It’s finally over for the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans after a disappointing 2024 season, finishing fifth in the American League East Division with a 74-88 record.
Expectations were high to start the year as the team was looking to make the playoffs for the third consecutive season, but a bad start to the season including poor individual performances leaves a lot of questions surrounding the team heading into the offseason. Here are four key decisions that need to be made to put the Blue Jays back on the right path heading into 2025.
How much will the Jays be willing to pay Vladdy?
It’s not a matter of whether the Blue Jays should sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a contract extension, it’s now a matter of when and more importantly how much the Blue Jays will be willing to pay Vladdy Jr. in the (hopefully) very near future.
After arguably his best season in the majors especially post-All-Star Break, posting a .323 batting average — the highest of his career — with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs, the 25-year-old will be entering his last season under contract in 2025 before becoming a free agent.
General manager Ross Atkins will be looking to sign the Jays’ first baseman of the future this winter before he hits the open market in 2025, although the price tag continues to increase after every plate appearance.
Analysts expect the Guerrero Jr. contract to be in the range of $300 million over 10 years, although the largest contract in Jays’ franchise history was George Springer’s 6-year/$150 million deal signed in 2021.
It will be interesting to see how management handles the Guerrero case and whether they, including Rogers Communications — the owners of the team who just bought Bell’s share of MLSE for $4.7 billion — will be comfortable signing a guy to a third of a billion dollars, or if Vladdy will test the market in free agency and potentially find a new home outside of Toronto in 2025.
Is Bo a part of the blueprint moving forward?
Throughout Bo Bichette’s five-and-a-half year MLB career, the consensus has always been that alongside Guerrero Jr., the two youngsters would make up the core of the franchise for the next decade and a half, until now.
Part of the fanbase has seemingly lost a bit of love for Bichette after an injury-plagued 2024 season saw the two-time All-Star appear in only half of the team’s 162 games while slashing .225/.277/.322 and hitting four home runs — all the lowest of his career.
It doesn’t help that Bichette’s fielding has been below average since he entered the league, although it has improved in recent years, committing the 13th most errors in the MLB since his first full season in 2020.
Like Vladdy, Bichette’s contract is also expiring after the 2025 season and the expectation is that Bo — the American League leader in hits in 2021 and 2022 — is seeking a big contract extension. However, it’s unlikely that the Jays will sign both players to massive contracts at the same time.
Will the Jays opt to trade Bichette this winter to get a tangible return for the 26-year-old or will the Jays ride it out with Bichette this season and re-evaluate Toronto’s future at the shortstop position next offseason?
Young kids or veteran presence?
It was a tale of two seasons for the Jays, starting the year with veterans on the roster like Justin Turner and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, while in Sunday’s season finale the Jays started five rookies, none of whom began the season on the Jays opening day roster.
Now, management must decide the direction that the team will be taking next season. The ploy of signing veteran players has evidently failed the past two seasons, and the team may decide to have young prospects fill the 25th and 26th roster spots on the team rather than players in their late 30s past their baseball primes.
Opting for the latter may be in the best interest of the club who finished the second half of the season with better numbers than pre-All-Star Break, scoring more runs per game (4.36 vs. 4.06) and accumulating a better team batting average (.249 vs. .236) with a majority rookie lineup in comparison to the veteran-heavy lineup that began 2024.
It’s true that the Jays may have lost a bit of defence through the trade deadline departures of Kevin Kiermaier, Danny Jansen and others, but the young kids offer different advantages for a Jays team looking for answers in 2025.
The plus side of offence, speed, flexibility and the low price tag may incentivize the team to stick with the kids that made August and September baseball somewhat fun to watch again instead of choosing grizzled veterans who have yet to impact the team come playoff time.
Arms, arms, and more arms!
Not a question, but an emphatic statement.
The Jays need arms, particularly out of the bullpen, if they want to compete for the A.L. East title next season — a pennant they haven’t won since the 2015 season. After finishing 2024 with one of the worst bullpens in the majors, ranking second-worst in earned run average (4.87), getting the second-fewest strikeouts (495) and allowing the most home runs (92), serious changes need to be made if the Jays want a realistic chance of competing for the World Series in 2025.
Yes, there were injuries. Yes, a lot of the Jays’ high-leverage guys were traded at the deadline. But finishing amongst the bottom five teams in nearly every statistical category is inexcusable, especially for a team that came into the year with championship aspirations and numerous veteran relievers that were poised to bolster the bullpen.
Now heading into 2025, a large chunk of the Jays free agent expenditures should be spent on quality bullpen arms, looking to fill the holes that a brutal 2024 campaign has caused.
Jordan Romano should return from his injury-plagued season looking rested and Chad Green — one of the lone bright spots in the pen — should shine in a key role again next year, but pieces must be added to give the team a shot at winning once the game reaches its latter stages.
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