2025 Toronto Blue Jays

2025 Toronto Blue Jays / Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays / BR Team Page

Record: 94-68, Finished 1st (t) in AL Eastern Division (2025 AL)

Won AL Pennant

Managed by John Schneider

Coaches: Mark Budzinski, Carlos Febles, DeMarlo Hale, Sam Greene, Lou Iannotti, Graham Johnson, John Lannan, Don Mattingly, Hunter Mense, David Popkins and Pete Walker

Ballpark: Rogers Centre

History, Comments, Contributions

After finishing in last place in 2024, the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays were looking to get back into postseason contention in a strong division - especially since two of their biggest stars, 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and SS Bo Bichette, were entering the final year of their contracts and were liable to leave via free agency at the end of the year. The team's biggest failing had been its bullpen in 2024, so the Blue Jays were active in the off-season in trying to improve things, and did so to some extent by signing free agent Jeff Hoffman, repatriating Yimi Garcia, whom they had traded away the previous year after falling out of contention, and trading for Nick Sandlin from the Cleveland Guardians in a deal that had also netted them 2B Andres Gimenez who was expected to nail down a position that had been a revolving door. The cost had been minimal, giving up 1B/OF Spencer Horwitz who was coming off a good first season but who was easily replaceable. They had hoped to make a splash on the free agent market by pursuing Japanese free agent P Roki Sasaki, even accepting to take on the bad contract of OF Myles Straw from Cleveland in order to increase their international bonus pool money and make their offer to him more attractive, but alas they could not compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers on the glamor scale. They did sign OF Anthony Santander to a multi-year deal, in order to address a surprising lack of power in the line-up, but it came with the risk that, like the signing of George Springer a couple of years before, they were paying full price for a player about to enter the decline phase of his career. A less risky move was the signing of veteran starting pitcher Max Scherzer to a one-year deal.

The Blue Jays' Opening Day, held at the Rogers Centre on March 27th in front of a packed house of over 40,000, was a complete disaster. The only positive was the major league debut of RF Alan Roden, who had forced the Jays' hand with a great spring training, and who collected his first career hit and a walk in three plate appearances. On the other side of the ledger, the Jays allowed the Baltimore Orioles to score in six of their nine turns at bat, allowed six home runs, including three off starter José Berríos, in a 12-2 loss. They only managed four hits all game, with a two-run homer by Gimenez with Guerrero on base via walk accounting for all of their scoring. They did better the remainder of the series, taking two of the next three games to go 2-2 in the four games. One piece of bad news however was that Scherzer was placed on the injured list after an abbreviated start in the third game. Still, the Jays then swept the Washington Nationals to finish their first homestead a 5-2, and Easton Lucas, brought up from the minors to replace Scherzer, earned the win in his first career start to complete the sweep.

The Jays found the going tougher on their first road trip as they got swept by the New York Mets at Citi Field on April 4-6. Their starting pitchers were good, but they managed to score just three runs over the three games, as their purported big boppers, Guerrero and Santander, were both still looking for their first long ball of the season, and no one else was really picking up the slack. On the morning of April 7th, news came out unexpectedly that the team had reached an agreement with Guerrero on a contract extension, resulting in the biggest deal in franchise history: the slugger had agreed to a 14-year extension starting next season worth a total of $500 million, making it the third biggest contract in MLB history, after those consented to Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto over the previous two years. Ironically, the Blue Jays had been in the final running to sign both Ohtani and Soto but had missed out, but given an exclusive window to negotiate with Vladdy, they were able to get things done. It was an understatement to say that the deal dramatically changed the franchise's outlook for the next few seasons as their most important player was now locked up for the long term. They then won the first three games of their next series, against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and unexpectedly found themselves in first place in the AL East at 8-5, half a game ahead of the New York Yankees at the end of the day on April 9th. They came very close to making that a four-game sweep of Boston, but twice blew a late-game lead the next day and lost the game in ten innings.

