The Toronto Blue Jays are officially eliminated from postseason contention.
The Jays’ 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday afternoon in the first game of their doubleheader mathematically ends their postseason hopes with four games remaining.
The Blue Jays (77-81) will play another game in Baltimore on Wednesday and be off Thursday before they conclude their 2026 campaign with a weekend series at home against the Cincinnati Reds.
A combination of injuries and underperformance prevented the Jays from following up on their World Series run from a season ago.
Toronto began the season with eight starting pitchers – Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Jose Berrios, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer – but were quickly shorthanded in the starting five thanks to injuries to Yesavage, Bieber and Berrios to start the season. The staff got thinner after Ponce and Scherzer went down with early-season injuries and Lauer was designated for assignment in May after struggling to start the season.
The injuries weren’t just limited to the pitching staff. Outfielder Anthony Santander had off-season shoulder surgery and never found his way back to the lineup. Catcher Alejandro Kirk missed more than two months from early April to mid-June with a broken thumb, and outfielder Addison Barger played in just nine total games due to ankle injuries and an elbow issue that required season-ending surgery.
Those injuries put pressure on the offence and made a lineup that had already lost Bo Bichette in the off-season even thinner.
The struggles of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. may be the biggest reason of all for the Jays’ lost season. After posting a .848 OPS during the regular season last year, Guerrero took things to another level during last year’s playoffs with eight total home runs and 15 RBI in 18 playoff games. He also won ALCS MVP and hit .333 with two homers in the World Series.
But Guerrero’s 2026 – the first season of his 14-year $500 million contract – was by and large a nightmare at the plate. After Wednesday afternoon’s game, Guerrero was slashing .263/.335/.360 with just nine home runs and 56 RBI in 142 games with an OPS+ of 92, indicating he was about eight per cent below league average, adjusted for position.
It wasn’t just Guerrero. Several other Blue Jays performed well below their offensive output from a season ago, making it difficult for the Jays to string momentum together and outscore depth issues they had in the starting rotation.
The Jays sat eight games below .500 at the trade deadline and shipped out veterans Gausman, Daulton Varsho and Jeff Hoffman.
It wasn’t a full sell as Toronto acquired right-hander Jose Soriano from the Los Angeles Angels, righty Spencer Arrighetti from the Houston Astros and also got centre fielder Brett Bateman from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Gausman, who quickly established himself as the team’s leadoff hitter.
The Jays surged after the trade deadline and as of Sept. 5, sat in a playoff spot one game over .500 at 72-71 for the first time since April. But they went on to lose four of their next five games and were unable to get back up over the .500 mark as other teams around them kicked into gear and left the Jays on the outside looking in.
A few bright spots for the Jays in 2026 include the performance of third baseman Kazuma Okamoto in his rookie season. Okamoto broke the team’s rookie home run record in August and set the new mark for homers by a Japanese right-handed hitter, passing Seiya Suzuki’s mark of 32 on Sept. 15.
The back end of the Jays’ bullpen was also particularly strong, headlined by Louis Varland making the leap to one of baseball’s best relievers and Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles, who became an integral piece of the pitching staff.
The Jays’ key free agents heading into the off-season include George Springer, Bieber and Scherzer.
