BALTIMORE — In simple terms, the Toronto Blue Jays want their hitters to hunt pitches in danger zones early in counts and get their best swing off with intent, adjusting with two strikes to battle using their contact skills to put the ball in play.
They did far more of the latter than they did of the former throughout a lost 2026 at the plate, as entering Thursday’s play, they were eighth in the majors at 1,327 hits and had the second-fewest strikeouts at 1,129 but sat 26th in slugging percentage at .382 and dead last in both home runs at 150 and average exit velocity at 87.5 m.p.h.
Their lineup lost thump before spring training started when Anthony Santander blew out his shoulder and was further depleted in the first month when Addison Barger hurt both his ankles, Alejandro Kirk broke his thumb and George Springer fractured a big toe on a foul tip. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Daulton Varsho, Jesus Sanchez and Davis Schneider, among others, didn’t provide the power expected, which exacerbated those absences and ultimately undermined the pathways to production.
All told, “our philosophy this year was not able to withstand the adversity we were facing,” lamented hitting coach David Popkins. “A good identity can withstand any adversity that a season brings and I did not do a good enough job of getting that to stay and make the appropriate adjustments throughout the year to be able to handle that adversity.
“Injuries aside, we have players that really post and when guys post, sometimes they're dealing with a broken toe, a hamstring, whatever, things that are going on,” he continued. “But sometimes that has physical limitations on stuff that has worked in the past. Our job as coaches is to find solutions for them, regardless of how they're feeling or whatever they're going through physically and I think that's where we fell short. Moving forward, that's the No. 1 thing that we're going to be focused on, is being able to withstand that adversity, being ready to have those solutions.”
The task, of course, is easier said than done and repairing the offence is clearly the Blue Jays’ top priority this off-season. From a contractual perspective, minimal turnover on the position-player side looms, with Springer the only pending free agent among lineup regulars, though the club holds an $8-million option on Myles Straw, which includes a $1.75 million buyout that essentially makes it a $6.25 million decision.
Santander, who spent the season recovering from shoulder surgery, and Barger, who underwent elbow reconstruction after blowing out in his first game back from the ankle injuries, are potential upgrades, although counting on peak performance is risky because of their health issues. Springer’s departure frees up the DH spot, and the Blue Jays are least set in the outfield, so they have opportunities to seek external help.
Still, no single move available to them this winter — even Teruaki Sato, the hard-hitting third baseman/outfielder from Japan the club is likely to pursue, or another top free agent — will be as impactful than getting Guerrero and the rest of the lineup back to their usual levels of performance.
“We're fortunate to have a front office that's going to look for external help, but I do think that we have guys here that can perform better,” said manager John Schneider. “Myself and us as coaches, we've been doing it all year, but that's where you've really got to dig in and say, how can we make those improvements quicker, or how can we adjust quicker? Every year is a little bit different, different people, different personnel and our job is to figure out, OK, how do you get the best version out of this player. From that standpoint, you know we as a staff feel like we came up short.”
To that end, Popkins and the hitting staff are already thinking about ways to make 2027 a far more productive season at the dish than 2026.
Better health is certainly one part, as Springer played for weeks with the fracture to his left big toe, Guerrero missed time with forearm, hamstring, back and concussion issues, Ernie Clement pushed through hip issues among other ailments, Kirk needed time to find his rhythm at the plate after surgery to repair his thumb, Andres Gimenez had to find his way around various leg issues and Nathan Lukes had to overcome vertigo.
“It's the most I've ever seen a team have to go through in a season in my career,” said Popkins and “guys that were still playing while they were a little bit banged up made (finding solutions) a little more challenging.” Still, attrition in the 162-game grind is inevitable and “it’s my job to be able to help those guys while those things are going on.”
“If I were to do it over again, I would have the answers now, but as you're going through it, you're slowly navigating and it's hard to coach when guys are in pressure or stress states,” Popkins continued. “You want to give them this information, but sometimes when your brain is in survival mode, it can't really take on the information the same way when you have had a good first half and you're hitting .280 and you're like, 'oh I can try this,' if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. …
“The main thing I could have tried earlier was really trying to relax these guys. We did a lot of things, that's what the dragon was for, showing some funny videos and stuff, but these guys really wanted it. They wanted it for each other. They wanted it for the country, and they wanted it for what happened last year. And it was like a snowball effect and we just couldn't get the monkey off our backs.”
In that way, the injuries and struggles at the beginning of the season within the high-expectation environment created by last year’s World Series run and a big-spending off-season compounded the problems as the year progressed. The American League’s shocking mediocrity extended the Blue Jays’ runway all the way to Wednesday, but at the plate, physical became mental and the hitting philosophy that seemed to have become ingrained in 2025 waxed and waned.
“Last year we had the opposite effect, where everyone's performing, everyone's more confident and it surpluses everyone's value. This year, we just never got that,” said Popkins. “Those last six weeks before these last few games were pretty good looking at the offence, but throughout the year, we've just never got that four, five, six guys are going at the same time and everyone feeds off each other.
“It was the opposite where you have expectations, you have injuries, you're not starting the way you want and we never got that monkey on our back that was hanging on us. We'd get a little momentum and then something would happen. With that, guys are pressing and guys are trying to get things done, that starts to spread and bring down everyone a little bit.”
To counter that, Popkins feels the Blue Jays need to find ways to offer hitters solutions faster, and one of his learnings from this season is the club should have done more to “anticipate how the league would adjust to us this year and maybe in spring training working a little bit more on that stuff.”
At the same time, the onus isn’t on the coaches alone, and the onus is on players to identify what they need to work on during the reflection to come.
As Springer pointed out, “I love Pop, he works his ass off, the whole staff works their asses off, I feel for him, but at the end of day, I am the one standing in the batter's box.”
And the Blue Jays standing in the batter’s box this year, by and large, didn’t execute the team’s offensive philosophy.
On an individual level. Kazuma Okamoto transitioned to the majors well from Japan and leads the team with 33 homers and 89 RBIs in a hugely successful rookie season, Kirk posted an .860 OPS out of the all-star break once he got his feet underneath him and Clement batted .296/.318/.433 in the first half and was the American League’s top vote-getter for the All-Star Game. Rookie Brett Bateman impressed after his acquisition, Lukes had his moments and Josh Smith created some intrigue with five homers in 32 games.
But Guerrero’s output collapsed to an unimaginable nine homers, 56 RBIs and .695 OPS, Springer went through extended dry spells before a second-half surge pushed his OPS up to .730, Sanchez hit only eight home runs and struggled in the outfield before he was designated for assignment, while Varsho managed just seven around wrist issues before he was traded.
In spite of all that and an even more daunting set of pitching injuries, the Blue Jays managed to hang around until the final week of the season, which is a cold comfort given what could have been.
“The guys never gave up, they kept fighting,” said Popkins. “But sometimes it's just simply a lot of punches to take and they did the best they could and it wasn't good enough. We have to get better.”
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