On April 16th, the Jays set a new team record by recording 19 strikeouts in a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves. Chris Bassitt started things off by striking out 10 in 5 innings in earning the win, and the bullpen did the rest. That game also featured Guerrero's first homer of the season. After peaking at 12-8 on April 18th, the Jays started to make their best Humpty Dumpty impersonation by losing eight of their next nine - and that one win was due to an improbable 9th-inning comeback against the Yankees on April 25th. Their main problem was that the offense was not putting up any runs on the board - they had scored a total of 14 in the eight losses - and no one was hitting homers, with three players tied for the team lead with three, which was one fewer than Eugenio Suarez had hit all by himself in a single game during that stretch, albeit not against the Jays. The starting pitching was also showing signs of breaking down: Lucas, who had won his first two starts after stepping in for Scherzer, was sent back to AAA after being roughed up in his next two, Kevin Gausman struggled through a painful 53-pitch inning during a doubleheader sweep by the Yankees, and Bowden Francis, one of the pleasant surprises of 2024, had a start in which he gave up five long balls to the Red Sox and was leading the majors with 11 gopher balls surrendered in six starts. The top bullpen arms - Hoffman, Garcia and Chad Green - were pitching well, although situations when they were needed were few and far between, but the back end was in a constant churn. They did finish the month on a good note, as in their final game, on April 30th, they erased a 6-0 deficit in the 6th inning against Boston thanks to homers by Daulton Varsho - his first of the season after starting the year on the IL while recovering from off-season shoulder surgery - Alejandro Kirk and Santander, the latter a three-run shot that tied the score. They then won the game in the 10th on a hit by Kirk to finish the month at 14-16, a better record than their run differential of -34 should have justified.

The roller coaster ride continued in early May, as they first lost four straight games from May 3-7, and each of these losses featured the bullpen blowing a late lead, with both Hoffman and Garcia, who had been impeccable until then, failing at some point. The consensus was that the team's short relievers had been asked to do too much, because the Jays' weak offense meant they almost never had a comfortable lead heading into the late innings. But the bats started to come around immediately after that demoralizing streak, as Toronto scored at least 6 runs in each of its next four games and won them all, including a sweep of the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park, a first for them since the early 1990s. Leading the offense was Springer, who suddenly looked reborn, who shared the team lead for both runs and RBIs and was its only hitter with an OPS above .900. Also notable was that two of the wins had gone to starting pitchers Gausman and Bassitt, the first wins by a starting pitcher since one by Francis back on April 18th. But the most important thing was that the Jays were headed back to Toronto with a .500 record after 40 games. A three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres from May 20-22 improved their record to 25-24 - the first time they had been above .500 since April 21st. But then, they hit another bump on the six-game road trip that followed, as they scored a total of just six runs against the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers. They still managed to win two of three from the Rangers, because Texas's hitters were in an equivalent slump, scoring just three runs in the three encounters, which all ended with soccer scores (2-1, 0-2, 2-0). The last win was powered by the first pinch hit of Bichette's career, a two-run homer in the 9th inning after he had been given a rest from starting for the first time of the season due to back tightness. Counting Bichette's blast, they were just 3 for 44 with runners in scoring position during the six games. And of course, to keep with the ongoing theme, in their very next game, they put up an eight-run 2nd-inning in a 12-0 win over The Athletics on May 29th. They then won their next three games against the A's as well for their first five-game winning streak of the season. But they also placed Santander and Varsho on the injured list during that series, but welcomed back Erik Swanson who had not pitched since spring training.

