Article: Toronto Blue Jays Hitters of the Month - July 2025

[Owen Hill]

Coming into the year, I don’t think many of you would have believed me if I told you that the Blue Jays would finish July with not only a 3.5-game lead in the American League East, but one of the best records in baseball. The Jays went on an absolute tear in July, highlighted by winning six out of seven against the New York Yankees. 

The Jays' position players led baseball in both the offensive and defensive components of FanGraphs WAR and were worth 7.9 total fWAR, nearly three full wins ahead of baseball’s second-place team, the Chicago Cubs. It’s no surprise that that led to a borderline dominant 18-8 month.

A month like this takes contributions from literally every player on the roster, and that’s exactly what the Jays got. Ten out of 13 Blue Jays to get at least 30 plate appearances had a wRC+ over 100, and nine of them had a wRC+ over 120.

Most notably, the Jays led baseball with 150 runs in July, 

The end of the month is the perfect time to shout out the Jays’ biggest offensive contributors, and they certainly made it tough on me to narrow it down to just five names.

Honourable Mentions
Addison Barger - .284/.387.568, 6 HR, 5 BB, 27 K, 141 wRC+, 0.8 fWAR
He’s not quite setting the world on fire at the same pace he was when he broke out in May, but Addison Barger has really settled into the middle of the Blue Jays’ lineup.

His walk rate dropped to just 4.9% in July, and his strikeout rate rose to 25.5%, which are concerning numbers, especially for a guy like Barger whose approach has been so closely monitored early on in his career.

Fortunately for Barger and the Blue Jays, he’s still been able to get his A-swing off and get to his power. He crushed 14 extra-base hits in July, including six homers, which helped carry him to a .995 OPS.

Barger’s left-handed bat completely transforms the Jays’ lineup against right-handed pitching, and he was a huge part of the Blue Jays offence that led baseball in runs this past month.

Nathan Lukes - .247/.315/.494, 5 HR, 8 BB, 12 K, 123 wRC+, 0.5 fWAR
Admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of John Schneider putting Nathan Lukes in the leadoff spot against righties. But in July, he proved me wrong. 

Lukes kind of embodies what made the Blue Jays so pesky in July.

His 13.2% strikeout rate in July was actually up from his season average, and his 8.8% walk rate was actually down, which tells you a lot about the kind of season he’s been having. 

Putting the analysis to the side for a sentence here, it feels like when Lukes is in the box, he always has a chance to make something happen. Whether it’s getting a groundball down to the right side with a runner on second base, leading off an inning with a hit, or this 14-pitch at-bat in a crucial spot:

A big part of Lukes earning this honourable mention was his ability to tap into a little bit more power in July.

He hit five homers, doubling his season total heading into the month. He’s a great example of a guy who seems to be punching a bit above his weight class to lead this team to so many victories.

3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - .333/.443/.500, 3 HR, 19 BB, 17 K, 165 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR
Through four months of baseball, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the only Blue Jay to have appeared in the top three in all of our Hitter of the Month articles. We’re still waiting for the power explosion to come for Vladdy, but he really has been consistently productive for essentially the entire season, aside from the first two weeks of July, which really says a lot about his production post-All-Star break.

• In 12 July games before the All-Star break: 238/.373/.286, 0 HR, 19.6 K%
• In 13 games after the All-Star break: .407/.500/.667, 3 HR, 10.9 K%

It says a lot about the type of season the Jays are having that they went 9-3 in those 12 games before the break.

Guerrero's wRC+ is now quietly at 142 on the season, and he’s been looking a lot more like himself at the plate since the break.

I’m going to start and end with the point that the hope – as it has been all season – is that Vladdy is just around the corner from a big power surge. I’m talking about the kind where we see him go off for 10 extra base hits in a week, and hopefully he can get close to double-digit homers in both August and September.

Blue Jays hitters have already been so good this season. Just imagine how many runs they’re going to score when Vlad finally goes on that extended superstar run.

I’m happy to rank him third in July, but hopefully, when I write this article at the end of August, I have no choice but to put Guerrero first.

2. Bo Bichette - .357/.400/.541, 2 HR, 6 BB, 14 K, 161 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR
Is this honour being bestowed upon Bo Bichette entirely because of a stretch of nine hits in nine straight at-bats? 

Not quite, but it certainly helped!

Thanks to that run, and in part to Aaron Judge being stuck at 129 due to his IL stint, Bichette now leads baseball in hits with 132, which I think is fairly representative of the type of season he’s having on the whole; he looks just like he did in so many seasons before his injury-riddled 2024.

The production with runners in scoring position has been well covered all season, but just to reiterate, his .374 average with RISP still ranks among baseball’s leaders and has led to a team-leading 67 RBI on the season. I tend to fall on the side of the fence that says clutch isn’t real, but it’s hard to deny the fact that Bichette has shown a knack for picking up hits at the right time this season.

A final note on Bo: His defence at shortstop has been extremely passable this season. He doesn’t exactly grade out well as a shortstop – his -3 FRV is in just the 22nd percentile in baseball – but he’s made only six errors so far this season, and he’s passing my eye test with flying colours.

I’m still not sure I’d give him a big bag of money to play shortstop for many seasons beyond this one, especially with his sprint speed having cratered to the 22nd percentile, but the solid defence has been very encouraging.

1. George Springer - .371/.451/.640, 7 HR, 12 BB, 14 K, 204 wRC+, 1.3 fWAR
In the spirit of honesty, I’m running out of words to describe George Springer’s season.

At 35 years old, he’s gone from a player we were essentially ready to send to an old age home to the MVP of the Blue Jays.

If the season ended today, his 147 wRC+ this season would be one of the best marks of his career, second only to the 2019 season, when a juiced baseball aided him to 39 homers.

His 18 homers lead the Blue Jays in 2025, and he’s just one away from matching his total from last season, despite having 200 fewer plate appearances. His OPS is 215 points higher than it was just a year ago, and at .889, it leads qualified Blue Jays.

I’m having a hard time not writing extremely profane sentences to describe the way the offence looked without him when he missed three games towards the end of the month after being hit in the head with a 96-mph fastball.

This team does not have half the July it had without Springer’s efforts, and he was an easy choice to top the Blue Jays Hitters of the Month list for July.

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