Grading Every Player Who Appeared for the Blue Jays in 2026: Position Players

Last week, Nick Nelson of Twins Daily graded every player who appeared for Minnesota this past season. I decided to do the same for the Blue Jays. (Five players appeared for both clubs in 2026. Bragging rights if you can guess all five! Hint: They're all right-handed pitchers.)

First up are the position players. Twenty-five guys took at least one plate appearance for the Jays this year, from Kazuma Okamoto, who led the team with 636 PA, to fellow 30-year-old rookie Rudy Martin Jr., who stepped to bat three times. You'll find all 25 players listed below in alphabetical order, with a few lines to explain their grades. 

Brett Bateman: A+
Even though we saw it coming, it was still disappointing when the Blue Jays traded away beloved veterans Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho. Then, somehow, an unheralded prospect named Brett Bateman spent the next two months making those trades look like the best decisions of the season. Bateman was so good that he would have earned an A even if he were a top prospect. The fact that he came out of nowhere to post an .826 OPS and 1.9 fWAR in 41 games is what bumps him up to an A+.

Addison Barger: C
I really want to give Barger an "incomplete," but I said I'd grade every player, so I'm going to grade every player. His 1-for-22 performance at the plate deserves a D (if not an F), but I'm bumping him up a whole letter grade because he put his body on the line for one of my favorite defensive plays of the season. 

Daz Cameron: C
Cameron didn't do much for the Jays, but he gets a C for one really impressive home run. 

Jonatan Clase: B
It's important to remember that the grading criteria are different for every player. Clase hit two homers in nine games and debuted the home run dragon. That earns him a B from me. 

Ernie Clement: C-
Can I give a player two different grades for the first and second halves of his season? Clement was a deserving All-Star over the first three months of 2026. Then, he struggled so badly in the second half that even a C felt too generous. It pains me to give one of my favourite players such a low grade, but it's precisely because I expected so much more from him that his grade isn't any higher. Clement's .649 OPS and 80 wRC+ ranked fifth-last among qualified AL hitters, and his defensive metrics were surprisingly poor at second base.

Andrés Giménez: B
Were we hoping to see a little more out of Giménez at the plate? Sure. But let's be realistic. His numbers in 2026 were right in line with his averages from the previous three seasons. I'm not going to penalize Giménez for being the same hitter he has been for years. Besides, he stole 20 bases and played strong defense in his first full season as a shortstop. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: D
I really considered going with an F here, but that seemed slightly too harsh. One of my major grading criteria is performance relative to expectations, but I have to remember that Vladdy was still a near-league-average hitter and a good defender at first base. His season wasn't a failure, even if it was a massive disappointment. 

Tyler Heineman: C+
One way to see Heineman's 2026 is as a massive disappointment compared to his 2025. I prefer to conceptualize it as an inevitable regression to the mean. That's why his grade is higher than you might have expected. I know this isn't how luck *actually* works, but I view this season as the price that Heineman (and the rest of us) had to pay the baseball gods for his ridiculously good 2025 that helped the Jays win the AL East. And while he offered next to nothing at the plate this year, that's true of a lot of backup catchers, and at least his defense was still superb.

Eloy Jiménez: C-
If I gave Daz Cameron a C, I really should give Jiménez a C as well. But the bar was slightly higher for the former Silver Slugger winner, and I just don't have any memories of his brief stint in Toronto.  

Sean Keys: C
Keys would get an A+ if I were grading minor league seasons. But I'm not. 

Alejandro Kirk: A
I almost gave Kirk an A- because he only played 79 games, but I realize it would be a mistake to penalize him for a freak injury. In the half season he played, Kirk looked just like the player he was in 2025 – in other words, one of the best catchers in baseball. 

Nathan Lukes: B+
Lukes essentially repeated his 2025 season, reaffirming that he can hold down a semi-regular role as the lefty-batting half of a corner outfield platoon. He earns the "plus" in his grade for leading the American League in Baseball Savant's arm value metric. 

Rudy Martin Jr.: B-
I've been giving most players like Martin a grade in the C range, but what the heck. He earns a slightly higher grade for the feel-good-story aspect of how his Blue Jays tenure started and because I feel bad that an injury ended his long-awaited first taste of the majors so abruptly. 

Charles McAdoo: B-
McAdoo homered in his big league debut and the final game of the season. Most of what happened in the middle was less impressive, but he deserves props for handling himself at so many different positions in his first major league campaign. 

Kazuma Okamoto: A-
Signing Okamoto was one of several great decisions Toronto's front office made last winter. In his first MLB season, the third baseman led the Jays with 33 home runs. His propensity to swing and miss is the only thing that keeps this grade from being even higher.

Yohendrick Piñango: C+
Piñango had some memorable moments at the plate... and just as many forgettable moments in the field.  

Jesús Sánchez: D
I still don't agree with the team's decision to cut Sánchez at the end of the season, but the fact that he lost his job has to affect his grade. He was one of the more productive lefty bats in a very thin lineup, but his defense was untenable.

Davis Schneider: D+
I was really hoping for a lot more from Schneider this year. He didn't deliver. 

Josh Smith: B-
Smith was great for the Jays after the trade deadline before coming down to earth in the final weeks of the season. His defensive versatility brings him up from a C+ to a B-.

Lenyn Sosa: C-
Sosa was pretty bad for the Jays, but he only played 28 games, so I don't feel the need to give him a D. 

George Springer: B
Springer isn't Guerrero, and it wouldn't be fair to base his grade on how much worse he played in 2026 than he did the year before. Considering he turned 37 in September, Springer turned in a perfectly solid campaign. I bumped him up from a B- to a B in honour of the fact that he might have just played the last season of a very successful career. 

Myles Straw: C+
Straw is fast. Very fast. That makes him a valuable player to have on the bench as a pinch runner or defensive replacement. He's going to struggle if he's asked to be more than that, but if you're a team that's asking Straw to play 147 games in a season, that says more about your poor roster construction than Straw himself. 

Luis Urías: B
Urías didn't have a very memorable season with Toronto, but apparently, he posted an .803 OPS and a 122 wRC+ in 25 games before he landed on the IL. So, I feel like he deserves a solid grade.

Brandon Valenzuela: A-
It was a year of extremes for Valenzuela at the plate. He started slow and finished cold, but he was red-hot for a stretch in the middle. Meanwhile, his defense was consistently excellent from day one. All in all, Valenzuela exceeded expectations in his rookie season, and he was a lifesaver for the Jays while Kirk was on the IL.   

Daulton Varsho: C+
If I were grading Varsho's full season, he might be in the D range, but thankfully, we don't have to concern ourselves with what he did (or, rather, how little he did) for the Astros. Varsho's overall numbers with the Blue Jays weren't awful, but the power he showed off in 2025 disappeared, and his defense wasn't as stellar as usual. 

How do you feel about my grades? Are any of them way off? Let me know with a comment, and check back soon to read about the Blue Jays' pitchers.