By The Numbers: Blue Jays offence through two weeks of 2024 season

Fresh off of taking two of three games from the Colorado Rockies, the Toronto Blue Jays will close out their homestand against Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees.

The Jays (8-8) have won four of six games at the Rogers Centre against the Rockies and Mariners, with another three games against the Yankees (12-4) before heading out for series against the San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals.

Toronto currently sits last in the American League East, four games behind the division-leading Bronx Bombers.

Much of the talk surrounding the team this off-season revolved around its struggle to upgrade the offence following the departures of Matt Chapman, Brandon Belt, and Whit Merrifield, replacing them with veteran Justin Turner and utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa. 

With two weeks of the 2024 season in the books, how has the much-discussed Blue Jays offence performed en route to a .500 record?
 

Power Outage Persists

The Blue Jays offence was average overall last season, finishing in the top half of the league in runs scored (14th), batting average (eighth), and on-base percentage (eighth).

However, the club's two biggest issues were a lack of power and consistent struggles with runners in scoring position. 

The Jays lacked a true middle-of-the-order power threat for most of last season, finishing 16th in home runs, 13th in slugging percentage, and 18th in isolated power (.ISO, slugging percentage - batting average). 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. paced the team in the power department with 26 home runs despite it being his lowest total since his 123-game rookie season. Since finishing second in MVP voting in 2021, the three-time all-star has seen his slugging percentage and OPS (on-base + slugging) dip in each subsequent season, finishing third on the team in both categories in 2023, behind Belt and Bo Bichette. 

Toronto’s OPS with runners in scoring position last season was .730, ranking 20th in the league. The problems were never more apparent than in the Wild Card series against the Minnesota Twins, where they scored one run over a two-game sweep, going 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and mustering only one extra-base hit.

Through 16 games this season, the Jays have once again struggled in the power department, ranking in the bottom half of the league in home runs, .ISO, slugging, and OPS.
 

The Jays are also once again near the top of the league in grounding into double plays in 2024 with an OPS of .654 (24th) with runners in scoring position.
 

Home Cooking

The Jays began their season on a 10-game road trip and struggled badly to create offence at times, getting no-hit by Houston Astros starter Ronel Blanco and getting one-hit by the Astros two games later. 

Overall, the team scored 3.6 runs per game and batted a disappointing .193/.300/.327 on the road trip after averaging 4.6 runs last season.

Things improved immensely once the Jays returned to Toronto. Over the past two series, the club has averaged 4.2 runs per game and has slashed .293/.350/.420. Turner has been the catalyst of the offence, leading the team with a .386 average, an OPS of 1.095, and eight RBI.

"The offence is kind of scratching the surface," said Turner after Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Rockies. "I think there's a whole lot more in the tank and when we get going and clicking on all cylinders, it's going to be a fun offence to be a part of

"You can't just show up and have it happen,” he added. "We've got a lot of guys working every day and grinding. When that pendulum starts to swing the other way, it's going to be a fun offence."