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That's a commonly held misconception that Semien was still an elite short stop defender when he signed with the Blue Jays. His 2020 defensive metrics were actually worse on a rate basis than Bo's awful 2025 numbers, and Bo outperformed him at short stop in 2021 as well. On top of that this was a single season signing and once Semien left the Blue Jays yet again had nobody other than Bo that was capable of full time short stop duties. Semien 2020 451 Innings -6 DRS (-13.3 DRS/1000) -9 OAA (-20 OAA/1000) Bo 2025 1139 innings -12 DRS (-10.5 DRS/1000) -13 OAA (-11.4 OAA/1000)

To be fair the team didn't have a starter quality short stop alternative until they acquired Gimenez. I'm sure Bo would have been moved if the right player was acquired with Lindor being the first player that comes to mind.

I would think the hope would be that Jiminez could come closer to replicating the 140 wRC+ half season type of results over a full season with better health. I imagine a big part of the mediocre seasons was the player being hampered by the rash of injuries that he seemed to suffer year in and year out. At any rate I agree the only realistic avenue I see to a starting gig would be in the case of a Springer injury.

I will forever believe that the wrong team won the 2025 world series. The Blue Jays outplayed the Dodgers for the series as a whole but the Dodgers did the bare minimum in crunch time to take the title.

He can go oppo with the best of em when he's locked in at the plate. He artificially limits himself when he slaps the ball the other way, but he's also fully capable of crushing a boatload of doubles and oppo tacos when he's lifting the ball.

There's nothing wrong with going to the opposite field if you are driving the ball like Vlad is capable of when he's locked in at the plate.

I believe the club was already on this path for the season as Ricky was going to function as a bulk reliever.

Santander's career numbers aren't terribly relevant as he experienced a breakout season at the age of 27.

I believe there's enough talent on this team for it to end up in a similar position in overall runs scored to 2025 where they finished 4th in MLB. I suspect it's entirely possible if not even likely that they won't enjoy the same kind of peak offensive output where they were overwhelmingly MLB's best offense for 5 months of regular season+playoffs but I don't think scoring enough runs to win should be much of a concern. The 2025 offensive breakout didn't happen by random chance as the Blue Jays hired the modern/progressive hitting coach that they were lacking previously, and the improved practice routines and pregame planning were keys to allowing the hitters to succeed on a day to day basis. It remains to be seen how key Hunter Mense was to this success as he left for an opportunity of his own, but I believe the hitters are still in good hands moving forward. I can agree there is a lot of variability on this roster and a lot of questions to be answered that will determine this lineup's ceiling: How much of the resurgence can Springer repeat? I think he's going to continue to mash as he's "fixed" at the plate, but expecting a 166 wRC+ from a 36 year old player is extremely unlikely so he'll almost experience a bit of a dropoff. What is Vlad moving forward? He teases us pretty much every season, particularly in the second half where he spends months at a time looking like the heir apparent to Aaron Judge at the plate. If he finally reaches his ceiling year in and year out this could allow the 2025 offense to be a regular occurence Can Varsho sustain his 2025 power output over a full season? I think the new power is very real, but it remains to be seen whether he can continue to find the barrel to the same degree over a full season given the hit tool concerns. If he's a 30+ home run bat that's a massive boost in the power department. Is Barger on the verge of a star breakout? He's shown an impressive ability to make adjustments at this early point of his MLB career, and his toolset suggests there could be a monster power bat waiting to emerge if he can find a tad more consistency at the plate to allow him to avoid extended slumps. What is Okamoto's ceiling in MLB? Projection systems are fully onboard with Okamoto being an above average hitter, but he'll need to prove that he can continue to make contact at an above average rate against much better pitching and that the power will continue to play in the majors. I believe he's going to prove to be a massive bargain at only $15 million AAV but there is bound to be an adjustment period as he learns the pitchers in MLB and and adjusts to higher velocity. What are the bottom of the order hitters going to provide? I think this will be a key to whether the team can continue to lead the league in runs as the bottom of the order did a great job getting on base last season and turning things over to the top of the order. I believe that Clement can continue to provide something approximating league average offense but there is potential for a little more, Gimenez should almost certainly be better with the stick with better lower half health and he was almost comically unlucky with the results on his batted balls in play. What can be expected from the bench? This group largely exceeded expectations in 2025, and some of them are likely going to take a step or two back at the plate. Straw was a very pleasant surprise, but his track record of being one of MLB's worst hitters can't be ignored. Heineman outproduced his expected statistics by 65-70 points and is a prime candidate for regression, Schneider is likely going to continue to be a solid bench bat but he's experienced a full season of struggles previously, and finally Lukes should likely continue to be somewhere around league average with the stick What are Sanchez and Eloy Jimenez going to provide? I think these two are massive wildcards, and if one of them pops a bit this could provide a massive boon to the lineup. Sanchez is capable of hitting balls 500 feet, and if Popkins and co. can help him get to that power in game more frequently he could be a very potent platoon bat. I'm very intrigued by Jimenez as he's improved his body and still appears to possess at least some of the skillset that made him such a promising hitter earlier in his career.

