The Toronto Blue Jays’ extended malaise this season has now stretched into the 100th game, after the team suffered a listless 7-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.
The Blue Jays have scored one or zero runs in 20 of their 100 games this season, and the team’s 398 runs this season rank worst in the majors.
This sharp decline comes off of their 2025 season where everything clicked offensively - the team averaged 4.92 runs per game last year compared to 3.98 this season.
There are many factors influencing the decline, and many players struggling to produce at the plate - among everyday starters, Alejandro Kirk (OPS+ of 63), Andres Gimenez (70), Daulton Varsho (86) and George Springer (88) all rank well below the average hitter in MLB (represented by an OPS+ of 100).
But the heart of the struggles rest on the $500 million dollar man, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The slugging first baseman is slashing .259/.342/.353 - the batting average and slugging percentage are career worsts, and he’s hit just six home runs in a thoroughly disappointing campaign.
Guerrero hit a deep fly ball to left field in the third innings of the loss to Tampa Bay on Monday - a ball that threatened to clear the wall for Guerrero’s first home run at home this season. But, as has happened all too often this year, the ball fell at the warning track into the left fielder’s glove.
Guerrero stood at first base after Chandler Simpson caught the ball, holding his helmet over his head, seemingly struggling not to smash it on the ground.
“I don’t know what it’s like to wake up and be Vlad, and the expectations and pressure that comes with it,” manager John Schneider said to reporters after the game. “Yeah, he wants to be the guy. He’s here for a reason, and we signed him for a reason. He’s frustrated like we’re frustrated. I’ve got no problem with him showing it.”
Guerrero’s season has gone from bad to worse over the past two months. Through the end of May, Guerrero was hitting .298 and getting on base at a .392 clip - productive, even if the power numbers weren’t there. But since the beginning of June, Guerrero has slashed .203/.266/.308 for an OPS of .574.
Schneider has decided that the team needs to play relaxed in order to get back into a groove. “You don’t want guys to play tense,” Schneider said prior to Monday’s game. “There’s a back and forth. This is a big four-game series [against the Rays], but it’s a one-game series today. That’s what I told them. I told them today in the hitters meeting that if we lose today, we’re going to play tomorrow. We have a roof. It’s not going to be rained out. We’re going to play. You have to focus on today and figure out what’s important.”
Monday’s starter, Dylan Cease, who is still firmly in the AL Cy Young conversation after allowing five runs (three earned) in the loss to Tampa Bay, echoed the sentiment.
“Losing is definitely disappointing,” Cease said. “I think it’s just frustrating when it doesn’t feel like we’re giving teams our best bullets. We have to let go of the past and show up tomorrow ready to play.”
The MLB trade deadline is 13 games away on Aug. 3, meaning the team is running out of time to figure out whether they want to buy and try to compete for a playoff spot or sell to recoup assets for the future.
The Blue Jays (46-54) are 5.5 games out of a playoff spot as teams struggle to break out of the crowded American League standings.
While that may give the team hope a run of good play could net a playoff berth, the Blue Jays have never qualified for the playoffs with this poor of a record at the 100-game mark.
| Season | Record at 100 games | Record at season’s end | Final Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 46-54 | ?? | ?? |
| 2025 | 59-41 | 94-68 | Lost World Series |
| 2023 | 55-45 | 89-73 | Lost Wild-Card |
| 2022 | 55-45 | 92-70 | Lost Wild-Card |
| 2016 | 56-44 | 89-73 | Lost ALCS |
| 2015 | 50-50 | 93-69 | Lost ALCS |
| 1993 | 56-44 | 95-67 | Won World Series |
| 1992 | 59-41 | 96-66 | Won World Series |
| 1991 | 57-43 | 91-71 | Lost ALCS |
| 1989 | 50-50 | 89-73 | Lost ALCS |
| 1985 | 63-37 | 99-62 | Lost ALCS |
The Blue Jays have qualified for the postseason 11 times (including the COVID-shortened 2020 season in which only 60 games were played) - their record at the 100-game point was 55-45 or better in eight of those seasons, and the two seasons in which they sat at .500 through 100 games required historic stretches to vault into a playoff spot.
The 1989 Blue Jays won 15 of 17 games through the end of August and into September to fire into the playoff race, while the 2015 Blue Jays won 11 games straight in August and 18 of 24 in the month to surge into the division lead.
This year’s Blue Jays will need to go on a similar run very soon if they are to join the playoff conversation once again, and it starts with solving the hitting issues.
“I wish I had an exact answer to it,” Varsho said on Sunday. “You’ve just got to go through it. I mean, we’re grinding, this group. Everybody’s feeling it. You’ve just got to trust each other, pick each other up when you need to. It’s sombre. So it’s just like lighten the mood, you’ve got to find joy in the day and go out there and enjoy baseball.”
