Blue Jays' surge founded in doing all the small things right, Schneider says

The Toronto Blue Jays were mired in what appeared to be another lost season, but have been the best team in baseball after a sudden turnaround that started on May 26.

Following a 13-0 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays that capped off a series sweep, Toronto was 25-27, fourth in the AL East and seven games out of the division lead.

Since then, the team's offensive production has skyrocketed, and an MLB-best 29-12 record over the last 41 games has carried them to a 2.5-game lead in the division and the third-best record in the American League.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider joined Jeff Passan on ESPN's Baseball Tonight podcast on Wednesday to discuss what has gone into the turnaround for the team, how focusing on the small things has paid dividends and how far the team can go when it comes to the playoffs.

"There's ebbs and flows to every season... a tough series in Tampa, and from that three-game sweep, you go to Texas, you win two of three, and I think behind the scenes we had been really talking about self-evaluating our team and how we'd been playing," Schneider said. 

"So there's always areas to attack... I think what changed is our base running, our attention to detail in how we're playing defence and when you start winning I think it's easy to expand on how important those things are."

The difference in broad numbers before and after that game on the American Memorial Day are stark: the team is scoring almost a one-and-a-half more runs per game while cutting their runs allowed per game by almost a quarter of a run, but Schneider is focused on how those changes have come about.

"There's so many things that you can measure, and with all the data that we have - we're not the fastest team in the league, we have some guys that are not 'burners' - so I think being able to take advantage of every 90 feet that you can [is a big part of it]," Schneider said. 

"We're always talking about, 'Here's how you executed your pitches.' 'Here's the pitches you swung at.' 'Here's your exit velocity, your swing speed.' Everything is measurable, so I think just putting it in front of the guys and saying 'the more we can get first to third, the more we can go second to home, the more we can go first to home,' it's just going to sustain innings and it's going to allow those at-bats that come after that to be a little bit easier, a bit more productive."

Per Statcast, the Blue Jays rank in the top 10 among major league teams in a number of advanced base running numbers, including times safe on advances (250, eighth), runners thrown out attempting to advance (four, seventh) and percentage of safe advances (98 per cent, tied second). Toronto finished in the bottom half of the league in all of these categories in 2024, leading Schneider to put additional attention on it this year.

"It wasn't a big personnel change, it was just really bringing attention to it," Schneider added. "We have always talked about it, and when you get to see the results in real time, you get a ton of buy-in."

Contact-based approach allowing offence to thrive for Blue Jays

As Passan pointed out, the Blue Jays own a 15.1 per cent strikeout rate since May 26, more than three per cent better than the second-best team in the majors in that category in that span. The average strikeout rate league-wide this season is 22.1 per cent.

Toronto finished sixth-best in the majors a year ago in that category at 20.4 per cent, but as Schneider points out, a lot of other factors are at play when it comes to reading into contact numbers.

"The last couple years we've had guys that could make contact and within that you go 'how can we make better contact,'" Schneider said. 

"I remember this time last year people were saying the Blue Jays don't hit home runs, their slugging is way down, and it was, rightfully so. I'm going to give a lot of credit to David Popkins, Lou Iannotti, Hunter Mense, our hitting coaches, there has been a significant and deliberate shift in our approach and in our prep. Taking shots when shots are available, swinging with a little more intent, add a guy like Addison Barger in who can do that, you get George [Springer] getting back to himself, Bo [Bichette], [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.], [Alejandro Kirk]."

The team's slugging percentage has risen from .389 a season ago to .405 this year, bolstered significantly by Barger and Springer owning slugging percentages of .506 and .509, respectively, an improvement over .351 and .371 a season ago.

But that difference has resulted in a shift from 20th in team slugging a year ago to 14th this season - an improvement, but not a drastic one. The other side of hitting for contact in a more meaningful way has manifested in the team's jump from 19th in batting average (.241) a year ago to third this season (.259).

"I think that when you look at the rest of our roster, we kinda leaned into the contact part," Schneider said. "Ernie Clement, Miles Straw, Nathan Lukes, these guys, they know what they're good at. I had a 30-second meeting at the beginning of spring training and all I said was "I want everyone in this room to be you. I don't want you to try to do anything you're not good at, and I want you to embrace what is you. If it's contact ability, great, if it's slugging, great, if it's swing and miss stuff, great, but try to just lean in to what you're good at."

That improvement, mixed with the improvements on the bases, have combined to help the Blue Jays improve from 23rd a season ago in runs scored (4.14 per game) to 10th this year (4.59 per game).

"That's where the base running part comes into it too, where when you're putting the ball in play, you have to be able to maneuver around the bases," said Schneider. "It's been fun, and I think that's where you sort of self-evaluate last year, in a down year, we were pretty similar in our contact rate and we weren't a very good base running team. So if you're going to put the ball in play, you're going to have to make something happen on the bases and the guys have leaned into it for sure."

Pristine defence pushing Blue Jays to victories in close games

Schneider and the Blue Jays brass have long preached defence as a foundation of winning.

The mantra helped general manager Ross Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro take a risk in sending top catching prospect Gabriel Moreno to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a package to acquire Gold Glove-winning outfielder Daulton Varsho, and was cited as a big reason why the team signed Kirk to a five-year extension earlier this year in March.

This season, though, with the addition of former Platinum Glove-winning second baseman Andres Gimenez through trade with the Cleveland Guardians, the defence has ascended to another level.

"We work really hard at it with the way we practice, the way we prepare and trying to be as deliberate as we can with our positioning," Schneider said. 

"Every piece of defensive data is great, and we try to put guys - literally - in positions that will highlight what they're good at. If it's an outfielder that goes back to his left better, we can adjust, if it's an infielder that moves better to his left than his right, we can adjust, and I feel like we're pretty aligned with not only our baseball ops department but with our players."

Per Statcast, the Blue Jays own a team Fielding Run Value of 34, which is the best in the majors by a wide margin.

The Blue Jays haven't gotten to this point through sheer star power like the Los Angeles Dodgers or Yankees (their lone All-Star starter, Guerrero, is having a down year by his standards), nor have they dominated their way through the schedule with the league's best pitcher in Tarik Skubal like the Detroit Tigers.

It's been a case of doing all the little things right, and the contributions up and down the roster have culminated in a team firmly in playoff contention - which still leaves Schneider hoping for more.

"It's cool to be where we are," Schneider said. "It's taken some time, and you have to be patient to get to this point. There's still a ton of work left to do, obviously, in this season and beyond."