2026 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[bluejays]

The Jays, for lack of words, "got lucky" this past season. Started very poorly and turned it around. There were extraordinarily clutch plays during the playoffs that came through when needed. I was pleased in Atkins' press conference when he referenced the need to get better. Rolling this team back won't be good enough. They need to get better. Other teams may start to replicate their bat on ball approach which turned around their season. Signing Bo will be huge, and if they can get an ace that would go a long way. Upgrades beyond that will be gravy.

[mile]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...s/87190324007/

– Toronto Blue Jays: They just earned an extra $50 million or so in revenue from their World Series run. They’ll put it right back into the team and could be the favorite for Kyle Tucker.

Tucker, a native of Tampa, will sign with the Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays or Los Dodgers, GMs predict. The San Francisco Giants are a darkhorse, but considering they still owe Rafael Devers $250 million, are in the second year of a seven-year, $182 million contract with Willy Adames and the second of a six-year, $151 million extension with Matt Chapman, there’s only so many nine-figure contracts the Giants can seemingly afford.

Don’t be surprised if the Blue Jays are the perfect fit.

Bichette, who was expected to depart Toronto a year ago and whose name surfaced a year ago in trade talks now is expected to stay put to complete their goodwill tour.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Imai has outstanding numbers in Japan, is 27 and features a 4 pitch mix that includes a 99mph FB

Heard his fastball doesn't have a lot of life. I'd still go for it though... see if Walker can get him to alter his grip for some extra spin or something.

[prizefighterinferno]

Originally Posted by mile

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...s/87190324007/

If the Jays are willing to retain Bichette AND pay for Tucker......my head might explode. They would have over a billion in future salary commitments to three guys.

Can't see that happening in all honestly but wouldn't hate it!

[Roof-Daddy]

I'd rather they just sign one of Bo or Tucker and then pour the rest into pitching. If they're willing to sign Bo, Tucker AND pour money into pitching. well that sounds wonderful haha

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Hopefully the Dodgers and Yankees having stacked rotations already, and the Jays recent WS run will help land these guys.

That won't stop them.

[bluejays]

The funny thing about that article was it stated they made $50M during the world series. Seems grossly under estimated.

Rough math:
40,000 seats x 4 games x $500–$800 per seat (cheapest seats)
= est $80M-$130M in gate revenue alone for the World Series

That may be more on the conservative side. Not included are merchandise and concessions. Anyway, considering the other series they played in, they made a killing. Just something to ponder.

As for Tucker and Bo and pitching? Doubtful. But I think Rogers, being a lifelong baseball fan, definitely got his tongue wet and will put a little more money into the team. Not that they were ever stingy, but I think he’ll want to see it through here.

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by bluejays

The funny thing about that article was it stated they made $50M during the world series. Seems grossly under estimated.

Rough math:
40,000 seats x 4 games x $500–$800 per seat (cheapest seats)
= est $80M-$130M in gate revenue alone for the World Series

That may be more on the conservative side. Not included are merchandise and concessions. Anyway, considering the other series they played in, they made a killing. Just something to ponder.

As for Tucker and Bo and pitching? Doubtful. But I think Rogers, being a lifelong baseball fan, definitely got his tongue wet and will put a little more money into the team. Not that they were ever stingy, but I think he’ll want to see it through here.

It's probably more than 50 million, but not in the hundreds of millions. Players get a share of the gate receipts in the playoffs. And everything is in CAD, so they lose ~30% in exchange rate.

[Jiggy]

Springer's deal if off the books after this upcoming year. Maybe the Jays bite the bullet and throw a bunch of money at the team this year knowing they have a good shot at getting back to dance and making another run.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by bluejays

The funny thing about that article was it stated they made $50M during the world series. Seems grossly under estimated.

Rough math:
40,000 seats x 4 games x $500–$800 per seat (cheapest seats)
= est $80M-$130M in gate revenue alone for the World Series

That may be more on the conservative side. Not included are merchandise and concessions. Anyway, considering the other series they played in, they made a killing. Just something to ponder.

As for Tucker and Bo and pitching? Doubtful. But I think Rogers, being a lifelong baseball fan, definitely got his tongue wet and will put a little more money into the team. Not that they were ever stingy, but I think he’ll want to see it through here.

Not to mention the TV revenue. I don't know the ins and outs of all that, but doesn't Rogers own the exclusive TV rights for the Jays in Canada? They would have made a crap ton of money there as well.

And then what about merchandise? There is no way they didn't see a massive increase in sales for hats, jerseys, T-shirts, etc

I would say they probably made hundreds of millions of dollars profit on that run. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

Springer's deal if off the books after this upcoming year. Maybe the Jays bite the bullet and throw a bunch of money at the team this year knowing they have a good shot at getting back to dance and making another run.

Yeah and so does Gausman and Bieber.

The Jays only have Berrios and Yesavage on the books as starting pitchers after 2026. That's why I won't be shocked if they go guns a'blazing trying to land two of them this off season. Any two of Cease, Suarez, Valdez, Imai and Ponce would be fantastic and stack the rotation. Have one season where they go into the highest luxury tax threshold of $304 million

[Andrew]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/world...rize-9.6961418

Players get some money. How is it split... who knows

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

The Jays only have Berrios and Yesavage on the books as starting pitchers after 2026.

Oh, you silly goose. Berrios won't be here anymore. He won't be here in March.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Oh, you silly goose. Berrios won't be here anymore. He won't be here in March.