The beginning of June coincided with a great stretch for the Jays, in spite of the injuries. After finishing May with 6 wins in their last 7 games, they won 8 of their first 10 games in June, including a three-game series sweep on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals from June 9-11. The last win featured the first appearance of the season by Spencer Turnbull, who was credited with the win with two scoreless innings in relief, after another reclamation project, Eric Lauer, back from the Korea Baseball Organization, had started the game. Lauer had proved a godsend, with an ERA of 2.37 over 30 innings while being used as a sometimes opener and sometimes bulk man. This helped to compensate for the continued absence of Scherzer, and the struggles of #4 starter Francis, who was at 2-8, 6.12 after 13 starts. After a string of bad outings in May, Hoffman was back in the closer spot and had saved six games during the streak, with Yariel Rodriguez stepping into the role of set-up man in the absence of Yimi Garcia and finally showing the sort of stuff that had pushed the Jays to sign him out of Japan the year before. On June 17th, they recorded perhaps their most dramatic win of the season when, trailing 4-3 coming into the bottom of the 9th inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Bichette and Addison Barger hit back-to-back homers off Shelby Miller to make it a walk-off 5-4 victory. In a rare twist in that game, four different players appeared in center field for the Jays, a first at any position except pitcher since 1985: with Varsho still on the IL, Jonatan Clase started in center but had to leave the game after being hit by a pitch; Straw took over but hurt himself crashing into the wall, bringing in Roden, who was then lifted for pinch-hitter Davis Schneider in the 7th; Schneider then stayed in the game playing left field, with recent call-up Will Robertson finishing the game in center. The Jays finished June with a record of 16-10, putting them squarely in the postseason picture. Meanwhile, Barger had emerged as a fan favorite thanks to his ability to hit booming homers to right field.

They started July in the best possible way, by defeating the Yankees, 12-5 before a packed house on Canada Day, July 1st. George Springer was the hero, homering twice, including a grand slam, to set a new personal best with 7 RBIs in the game. He also reached the milestone of 100 homers since signing with Toronto. By beating the Yankees, 11-9, the next day, the Jays moved into a tie for first place in the AL East for the first time since April 13th, then an 8-5 win over their rivals on July 3rd, highlighted by two more homers by Springer, completed the four-game sweep and gave the Jays sole possession of first place. They had not held first place this late in a season since 2016. They followed that with a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, with all three wins coming by one run, to complete a 7-0 homestand, the most successful one in franchise history. They extended their winning streak to ten games before a 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on July 9th. They ended the first half by losing two of three on the road to The Athletics, but their record of 55-41 put them two games ahead of New York and three in front of Boston.

The Blue Jays started the second half of the season by sweeping the San Francisco Giants at home in a three-game series, and when they followed that by defeating the Yankees, 4-1, on July 21st, they had won 11 straight home games for a new franchise record. Their record stood at 59-41 after exactly 100 games, just half a game worse than the Detroit Tigers, who had the best record in the AL at that point, and one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, who were leading the National League with the best record in the majors. With an 11-4 win over the Tigers in the first game of a three-game series at Comerica Park on July 24th, the Jays improved their record to 61-42 and for the first time that season, they had the best mark in the American League. With another win over the Tigers the next day, they moved ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers as holders of the best record in the majors. It was the first time Toronto was the best team in the majors this late in a season since 1992!

And, then the roller coaster started its descent: Toronto lost its next four games, giving up ten or more runs in the first three, and also lost Kirk, one of their two All-Stars, to a concussion in the first of these games. The streak included being swept in a doubleheader by the last-place Orioles on July 29th. Between the two games, the Jays acquired P Seranthony Dominguez in a trade with the Birds, and he was able to pitch a scoreless inning in the nitecap, providing much-needed help to a bullpen that was leaking from every orifice. They did manage to win the last game of the Baltimore series, but it came by the skin of their teeth, at 9-8, and they continued to be active just before the trading deadline, acquiring the once-great starting pitcher Shane Bieber from the Cleveland Guardians, with the hope that his recovery from Tommy John surgery would be quick (he was still pitching rehab in AA at the time). They also added a catching prospect in Brandon Valenzuela, acquired from the San Diego Padres for IF Will Wagner, who had given hope at times that he could become a good major league hitter; this was likely prompted by Kirk's recent injury, which exposed how little depth the Jays had at the catching position. Finally, in a move that was hardly reported by anyone given how many trades took place on the day, the Jays acquired 1B Ty France and P Louie Varland from the Minnesota Twins, giving up Roden and another prospect in Kendry Rojas. The moves did not provide immediate help as the Jays were once again beaten up on August 1st, losing 9-3 to the Kansas City Royals as it became increasingly clear that their climb to the top the previous month had largely been due to smoke and mirrors. They lost two of three to the Royals, but then had the good luck that their next opponent was the Colorado Rockies, owners of the worst record in the majors, and a three-game sweep managed to stabilize things. In that series, the Blue Jays set a modern major league record with 63 hits over the three games, and they outscored the Rockies 45-6, the largest run differential in a three-game series since 1901. With seven of those hits, Bichette was now leading the majors with 145 hits and had brought his average above .300, while Bichette and Varsho, recently back from his second IL stint, both had six-RBI games in the sweep.

