theathleticuk
The Toronto Blue Jays have 72 games to find their offence.
Sitting six games under .500, the Jays have an average rotation and a solid bullpen.
They have enough top-of-rotation talent to win in October and have figured out the ninth inning with Louis Varland.
But the offence, scoreless in its last 24 innings, is where their true 2026 struggle lies.
Advertisement The solution, luckily, is simple.
If the Jays are going to claw back to .500 and grab a playoff spot, theyve gotta start scoring.
Drive the ball, hit some homers and start winning games.
Its not that complicated.
Otherwise, its a deadline sale and a long summer.
We got to flip it, manager John Schneider said.
Its something we talk about, something were grinding on, but you got to go out and do it.
Okay, maybe its not that simple.
The thing Toronto lacks, more than anything else, is the hardest tool to find in modern baseball: power.
Its the tool teams pay millions for.
The tool more coveted than speed, defence or contact.
The tool opposing pitchers train their entire lives and sit through lengthy meetings to guard against.
But what makes Torontos solution so clear is that the Jays have players who should possess pop.
The answer, youd think, is already on the roster.
The Jays have a similar hitting coaching staff and a similar lineup to last year.
Their supplementary hitters guys like Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes and Andres Gimenez all have OPS at or above their 2025 marks.
Those guys arent mashing, but theyre doing their part.
Kazuma Okamoto, too, has admirably replaced Bo Bichettes offence, at least posting an OPS in a similar stratosphere while owning legitimate power.
The Jays fall-off, from a top-five lineup by wRC+ to one that now ranks 22nd, lies with the core bats.
They carried Toronto for much of last year and were supposed to provide the power and offence again this season.
Daulton Varsho is on pace for 13 homers after hitting 20 in just 71 games last year.
George Springer is on pace for 14.
Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger have missed most of the year after providing 15 and 21 homers, respectively, last season.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., as you likely already know, is on pace for just seven home runs this year 16 fewer than last season and the fewest of his career.
Thats how a lineup falls off so much.
Advertisement I think when you look up at like Varsh, Kirky, Vlad, obviously, and George, you need some more slug out of those guys, Schneider said.
Theyre being pitched differently, and I think you cant let it fester and carry over and bleed into the next day.
They gotta get some pitches to hit them hard.
Schneider isnt shying away from the root cause.
He didnt call out his teams top hitters.
He simply spoke the truth.
The Jays need those guys to get going.
They can bring in a corner outfielder in August and call up Sean Keys, but theres no deadline trade or prospect promotion that will erase how important Guerrero, Springer and others are to Torontos 2026 chances.
The long ball draws all the attention, but its really the overall hitting.
Guerrero, Varsho, Springer and Kirk have all seen their OPS+ drop by at least 20 points.
Thats four players going from All-Star calibre to below league-average hitters.
Plus, injuries have left the lineup short for extended periods.
The Jays, at times, have been frustrated and confused with the leagues adjustment to their 2025 offensive approach.
They took the league by storm last year with a high-contact, relentless lineup.
It brought them to the brink of a World Series title.
So, teams had Toronto circled entering the season, and pitching plans against the Jays were drastically different in 2026.
Fewer pitches are in the heart of the zone against Toronto, fewer at-bats start with four-seam fastballs and pitchers are flashing entirely different mixes with two strikes.
Theyve been trying to adjust all year, forcing pitchers into the heart of the zone.
Just really trying to stay in the middle of the zone as long as you can until two strikes, Schneider said, then use your contact ability.
There have been glimmers of hope.
Springer has five extra-base hits in his last 17 games.
Kirk is back, though struggling to find his footing after a three-month absence.
Guerrero followed the worst offensive month of his career (.498 OPS in June) with a roped line drive in Torontos Canada Day win.
It was the sort of rising drive that skittered into the corner and sent the first baseman sliding into second.
Advertisement The Jays, obviously, need more than glimmers.
They dont even need that much power, as the 2025 team got by with the 11th-most homers and just 34.2 percent of their hits going for extra bases (18th in MLB).
But they need more.
As Guerrero stepped into the box later in that July 1 game, hours after his first-inning double, 41,000 fans began to chant.
It started with a few supporters, then grew into the entire stadium: Vladdy, Vladdy, Vladdy.
Kind of reminded me of Trea Turner in Philly a few years ago, when he was kind of going through it, Schneider said.
The fans just said, We got you.
So he hears that.
We hear it.
The fans were willing Guerrero into a deep drive, hoping hed hit his first homer at Rogers Centre to cap off the Jays blowout win.
It did not arrive.
The fans know he plus Varsho, Springer, Kirk and others will need to find that swing eventually.
Guerrero, clearly, knows it, too.
Its probably why he, as told to reporters in Seattle, is opting out of the All-Star Game to rest his back.
Hell try to find his swing in the second half.
Slug fixes a lot, Schneider said.
A lot of time and words will be dedicated to breaking down what went wrong this year if the Jays dont claw back into the race.
There are probably small moves and daily decisions that couldve sent this into a slightly different direction.
But, at least at this point, theres no sense in overcomplicating it.
The Jays have 72 games for the big bats to find some offence.