Shape of the Blue Jays: Piñango, Hoffman, Sanchez

Welcome to Shape of the Blue Jays, my column where I dig into Statcast numbers to analyze recent pitch shape and swing shape trends for Toronto Blue Jays players and discuss how they have impacted their performance. Click here to read the last edition.

Quick Hits: Baserunning

• The state of the offense is dire at the moment, but the Blue Jays aren't doing themselves any favors on the basepaths. According to Statcast's baserunning run value, they've been the second-worst team in the AL, ahead of only the Guardians. Baserunning wasn't a strength of last year's team, as they ranked inside the bottom 10 in this category as well, but when runs are this hard to come by, they can't afford to give away the few opportunities they do get.
• The Jays have the second-slowest average sprint speed of any team in the majors as well, but a lack of fast runners doesn't always equal bad baserunning. Other slow teams like the Mariners, Twins, and even the Yankees have been able to overcome it through good instincts and a strategic understanding of when to take the extra base on a ball in play. For Toronto, it has been the worst of both worlds.
• On an individual level, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Myles Straw (ironic given how fast he is), Ernie Clement, and Kazuma Okamoto (insignificant given how well he's hitting) have been the culprits here. For how multifaceted this lineup is when things are going well, the Jays simply aren't built to win games on the bases, which is problematic when they're chasing everything and relying on hitting singles as much as they are. All of this further underscores the growing urgency they face to start slugging.

Yohendrick Piñango

Beyond Okamoto, Yohendrick Piñango has been one of the only other positives amidst this latest offensive lull. His production through the first 26 plate appearances of his big league career is putting the front office in a conundrum in terms of roster moves when Addison Barger returns Friday, as Jays Centre's Sam Charles recently outlined. Piñango is hitting .400 and has struck out just three times since his debut. It's worth noting he's hitting .583 against fastballs, which he has seen around half the time, and doing way worse against secondaries, so I'd imagine he'll start seeing more soft stuff the longer he sticks around.

Piñango has an enviable toolset. His bat speed is 4 mph higher than league average and would be among the top 25 in the league if he were qualified, while his swing is slightly shorter than average. He has very quick hands and has already hit a ball 111 mph, while his zone contact rate is an elite 93.5%. As frustrating as it would be to see one of the only hot hitters on the roster get demoted upon Barger's reinstatement from the IL, Piñango is doing a lot of the things that are hampering the rest of the lineup: chasing a ton (39.1%) and not lifting whatsoever (1.7° avg. LA). Much like his teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr., his timing is much more of an issue than his swing plane. He's worth keeping in the team's short-term plans, but I worry about his lack of discipline and his poor batted ball angles becoming sore spots once he starts seeing more secondaries.

Yohendrick Piñango Swing Mechanics Comps, 2026

Jeff Hoffman

It's possible to be both bad and unlucky at the same time, an apt summary of how the season started for Jeff Hoffman. Things have taken a turn for the better since he was officially removed from the closer's role on April 24: In 5 innings since that date, he has given up one earned run, struck out five, walked one, and done a much better job at keeping the ball on the ground. His fastball velocity is up, averaging at least 96.5 mph in every appearance he has made in the month of May so far. In his scoreless seventh inning on Tuesday, it reached a new single-game high of 98 mph for his tenure as a Blue Jay. He wasn't kidding when he said the Tropicana Field mound was his favourite to pitch on.

Earlier in the year, he showed an increased liking for his devastating splitter, and as the control issues mounted throughout April, he lost confidence in his fastball. The fact that he has thrown it harder and more often over the past couple of weeks is a welcome sign that he's regaining confidence. Despite his shaky ninth innings, there were signs that positive regression was imminent from every direction: a K-BB near 30%, a BABIP north of .500, a strand rate below 70%, and an xFIP and SIERA in the low 2.00s. That has come to fruition of late, but he's making his own luck too.

Jesús Sanchez

After starting the year on the right foot, Jesús Sánchez has gone ice-cold. His wRC+ on the season is down to 78. The injuries to George Springer and Addison Barger in April have made the slump feel like a missed opportunity to earn more playing time and a central role in the lineup. There are a lot of factors at play here. His .381 SLG indicates the 2.8-mph drop in bat speed we've seen compared to last year (second-largest in the majors by the way, yikes) has not been a worthwhile endeavor. Intertwined with that has been the further shortening of his swing. All this has done is bring his contact rate to the 54th percentile, a marginal improvement over the 39th-percentile mark he posted in 2025.

We can also add Sánchez to the group of Jays hitters that is currently way too undisciplined to be productive. His chase rate against fastballs has jumped nine percentage points. Even worse, it's up nearly 17 points on breaking balls. Throw in some bad luck (.286 wOBA, .325 xwOBA), and this is how you end up with a talented hitter on pace for a career-worst season.

Jesús Sánchez Chase Rate by Pitch Group, 2025 vs. 2026

On the bright side, Sánchez isn't pounding the ball into the ground as much as in years past, but that doesn't mean much when it isn't coming off the bat with as much authority. I'm not sure whether this is a coaching thing, the result of something he's playing through, or just the trials and tribulations of a 162-game schedule, the latter of which is more responsible for the various misfortunes of our favourite players and teams than we'd like to admit. Either way, it's hard to picture this lineup getting going without him.