Toronto Blue Jays mid-season report cards

They've made it through 81 games of a 162-game schedule and the Toronto Blue Jays are in good shape. They are holding down a Wild Card spot and are still alive in the race for the AL East division title. While they haven’t gone on a truly long stretch of winning consecutive games (longest streak was five straight wins), they have also managed to mitigate their losses with a 29-22 record since May 1.

They’ve gotten some surprising performances from players on the edges of the roster while some of the bigger name players have yet to pull their weight. Here’s a breakdown of how each section of the roster has contributed to the 2025 Blue Jays.

Toronto Blue Jays mid-season report cards

Infielders Grade: B

Who pulls up the grade: Ernie Clement has been better than most expected, hitting .309/.350/.422 with 79 hits in 79 games played, for a 3.0 bWAR. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is right behind him with a 2.7 bWAR and a team leading .840 OPS. Bo Bichette is fourth among all shortstops with 95 hits and is in the 98th percentile with a .311 xBA. Meantime, Addison Barger has hit all eight of his home runs while playing third base.

Who brings down the grade: The one player that brings the grade down is Andrés Giménez whose .201 batting average is the lowest on the team among their regular starters. However, he’s been worth 0.8 bWAR thanks to his fantastic defense.

Outfielders Grade: C

Who pulls up the grade: George Springer bolted out of the gate to begin 2025 and for a while he was one of the only Blue Jays who was playing at an above average rate. His numbers have come back down to earth over the last few weeks, but he’s still managed to lead the team in home runs (11) while getting on-base at a .360 clip.

However, he’s only been worth 0.9 bWAR, behind Myles Straw who has been worth 1.3. Straw’s .270/.299/.343 slash line with only 17 strikeouts in 150 plate appearances has been better than most would have expected. They’ve also gotten admirable, if not tremendous performances from the Nathan Lukes and Jonatan Clase, while Daulton Varsho’s brief one month stint was worth 0.9 bWAR as he smashed eight home runs in 24 games.

Who pulls down the grade: Varsho having missed most of the season certainly brings this group down a peg. Meantime, Anthony Santander has spent more time as a DH than in the outfield, but it’s due to his play in the outfield that put him on the sidelines when he injured his shoulder running into the wall in May. He was hitting an anemic .179/.273/.304 with six home runs in 50 games. Alan Roden hasn’t exactly torn the cover off the ball in his couple of stints in the big leagues and Davis Schneider’s few appearances have not sparked much confidence.

Catching Grade: A+

Who pulls up the grade: Alejandro Kirk is one of the best hitting catchers in the game today and might be the best defensive catcher. His baseball savant page is full of metrics in the deep red zone (just don’t look at his base running) and he’s been so clutch for the Blue Jays, it’s scary to wonder where they would be without him right now.

Backup catcher Tyler Heineman should win an award for being the best part-time player in the league this year. He's been worth 1.3 bWAR slashing .377/.408/.536 with an OPS of .944 in 28 games. They are arguably the best tandem in MLB right now and might even be the best tandem in Blue Jays history.

Starting Pitching Grade: B-

Who pulls up the grade: Toronto’s top three of José Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman have held their own this season. At times they have each looked dominant, and other times they couldn’t get anything by the lineups they were facing. That is what is to be expected within the ebbs and flows of a season, but for these three, everything feels magnified because of the lack of stability on the back end of the rotation for the majority of the year.

However, each of Berrios, Gausman and Bassitt are at or approaching 100 innings pitched this season and they are all within about 10 strikeouts of hitting 100 K’s on the season. They are durable and reliable and while the performances haven’t always been spectacular, this is a group of veterans who have done their job.

Who pulls the grade down: Bowden Francis ERA of 6.05 with 19 home runs allowed in 14 games before hitting the injured list was tough to watch. Making matters worse was Max Scherzer’s thumb injury that allowed him to only throw three innings at the MLB level for most of the first half of the season. The patch work of spot starters and bullpen days had mixed results as well.

Bullpen Grade: B

Who pulls up the grade: Brendon Little, Yariel Rodriguez, Braydon Fisher, Yimi Garcia and for the most part Mason Fluharty have been asked to cover a lot of innings this season due to the inefficiencies of the back end of the Blue Jays rotation. While some of their numbers don’t jump off the page as being completely spectacular, it’s a group who has managed to make the Blue Jays bullpen much more reliable than what they had a year ago.

What brings down the grade: Jeff Hoffman has been elite at times, and below average at others. It’s hard to fault him when he has blown some games as his usage in this first half of the season has looked to be overwhelming at times. That’s more on the coaching staff and how they handle the bullpen than it is on Hoffman, but there are some games that the Blue Jays should have had in the win column that lie on Hoffman not being able to get the three outs. Chad Green has also been unable to find his form from the last few seasons and he was expected to be a big piece of the back end.

Overall Grade – B

The Blue Jays are in control of their own destiny as we approach July. They’ve played well enough to give themselves a shot at the postseason and have left some room for improvements as well. At 44-38 the Blue Jays have a 55.3% chance of getting into the playoffs according to Baseball Reference, and their best case scenario right now would be to finish with a 91-71 record, which would be the sixth best record in the American League.