The Jays' next series was more of a challenge as they faced the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The first game was a classic duel between legends with Scherzer facing Clayton Kershaw, but Kershaw ended up the winner. They were on the verge of being swept in the final game on August 10th but made a brilliant comeback, with back-to-back homers by Guerrero and Barger to take the lead on the 8th, only to see Rodriguez and Hoffman blow the lead, with Hoffman forcing in the tying run with a bases loaded walk. In the 9th, it was Ernie Clement who hit a dramatic homer to take the lead again, but Hoffman almost blew it again, loading the bases with walks again while recording just one out. At that point, with his closer obviously out of sorts, John Schneider rolled the dice and brought in rookie Mason Fluharty, who recorded one of the most spectacular saves in franchise history by striking out Shohei Ohtani and getting Mookie Betts on a ground ball to preserve the 5-4 win. Back home, the Jays then took two of three from the Chicago Cubs, with Scherzer looking more and more like his old self in giving up just 1 run in 7 innings to earn a 2-1 win in the finale on August 14th. They then pulled off another comeback against the Texas Rangers the next day, coming back from deficits of 3-0 and 5-2 to score six runs in the 7th and 8th in a 6-5 win, a game highlighted by the first career stolen base by Kirk - perhaps the slowest runner in the majors. If fans needed any other sign that this was a special season for this over-achieving bunch, this was clearly it.

Bad news was around the corner, however. In losing back-to-back games on August 17-18, the Jays possibly also lost their most important player, as Guerrero had to be removed from the second game with hamstring tightness and was immediately sent to undergo an MRI. Vladdy did not go on the IL, but he sat down the next five games. That stretch included Bieber's return to the majors on August 22nd, when he looked as if he had not missed a step in dominating the young line-up of the Miami Marlins, and then a strange game the next day when they became the first team to ever blow a lead in the 9th, the 10th, and the 11th innings, but still win the game, in 12 innings. Of course, the introduction of the ghost runner due to the tiebreaker rule was the cause of that unprecedented see-saw battle. They finished August by going 6-6 in their last 12 games, consisting of four series in which they went either 2-1 or 1-2; their record should have been a lot better, but the bullpen imploded on a number of occasions, costing them three wins. Meanwhile, the Yankees were beating up on weak teams and the Jays headed to New Yankee Stadium for a three-game series on September 5th in danger of being caught up if they were swept. However, Gausman started things off with one of his best games of the year in the first game, while Vladdy backed him up with four hits including a homer, and the 7-1 win confirmed that Toronto had New York's number that season. However, the Yankees won the next two games, to reduce the lead to just two games. Toronto then bounced back to win two of three at home against the Houston Astros, capped by Gausman's second career shutout on September 11th. That series win knocked Houston out of first place in the AL West, and also allowed the Jays to add a game to their lead over the Yankees. However, before the series started, there was some bad news when Bo Bichette, one of their best hitters all season, had to go on the IL with a knee sprain. Luckily, in a prescient move, the Jays had picked up former Jay Isiah Kiner-Falefa off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 31st, so they were well-covered at shortstop while hoping Bo's absence would only be brief.