I don't think there was enough 2025 data on a healthy Santander to make any kind of informed projections for what to expect of him moving forward. Santander is exactly the type of player who can reliably be expected to beat his expected stats as he excels at pulling the ball into the seats, and whether that comes back will be the deciding factor towards whether he's productive moving forward. He was only really healthy for about the first 5 weeks of the season, and when he came back he couldn't even swing the bat at full speed from both sides of the plate as his shoulder was still holding him back. He's being judged as washed up largely based on a bad first month of the season where he struggled out of the gates to a larger degree than usual. If the power doesn't come back fully after the shoulder was finally surgically repaired he could easily end up being a release candidate as this is his primary positive attribute but we are far from that point.

This lineup is essentially the same as last season minus whatever the difference between Okamoto and Bo ends up being. Every publicly available projection system believes that Okamoto is going to be nearly as effective at the plate as Bo, and there is nothing "ridiculous" about this, he's a very talented hitter who rarely strikes out and knows how to get to the barrel to park the ball in the seats with regularity. I think he's likely going to be a better third base defender and baserunner than Bo and as such I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that he is actually a more productive overall player once he has a chance to adjust to MLB pitching. The team gets to enjoy having Barger for the entire season vs a couple of struggling rookies and that could turn out to be a boost to the lineup. The Blue Jays aren't going to go from MLB's best offense to a sub par offensive unit due to the difference between these two players. I think the pitching staff looks like it will be dramatically improved to start the season compared to the prior year as well, and if this comes to fruition the team will easily continue to win a ton of ballgames even if the offense takes a bit of a step back as they won't need to score as many runs to outscore the opposition.

I don't get why certain members of the fanbase are so slow to recognize that Bo didn't leave without a high end replacement being added to the roster. Okamoto is bound to face a bit of an adjustment period to MLB pitching but this is a high end talent who is firmly in his prime. The Blue Jays were MLB's highest scoring offense over the final 5 months of the regular season and this transferred through the playoffs. This was despite receiving very little from Santander, Varsho missing half the season, Gimenez producing very little with the bat and the team never at any point enjoying a full strength lineup due to injury. In essence the only real change is Bo being replaced by Okamoto, and Okamoto is projected to provide 90-100% of Bo's offensive output by wRC+. The team is still stacked with talent and I fully expect it to score plenty of runs yet again.

It's spring training FFS.

I don't think I've seen that poster make a single post that isn't dumb as hell.

To be perfectly fair we started spring training with news of Santander shoulder surgery, Francis UCL surgery and Bieber likely being late to start the regular season so it hasn't been all lollipops and bubble gum over here either.

Scheider produced a 127 wRC+ in the regular season. He's not remotely comparable to IKF and Cavan Biggio when it comes to offensive ability.

I guess I earned myself one of these 😁

What are you basing this on? Santander partially separated his shoulder in early May and he passed the Blue Jays physical before the season started in the first place.

Did you even read the damn article? If you did you would be aware that the initial scans in 2025 did not show any tears.

Looks like he's already in midseason form.

I think that Manfred tends to suffer from the same types of issues as Ross Atkins. They are both lacking in ability to speak to the press without pissing off a good chunk of the fanbase, and as such I think each of these guys takes a lot more flak than they deserve based on the results they've delivered.

Straw produced a 91 wRC+ last season, that's perfectly acceptable for a backup outfielder who is an elite defender. I can somewhat agree that the Blue Jays really shot themselves in the foot with the way that Straw was utilized in the post season with the World Series being particularly egregious. This was also the case with IKF in that both of Straw and IKF received a ton of key plate appearances at the top of the lineup later in games and they had little to no chance of success at the plate.

The current day version of Cavan Biggio would have virtually no chance of making a post season roster in the first place.

I think this is the key as well. Straw is a backup player who primarily mans center field, and his playing time is largely contingent on there being available playing time in center field. He may end up receiving a handful of starts against left handed starters as all of Lukes, Varsho, Barger and Sanchez will likely be on the bench to start vs the tougher lefties.