Never say never. If they don't get a dance partner willing to deal equally he may be here again but if I'm guessing, he's done here. This team is at a point where reclamation projects can't be depended on and you have to get some more certainty in to cross that line. To a lesser level guys like Davis Schneider and Ty France have no place this upcoming year.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by bluejays

Never say never. If they don't get a dance partner willing to deal equally he may be here again but if I'm guessing, he's done here. This team is at a point where reclamation projects can't be depended on and you have to get some more certainty in to cross that line. To a lesser level guys like Davis Schneider and Ty France have no place this upcoming year.

I think Schneider will almost certainly be back and France won't be. The Jays aren't ever going to pinch hit for Vladdy, and Scheider has quite a bit of defensive flexibility. Playing 2B/LF means you can pinch hit for either of the lefties you'd be likely to do so for (Gimenez and Lukes) and he can replace them in the field.

Either would be at the "bench bat" level, but they only need onr and Schneider is under team control and is more valuable to them. I doubt they want to spend a bunch of money filling that roll...

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by bluejays

Never say never. If they don't get a dance partner willing to deal equally he may be here again but if I'm guessing, he's done here. This team is at a point where reclamation projects can't be depended on and you have to get some more certainty in to cross that line. To a lesser level guys like Davis Schneider and Ty France have no place this upcoming year.

Schneider doesn’t have a place? I disagree with that.

He had a 1.3 WAR while playing only 82 games, an OPS of .797 while offering positional versatility. And he’s only 26. Took a lot of walks, decent power.

Thats a valuable bench bat/ part time guy.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

Schneider doesn’t have a place? I disagree with that.

He had a 1.3 WAR while playing only 82 games, an OPS of .797 while offering positional versatility. And he’s only 26. Took a lot of walks, decent power.

Thats a valuable bench bat/ part time guy.

Also a huge % of those games he came in as a pinch hitter, so he averaged barely over 2 at bats per game. So extrapolating that to a full season you probably should multiply that WAR by 4 not 2. He played great but very little. Hard to see where they'd get a better bench bat at his price, and I think you coulr have him step in for Gimenez at any time and not be worse off. Gimenez played nearly twice as much but had lower WAR.

[Roof-Daddy]

Olney: Blue Jays ‘a serious player’ in free-agent market

Over the past two years, the team has fallen short in their pursuits of Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Roki Sasaki, and others, but things just might end up being different this time around.

ESPN’s Buster Olney joined First Up on TSN 1050 on Tuesday morning to discuss how the perception around the Blue Jays have changed following their run to the World Series, and which free agents he sees Ross Atkins and company making a play for this winter.

“The assumption was, always, that when the Blue Jays were involved, that they were just being a stalking horse,” Olney said. “The agents were keeping them in play. That at the end, they would never be a bride, always be a bridesmaid and they wouldn’t win any of these things because players weren’t serious about going there.

“I will tell you that just in talking with agents about what’s possible for their players, all of a sudden Toronto is a serious player.”

In 2025, the Blue Jays finished atop their division for the first time in a decade, entered the postseason as the top seed in the American League, won the pennant, and gave the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers all they could handle in an 11-inning, Game 7 loss in the World Series.

The team’s recent success, coupled with a willingness to spend and a long-term extension for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this past April, has gone a long way in setting up Toronto to be one of the top free-agent destinations this off-season.

“This whole thing about ‘Well, I don’t want to play in Toronto because I have to cross the border and go through customs’, it feels like it’s out the window. Now people are watching this team with Vladdy, and how hard they played, and the culture. According to the agents I’m speaking with, it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go there. I love that.’

“I’ve never heard anything like this really since I’ve first started covering in the mid-90’s. For years, when I talked to agents it was, ‘Yeah we’ll talk to Toronto, but my guy doesn’t really want to play there,” off the record. It is completely different right now."

Might be a fun off season? Might actually land a big fish or two finally.

[Sylvanfan]

For Playoff revenue, players get the gate receipts for all guaranteed games. So Games 1-2 of the Wild Card, Games 1 to 3 of the Division Series, Games 1 to 4 of the LCS and World Series. So the Jays got the full gate receipt from 4 of their games. Concessions, parking merchandise I think is all bonus money that the team can keep.

But with the demand pricing model, the extra tickets they sold during the season also went for higher prices too, and likley let them sell a bit for next year too. The Jays had a top 5 payroll last year, they can likley handle it again this year.

[Roof-Daddy]

If the Jays get a lot of traction with players in free agency I wonder if they'll open up the books and build a "super team" with a payroll above the highest luxury tax threshold.

Sign Bo, Tucker, Imai, Cease and Diaz. Would be so much fun.

DH - Springer (R)
RF - Tucker (L)
1B - Vladdy (R)
2B - Bo (R)
LF - Santander (S)
C - Kirk (R)
3B - Barger (L)
CF - Varsho (L)
SS - Giminez (L)


Bench - Heineman, Lukes, Clement, Schneider

SP1 - Gausman
SP2 - Cease
SP3 - Bieber
SP4 - Yesavage
SP5 - Imai

CL - Diaz
SU8 - Hoffman
SU7 - Garcia
MR - Varland
MR - Fluharty
MR - Little
MR - Fisher
LR - Lauer

Also Sandlin, Rodriguez, Bruihl, etc

Have to eat money to move Berrios probably. That line up maybe wins 100 games?