Another memorable moment in a season full of them came on September 15th when Trey Yesavage, Toronto's top pick in the 2024 amateur draft, made his debut as the starting pitcher against the Rays. It was nothing short of electrifying, as he gave up just one run in five innings and struck out nine, setting a new franchise record for most Ks by a starting pitcher in his debut. The Jays were trailing 1-0 when he left, but five relievers managed to keep the Rays from scoring again over the next six innings, and Toronto won the game, 2-1. Another rookie, Braydon Fisher, got credit for the win, his third in the last four games, improving his record to 7-0. It was also the Jays fifth straight win and sixth in seven games since the loss of Bichette, and that streak had increased their lead over the Yankees to five games. However, the team's collapse had already started at that point: the two runs they scored in that game were a sign of things to come, as they scored one and none in the final two games of the series, losing both, and one again in the opener of their next series, against the Kansas City Royals, an ugly 20-1 beating. The question was now not whether they would cough up the division title - it was almost a given by now - but whether they would fall far enough to miss the postseason altogether. After losing again the next day by a 2-1 score, they finally managed to put a few runs on the scoreboard and renewed with the win column on September 21st with an 8-5 win over the Royals. That made them the first team in the AL to clinch a spot in the postseason, but the Yankees were still breathing down their necks. The good thing was that all their remaining games were at home, where they had played much better than on the road. More shenanigans took place before that last home stand on September 23rd, with the Jays reactivating Santander, who had been out of action since May 30th and was sporting a batting average of .179 in 50 games, and awful numbers all-around. This necessitated having former ace Alek Manoah, who had just completed some rehab starts in Buffalo, designated for assignment, causing more drama. The Jays then promptly lost their first two games to Boston, while the Yankees were winning (and incidentally clinching their own postseason berth), and by the end of the day on September 24th, the two teams were tied. They finally managed to win a game on September 25th, 6-1 over Boston for only their second win in their last eight, but of course New York won again, so the Jays' lead remained only because they held the tiebreaker. Their final three games were against the Rays, a long-time nemesis and the division title came down to the final game of the season, as both the Jays and the Yankees won the first two games of their final series. The second of these wins was the first major league victory for Yesavage. And finally, in game #162, the Jays' moribund bats finally found some new life as they hit four homers - two of them by Kirk - to defeat Tampa 13-4. The Yankees also won, but it was moot: the Blue Jays had somehow managed to hold them off even though the Yankees had won 11 of their last 12 games! And the two teams may have finished with the same record, but the Jays also earned the #1 seed in the postseason.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk
• AL Gold Glove: Ty France (1B)
• AL Silver Slugger Award: George Springer (DH)

Further Reading

• Ronald Blum (Associated Press): "Guerrero, Blue Jays agree to a $500 million, 14-year deal that starts in 2026, AP source says", Yahoo! Sports, April 7, 2025. [1]
• Thomas Harrigan: "How Toronto has gone from worst to first", mlb.com, August 12, 2025. [2]
• Keegan Matheson: "5 pressing questions for Toronto as Spring Training nears", mlb.com, February 3, 2025. [3]
• Keegan Matheson: "'One more time': Vladdy, Blue Jays head into 2025 with new hopeful outlook", mlb.com, March 26, 2025. [4]
• Keegan Matheson: "Vlad Jr. agrees to 14-year, $500M extension with Blue Jays", mlb.com, April 7, 2025. [5]
• Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays flying home on a high note after sweep of Mariners", mlb.com, May 11, 2025. [6]
• Keegan Matheson: "Call them Jay-dream believers: Toronto ties Yanks atop AL East after wild affair", mlb.com, July 3, 2025. [7]
• Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays pull another high-wire act to cap 7-0 homestand: 'We're going to enjoy this'", mlb.com, July 6, 2025. [8]
• Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays acquire Bieber from Guardians, catching prospect from Padres", mlb.com, July 31, 2025. [9]
• Keegan Matheson and Thomas Harding: "Even Coors hasn't seen historic numbers like these in Blue Jays-Rockies series", mlb.com, August 6, 2025. [10]
• Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays headed back to postseason with sights set on AL East title", mlb.com, September 21, 2025. [11]
• Keegan Matheson: "AL East belongs up north! Blue Jays clinch first division title since 2015", mlb.com, September 28, 2025. [12]

2025 MLB season by team