From a glass-half-full approach, this season is off to a pretty strong start for the 8-6 Toronto Blue Jays, who came within a few unfortunate bounces of completing a four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday. And they came that close to the finish line despite only producing three extra-base hits in the series. 
But instead, this team &#8212; which sits second in the AL East, behind the New York Yankees &#8212; heads to Camden Yards for another pivotal series against the Baltimore Orioles while positioned two games above .500 across the two-week mark of the 2025 campaign.
The pitching has been exceptional thus far. That includes the starting rotation and bullpen, which perhaps have performed better than anyone could&#8217;ve predicted coming out of spring training. They&#8217;re both key reasons Toronto has enjoyed as much early success as it has out of the gate, and they&#8217;ve done so while operating with little margin for error due to the offence&#8217;s slow start.
Entering Friday&#8217;s slate, the Blue Jays have averaged a modest 3.71 runs per game through 14 games, good for 17th in the majors this season. All things considered, that isn&#8217;t all that terrible. In fact, it&#8217;s quite impressive, given this lineup has only hit six home runs &#8212; tied with the Kansas City Royals for the fewest in baseball.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Blue Jays 6 Home Runs are their fewest in franchise history through 14 games
&mdash; Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) <a href="https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1910483286578602418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Now, to be fair, it hasn&#8217;t been all bad for Toronto&#8217;s offence early on. They have done many things well, like posting the fifth-most hits (119) and eighth-highest team batting average (.254). They also rank inside the top 10 in on-base percentage (.332) and strikeout rate (19.6 per cent), registering a <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=bat&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=8&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0%2Cts&amp;sortcol=17&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">102 wRC+ as a group</a> that puts them two per cent above league average.
If only they could start hitting for some power.
Not only do the Blue Jays sit at the bottom in home runs. But they&#8217;re also positioned 22nd in the majors in slugging percentage (.344) and 29th in isolated power (.090). It also hasn&#8217;t helped that they&#8217;ve struggled to come through with the big hit in crucial moments, as their .246 AVG in hitting with runners in scoring position sits 13th among all 30 big-league clubs.
Of the six dingers this lineup has produced, none have come from their top hitters (Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Anthony Santander). Instead, it&#8217;s been Andrés Giménez (three), George Springer (two) and, amazingly, Tyler Heineman (one) leading the way in the power department.
However, chances are that won&#8217;t remain the case over a full 162-game season. Those first three will start hitting balls out eventually, especially once the conditions begin to warm up.
<blockquote>“I know we have them. We have homers. Homers are things that come, they come in streaks, they come in bunches,” Bo Bichette told reporters of Toronto&#8217;s early-season power drought, including <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-fall-just-short-of-four-game-sweep-vs-red-sox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sportsnet&#8217;s Shi Davidi</a>. “Good teams, good players are able to hit and be productive when they&#8217;re not there. We&#8217;ve done that.”</blockquote>
The unseasonably cold temperatures have certainly contributed to the Blue Jays&#8217; lack of thump thus far. But so has a bit of bad luck, considering they entered this week&#8217;s four-game series at Fenway Park tied with the Athletics for 12th in hard-hit rate at 40.9 per cent. And they were even higher before arriving in Queens last weekend, with both clubs tied for seventh with a 42.4-per-cent clip.
The good news is the weather should be much warmer in Baltimore this weekend, at least compared to the horrendous conditions this team just endured in Boston. However, they&#8217;ll be going toe-to-toe with an offence that has relied heavily on the long ball in &#8217;25, as the O&#8217;s have hit 10 home runs in their five victories compared to just one in eight losses.

From a glass-half-full approach, this season is off to a pretty strong start for the 8-6 Toronto Blue Jays, who came within a few unfortunate bounces of completing a four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday. And they came that close to the finish line despite only producing three extra-base hits in the series. 

But instead, this team -- which sits second in the AL East, behind the New York Yankees -- heads to Camden Yards for another pivotal series against the Baltimore Orioles while positioned two games above .500 across the two-week mark of the 2025 campaign.

The pitching has been exceptional thus far. That includes the starting rotation and bullpen, which perhaps have performed better than anyone could've predicted coming out of spring training. They're both key reasons Toronto has enjoyed as much early success as it has out of the gate, and they've done so while operating with little margin for error due to the offence's slow start.

Entering Friday's slate, the Blue Jays have averaged a modest 3.71 runs per game through 14 games, good for 17th in the majors this season. All things considered, that isn't all that terrible. In fact, it's quite impressive, given this lineup has only hit six home runs -- tied with the Kansas City Royals for the fewest in baseball.

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1910483286578602418

Now, to be fair, it hasn't been all bad for Toronto's offence early on. They have done many things well, like posting the fifth-most hits (119) and eighth-highest team batting average (.254). They also rank inside the top 10 in on-base percentage (.332) and strikeout rate (19.6 per cent), registering a <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=bat&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=8&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0%2Cts&amp;sortcol=17&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">102 wRC+ as a group</a> that puts them two per cent above league average.

If only they could start hitting for some power.

Not only do the Blue Jays sit at the bottom in home runs. But they're also positioned 22nd in the majors in slugging percentage (.344) and 29th in isolated power (.090). It also hasn't helped that they've struggled to come through with the big hit in crucial moments, as their .246 AVG in hitting with runners in scoring position sits 13th among all 30 big-league clubs.

Of the six dingers this lineup has produced, none have come from their top hitters (Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Anthony Santander). Instead, it's been Andrés Giménez (three), George Springer (two) and, amazingly, Tyler Heineman (one) leading the way in the power department.

However, chances are that won't remain the case over a full 162-game season. Those first three will start hitting balls out eventually, especially once the conditions begin to warm up.
<blockquote>“I know we have them. We have homers. Homers are things that come, they come in streaks, they come in bunches,” Bo Bichette told reporters of Toronto's early-season power drought, including <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-fall-just-short-of-four-game-sweep-vs-red-sox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sportsnet's Shi Davidi</a>. “Good teams, good players are able to hit and be productive when they're not there. We've done that.”</blockquote>
The unseasonably cold temperatures have certainly contributed to the Blue Jays' lack of thump thus far. But so has a bit of bad luck, considering they entered this week's four-game series at Fenway Park tied with the Athletics for 12th in hard-hit rate at 40.9 per cent. And they were even higher before arriving in Queens last weekend, with both clubs tied for seventh with a 42.4-per-cent clip.

The good news is the weather should be much warmer in Baltimore this weekend, at least compared to the horrendous conditions this team just endured in Boston. However, they'll be going toe-to-toe with an offence that has relied heavily on the long ball in '25, as the O's have hit 10 home runs in their five victories compared to just one in eight losses.

Despite promising 8-6 start, Blue Jays’ offence must start hitting balls out to sustain early success

Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday (7) steals second base against Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Andres Gimenez (0) during the second inning at Rogers Centre.

Recent articles from Thomas Hall

Breaking News