Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has just six home runs on the season, and is yet to hit one at Rogers Centre.Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press
Eight months after they came within a whisker of winning the World Series, the Toronto Blue Jays are last in the American League East Division.
They finished the unofficial first half of the season on Sunday six games below .500, which is near their lowest point of the season.
It would be hard to find anyone who foresaw this disaster-in-the-making. A team that won 94 games last year is on a pace to win 75. They remain in the wildcard playoff race, but so do all but about a handful of clubs.
Dylan Cease to start MLB All-Star Game for American League
With all-star festivities under way, Toronto is staring into the abyss. It showed a few signs of life on a nine-game road trip that concluded Sunday, but lost the last two to end up 4-5 over that stretch.
To duplicate last year’s record it would have to win 49 of its remaining 66 games. It is very hard to reconcile a reverse course like that.
“This is not where we want to be, obviously,” manager John Schneider said following Sunday’s gut-wrenching 5-4 loss in San Diego. “We’ve been trending in the right direction offensively the last two weeks, minus the Seattle series [when Toronto won the series opener 2-0 and lost the next two by a combined margin of 15-0].
“We definitely have to be better in some areas – on the mound, at the plate, whatever it is. There are little things we have to be better at and we’re looking for more consistency from regular guys up and down the lineup.”
The problem with that is that Schneider has said pretty much the same thing since May and now time has become an enemy.
Schneider has not forgotten how to manage from one season to the next but perhaps he has shown too much trust in some players. Reliever Jeff Hoffman, who blew Sunday’s game in the ninth inning, is one example.
And for all he means as a leader in the clubhouse, George Springer is another. He is 36 and has scuffled all season. Now the team is talking about giving him spot starts in the outfield, where he has rarely played for two years.
You can’t bench the face of the franchise, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in the midst of the worst season of his career. He did hit two home runs in the last four games before the all-star break but he has just six overall in 2026. The team is waiting for Vladdy to suddenly erupt like Mount Vesuvius and it is yet to occur. He still is without a home run at Rogers Centre.
Other than Dylan Cease, who will start Tuesday night’s all-star game in Philadelphia, Toronto’s pitching depth is very thin. The hope is that Max Scherzer will soon emerge from rehabilitation starts in the minors and return to the starting rotation, but that is not a sure thing.
Scherzer is 41 and has battled injuries from the beginning of the campaign and is 1-4 with a 10.23 earned-run average. He will be a Hall of Famer but if this isn’t the end for him it is close.
The Blue Jays recently brought up the power-hitting Sean Keys and speedy Jonatan Clase from Triple-A Buffalo hoping for help. Keys hit a home run in his 10th major-league at-bat but has struggled since. Clase has his two homers in the last five games.
Brandon Valenzuela is seeing more time behind home plate with Alejandro Kirk hitting .202.
There is time left. But it is getting late for a massive run. The team knows it.
“It is kind of make or break,” Kevin Gausman, the starting pitcher, said on Sunday. “We have got to start playing better.”
Yes, but when?