How the Toronto Blue Jays did the Simple Things to Win in 2025

Ernie Clement making great contact while playing with the Toronto Blue Jays, CCed by Liscense 2.0

NOTE: This article contains contributions by both Dominic Konareski and Luca Morgante, and each can be differentiated by their initials.

DK: As a die-hard New York Yankees fan it pains me to write about what the Blue Jays accomplished and how they did it in 2025. From a baseball fan’s perspective though, I cannot help but appreciate the kind of season the Jays had. Will they be able to replicate it in 2026? That remains to be answered, but the Toronto Blue Jays 2025 season made its unique mark.

LM: As a die-hard Toronto Blue Jays fan, I have no problem at all shining light on what made the Toronto Blue Jays so successful in 2025 and what key things they did that can ultimately help them succeed in the future.

DK: Going back to 2018 or even 2019 and the Blue Jays were a bottom feeder in the American League. Everything changed after the weird and shortened COVID season, and next thing you know Toronto wins 91 games and narrowly misses the playoffs in 2021. 2022 saw the team garner 92 wins with a brief relapse back to 89 wins in 2023 and 74 wins in 2024. The dip to 89 wins wasn’t all too concerning, but their following season was so poor and unexpected that it felt like there was no escape.

LM: Despite the heartbreak of missing the postseason in 2021 by one game, it instilled hope that the core of the Blue Jays would be able to live up to the hype in future seasons. However, while the Jays did end up making the postseason in both 2022 and 2023, the hope for the core continued to drain over time. In 2022, a brutal 9-1 collapse to the Seattle Mariners in Game 2 of the Wild Card series felt as if a major opportunity had been missed. In 2023, a season of offensive ineptitude was capped off by only scoring 1 run in 2 games against the Minnesota Twins, and continued a playoff game winless streak spanning 7 years at the time. The only solace from 2023 was the general feeling of "there is no chance we have a season worse than that, right?", and we were proven completely wrong in 2024, where they finished last in the division, and with all hope and expectations seeped from the fan base. The heads of management were called to roll, and it felt that it would be an endless cycle of mediocrity until they did. And yet, in 2025, that narrative would change.

DK: BOOM. It’s 2025 and the Toronto Blue Jays, who were a non-competitive sub .500 team a year prior, wins a tightly contested AL East, mocks the Yankees in the Bronx for the ALDS and makes it to the World Series. I mean if you paid any attention to the Canadian team then you knew it was eventually going to happen. A core with the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Bo Bichette, a clutch George Springer and Alejandro Kirk on it were a key part of what made the Blue Jays an offensive rocket. Frankly, I can’t say much about the pitching, which ranked 12th in opponent batting average against (.241) and 19th in team ERA at 4.19, which was worse than the Mets, Pirates and Giants during the regular season. It was the offense that led the Jays to glory and the team did it in the most simple, but yet a forgotten way. Small ball. Base hits, bunts, base running, walks, the type of baseball you would see prioritized in the 1990s and early 2000s.

LM: One of the more underrated factors of the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays was how their depth performed for them in every aspect of the team. While the core would always be integral to their success, building a support system to deal with injuries or lack of performance is what kept them afloat throughout 2025. A great portion of this can be recognized in the postseason itself, where the Jays took down both the Yankees and the Mariners without Bo Bichette, one of those key core hitters, in the lineup due to a sprained knee. While Bichette was unable to be a factor, it opened up more at-bats and playing time for key cogs like Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, and Davis Schneider. All of these players did not play every day, but were happy to step in and play their part when more consistent bats went down. The same could be said in the pitching department as well. Prior to April of 2025, no Blue Jays fan in their right mind would have predicted that Eric Lauer may have very well saved their starting rotation and was a key piece in their effective bullpen, or that Tommy Nance and Braydon Fisher would both have key roles down the stretch that would bring them back to the postseason. However, with the options and opportunities available, the Blue Jays became a team that felt like the ever-eternal snake that would grow more and more heads every time you thought they were dead.

DK: All you hear about today are power hitters and who can hit the most home runs. And even then, the Jays had a handle on that too, as they did tie for 11th in the league for home runs with 191, but that isn’t solely what made them a playoff and eventually World Series game-winning team. Toronto led the entire league in batting average (.265), which was nearly .010 higher than the closest team. A third-place .760 OPS and 771 RBIs were all part of their league-leading 1,461 team hits – nearly 100 more than the closest team. The only major category Toronto fell outside the top 10 in was walks (520) which was good for 13th-best in the league, but would rank inside the top five if you only count American League teams.

LM: A philosophy the Blue Jays had tried to employ in seasons prior like 2023 and 2024 was one with an emphasis on contact and simplicity. However, it came at a rapid cost of a lack of power, home runs, and pulling of the baseballs, which was just something that the team was not made for. This is why the hire of hitting coach David Popkins is one that many fans believe was the most valuable offseason acquisition in 2025. Popkins brought a more simplified approach to everything hitting, and an emphasis on allowing hitters to play to their strengths and their roles, rather than trying to fit into a certain style. Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr all have very different levels of talent and ceilings. However, each of them do things that the others can't, and they are more successful when they are all playing to their individual strengths. It is why players like Davis Schneider succeed in this lineup. Many people questioned why he was the ultimate replacement at the leadoff position when George Springer went down in Game 3 of the World Series. While he is seen more as an average bat and may strike out sometimes, he has a phenomenal knack for getting on base, and is much more successful against left handed pitchers than right handed pitchers. Schneider hitting a lead off homer off Blake Snell with a walk and 2 strikeouts to follow was nothing more than him playing his role, like all other players on the team did throughout 2025.

DK: Of course the story of the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays baseball ended on a sour note losing painstakingly against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7, but the fast rise of the northern team is something every baseball team should study. 

LM: You would be hard-pressed to find a more devastating way to lose the World Series than how the 2025 Blue Jays did. However, you could also say you would be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining World Series matchup. A matchup that proved to the world that the Toronto Blue Jays are a legitimate threat, can hang with anyone, and could not be more motivated to try and finish the job in 2026.