Don’t Look Now, but the Blue Jays Have the Best Record in the Grapefruit League

Baseball is fun! The constant battle between the pitcher and the hitter, the excitement of knowing your team always has a chance to win until the 27th out is made, or just having a great time out at the ballpark. All are solid reasons to enjoy the game. The one thing that makes baseball better is winning. So far the Toronto Blue Jays have been doing a lot of it this spring.

On Monday afternoon, the Blue Jays welcomed the Houston Astros into a sunny but windy TD Ballpark in Dunedin. After surrendering three quick runs, the Blue Jays scored eight unanswered, thanks in part to a Bo Bichette home run that literally left the stadium .

Will Wagner and Ernie Clement each contributed RBI doubles, and Addison Barger hit his own whopping 421-foot home run, his second of the spring. The game ended in a thrilling 8-3 victory for the home team. It was the Blue Jays' sixth win in eight games. As of Tuesday morning, the Blue Jays are 10-6, full game up on the Red Sox for the best record in the Grapefruit League.

Spring training records don't mean much. In 2024, the Orioles had spring's best record at 23-6, then they got swept out of the first round of the playoffs. The best spring team of 2023 was the Cardinals, and they finished dead last in the NL Central. In 2022, the Angels had the best spring record and they haven’t made the playoffs since people across North America were still regularly doing the ice bucket challenge.

But while wins and losses might not mean much, a deeper can give us a better understanding of the positives happening across camp. There are reasons to think Toronto's record has been well-earned too. The Blue Jays have a +23 run differential and 113 runs scored, both the best marks in the league. Thirty Blue Jays have made at least one plate appearance this spring, and 28 of them have a wRC+ of 103 or higher, meaning nearly every batter has performed above the league average. The only two that haven't delivered are Matt Whatley, (who is very low on the catching depth chart right now) and George Springer. However, Springer has still reached base three times via the base on balls and twice more via being hit by pitches.

On the pitching side, Max Scherzer is in the top 10 in swinging strike rate, Kevin Gausman looks like his old self, and the late-end bullpen combination of Jeff Hoffman, Yimi García, and Chad Green have combined to go 11 scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts and just one walk. The only real blemishes have been some home run problems for Bowden Francis, some control issues for Yariel Rodríguez, and some growing pains for the young Jake Bloss.

Here are the Blue Jays' ranks in some major hitting categories across both the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues:

• Third in Runs scored (113)
• Second in OBP (.372)
• Third in OPS (.846)
• Sixth in home runs (24)
• 10th in walks drawn (76)
• Fifth in fewest strikeouts (137)

John Schneider and the rest of the coaching staff have got to be thrilled at what they have seen from this offence so far. The classic recipe for success in baseball consists of hitting the ball hard, hitting it often, and having your pitchers limit their mistakes. That's exactly what has been happening for the Blue Jays so far this spring. There is a long way to go between the cold days of early March and raising a banner in the Rogers Centre come October, but with what we've seen so far this spring it's a very good sign. What could be more fun than that?