Where the Blue Jays stand now vs. this time last year
Last year, the Blue Jays held an 8-7 record through their first 15 games, which was good enough for second in the AL East. While this year’s start has been less successful, the Blue Jays have faced significant adversity in 2026.
Toronto started the season with three members of their starting rotation on the injured list: Trey Yessavage, José Berríos, and Shane Bieber. In their fourth game of the season, they lost another starting pitcher when Cody Ponce sprained his ACL in his first start against the Colorado Rockies.
During the White Sox series, the Blue Jays lost both Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger. Kirk sustained a thumb injury that required surgery after being hit by a foul tip. Barger injured his ankles while running to first base. If that’s not enough, George Springer has also now been added to the 10-day injured list. He fractured his toe after getting hit by a foul ball in Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins.
George Springer placed on the injured list with the fractured left big toe. Eloy Jimenez selected to the roster
Eloy Jimenez has a locker in the Blue Jays clubhouse. No roster move official yet.
Without a doubt, all those injuries have made it difficult for the Blue Jays to build any momentum, particularly the injuries to the starting rotation. So far, starting pitchers have thrown 61 1/3 innings for the Blue Jays compared to 75 1/3 by the bullpen (and Tyler Heineman). In the first 15 games of last season, the starting rotation threw 85 2/3 innings while the bullpen threw 48 2/3 innings.
The injuries have put extra strain on the bullpen to make up for the lack of rotation depth. Among the starters who are healthy, everyone except for Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease has struggled.
While much has been made of the Blue Jays’ offensive struggles in 2026, they are pretty much on par with 2025.
Through their first 15 games in 2025, the Blue Jays scored 56 runs; in their first 15 games of 2026, they have scored 57 runs. The Blue Jays’ 2026 slash line of .242/.318.375 is lower than at the start of 2025 (.258/.337/.354)
By several offensive metrics, the Blue Jays have had a similarly, if not slightly better, start to 2026 as 2025. They have more home runs (14 in 2026 vs. 7 in 2025), more RBIs (55 in 2026 vs. 51 in 2025), and fewer strikeouts (104 vs. 108). They have fewer hits, but by a very small margin (124 in 2026 vs. 129 in 2025).
There are also a couple of Blue Jays who have had better starts in 2026 than in 2025. It took until the 19th game of the season for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to get his first home run of 2025. He got that milestone out of the way in the eighth game in 2026 against the White Sox. Although that remains his only home run so far. Ernie Clement was batting .097 through the first 15 games of 2025 with only three hits and seven strikeouts. In 2026, he’s batting .311 with a team-high 19 hits and just two strikeouts.
The problem for the Blue Jays isn’t necessarily that their bats are cold; it’s that they’re only hot when the stakes are low.
The team’s average drops from .242 to .217 when runners are in scoring position. Compare that to last season, when the Blue Jays’ average with runners in scoring position (.292) was higher than their team average for the season (.265). The Blue Jays are even worse when the bases are loaded. They have a league-low .050 average with the bases loaded. In 2025, they had an MLB-best .386 average for the season with the bases loaded.
The team also isn’t capitalizing on good outings from their pitchers. Gausman has given up four runs across his three starts. The team has tallied five runs total in those games. They’ve done better when Cease is on the mound, scoring sixteen runs across his three starts. In the Twins series, the Blue Jays failed to capitalize. In their two losses to the Twins, all the damage by Minnesota was done in the third inning. However, the Blue Jays only scored three runs combined past the third in both games.
Even though the Blue Jays’ offensive output is not too dissimilar to the start of 2025, it has been disappointing. Some of that may be the burden of expectations after their World Series run, but the team proved how good they could be last season. Anything less in 2026 is disappointing. The good news is that if their stats are similar to last season, then there’s no reason to believe the team won’t improve their offensive output.
It’s also impossible to understate how much losing Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, and, now, George Springer to injury impacts the lineup. While none of them had great starts to 2026, they were integral parts of the Blue Jays’ offence in 2026. As was Bo Bichette, who the Blue Jays lost to the New York Mets in free agency.
There’s no doubt the Blue Jays start has been frustrating for fans. But looking at the stats and considering the injury struggles, there’s no reason to hit the panic button just yet.