

Entering next season with him as the primary catcher shouldn't be an issue for the Blue Jays. The fact that Heineman is set to return as the backup is where the problem lies. The Blue Jays have leaned so heavily on a strong dual-catcher setup, with each player getting quite a bit of playing time as the year marches on.

Having a Kirk-Heineman duo is not going to cut it. Heineman is a light-hitting journeyman who is "just ok" on defense. With someone like Jansen set to be available on the free agent market, it'd make much more sense to bring some more thump back to this lineup.

While there aren't many star-caliber catchers hitting the open market this winter, other notable options include Elias Diaz, Carson Kelly, James McCann and even ex-rival Gary Sanchez. If the Blue Jays need more offense (which they do), they can't afford to keep trotting out a light-hitting backup catcher every few days. They need to bring some power aboard and utilize it where they can.