SIMMONS: After lost season, Blue Jays can’t explain everything that went wrong

Blue Jays were worst in runs scored, worst in home runs, second worst in OPS and OBP among MLB clubs

Published Sep 27, 2026  •  Last updated 3 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. breaks his bat after grounding out in the eighth inning of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Aug. 1, 2026. Photo by Cole Burston /Getty Images

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Before the day was over, after all of the emotions and the ovations and goodbyes of a season gone wrong, there was a meeting with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a plan put in place for the coming months.

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And maybe for the year or years to come.

There is a reason the Jays committed $500 million to Guerrero: It was the belief he could change teams. The belief he could change this team. A belief he could be the kind of difference-maker every major-league club needs.

The Blue Jays, not led by the great Guerrero, who sat out Sunday afternoon to avoid the booing, were the worst hitting team in MLB this season. Worst in runs scored. Worst in home runs hit. Second worst in OPS and on-base percentage.

That’s a lot of worst.

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Stagnant offence ‘doesn’t make sense:’ Schneider

It’s truly difficult to be that terrible in so many offensive categories in one season, but the Blue Jays managed to do that for the second time in the last three seasons. In between, they went to Game 7 of the World Series with an offensive team that was the talk of baseball.

First in runs scored. Now last. First in OBP. Now 14th. And the one that makes the least sense — second in hits yet last in runs scored. How is that possible?

“Doesn’t make sense,” said manager John Schneider. In fact, this whole season hasn’t made sense except it was so damn predictable. Teams that play in the World Series and don’t win it rarely return the following season. In fact, over the past quarter-century, just three teams that lost the World Series played in it a year later, making it a 12% bet on the best of days.

I mentioned that number to club president Mark Shapiro on the day before the season began. “I know, I know,” said Shapiro. He was well aware of the odds being against the Jays. He was expecting some decline, just not this. But he and general manager Ross Atkins and just about anybody else who makes any decision for the Blue Jays will tell you, this should not have been a last-place team.

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This should not have been a season to forget.

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Stars take a step back

Guerrero was supposed to do something within reason of what was expected of him. George Springer was expected to be better and healthier. Ernie Clement somehow stopped being Ernie Clement. The lineup that should have won the World Series — and we will be saying that for years knowing the way in which Game 7 unfolded — couldn’t do anything when it mattered these past six months.

They wound up last even with Dylan Cease coming close to Cy Young numbers. They wound up last with Louis Varland having a brilliant season closing games for the Jays and a bullpen performing unlike many before it. They wound up last with their Japanese rookie Kazuma Okamoto having a marvellous first MLB year, finishing top 10 in both home runs and RBIs, the kind of numbers that were supposed to come from Guerrero.

The Blue Jays would truly love to explain all that went wrong these past 162 games, but the truth is they don’t have a whole lot of specific reasons. Except the obvious. They had no offence. They couldn’t score. Their baserunning was close to horrendous. And they couldn’t score, especially, when it mattered. And then, of course, they couldn’t stay healthy.

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The Jays would love to talk about the future of this club, but they can’t even do that properly at this time. Because they don’t know. They can’t know. They don’t know if there is a next season. They don’t know what happens beyond Dec. 1, when baseball is expected to begin a lockout.

They don’t know who, if anyone, they can sign — or afford to sign or deal for — assuming there is a next season and that’s a grand assumption on its own.

Fans at the Rogers Centre watch the Toronto Blue Jays host the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game 6 of last year’s World Series at Rogers Centre. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun

Fans continued to come in droves

The most consistent elements of this season — Cease and Varland aside — were the blindly loyal Jays fans. The club sold out 61 of their 82 home games. They drew 3.3 million people on the season. Only the Yankees, in the AL, drew more and only by about 500 a game.

When the Jays won 74 times in 2024 with little or no offence, they promised a deep dive into what went wrong with their bats. They came back and were the most versatile offensive team in the league. Then they fell back to almost 2024 and won 79 games.

“We have to do a deep dive now,” said Schneider. If someone had told Schneider the Jays would finish second in hits and last in runs in the AL, he would have said: “I don’t believe you … we just didn’t hit the standards.”

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They just didn’t hit much of anything.

That was Guerrero Jr’s job. That’s what Edward Rogers spent all that money on. That’s the first thing that needs to be corrected — assuming it can be corrected — before the next time we see the Blue Jays again.

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We may be spending the rest of our sporting lives wondering how Isiah Kiner-Falefa didn’t score from third and how Andy Pages made that catch in deep left field and how Jeff Hoffman relinquished a ninth-inning home run to popcorn hitter Miguel Rojas in the World Series finale. The Game 7 they should have won and didn’t.

That will be the documentary one day.

Which makes this season all the more gaunt. There is no documentary here. A friend of mine took his sports- and baseball-hating wife to Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre. She actually loved the experience, everything but the outcome.

She loved the sound, the colours, the emotion, the scene, the incredible experience that it was.

My friend recently asked his wife if she wanted to go to a game this season. She said sure, she’s happy to go so long as it’s Game 7 of the World Series.

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