Through injuries and slumps, Toronto couldn’t recapture the magic
By MITCH BANNON / THE ATHLETIC
Kevin Gausman stood in the corner of the Toronto Blue Jays’ home clubhouse days before this summer’s trade deadline. He knew his time in Toronto was over. With tears welling in his eyes, the veteran looked around the room, trying to figure out what happened.
The 2026 Jays felt different, he said. They looked different, too, than the year before. Their injuries were too much to overcome. Their stars slumped far more than anyone could have imagined. Their 2025 World Series defeat, which began as motivation, became a curse. The magic vanished.
“Last year, when we were all loose and playing for each other and letting the cards fall where they may,” Gausman said, “there’s a hidden belief in that. We just don’t have that.”
Days later, Gausman let his tears out on a team flight to Houston after learning that he was the first member of last year’s squad to be traded. Toronto’s first-half struggles caused the front office to move veterans at the deadline.
For a few weeks, though, the roster shake-up provided a spark. Rookies and fresh arms pulled the team back into a muddled American League playoff race. Ultimately, though, the hole was too deep to climb out of. The spark faded. The Blue Jays were eliminated from the playoffs with four games left in the regular season.
Two months after Gausman came to terms with the end, those who remained must now do the same.
“It sucks, especially after all the fun we had last year,” said outfielder Myles Straw. “Those were some of the best games of our lives. This year, we just didn’t get it done.”
The reasons for Toronto’s disappointment, in many ways, are quite simple. Their pitching staff fell apart, ravaged by injuries. Some sluggers got hurt and others struggled all season — none more than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Knowing why things went wrong does not make the outcome any less crushing.
Memories of last year’s magical playoff run surrounded the Blue Jays when they first assembled in Florida for spring training. Photos of George Springer’s American League Championship Series home run were taped around his locker by clubhouse attendants. In the complex’s executive offices, officials were already negotiating with the World Series Game 7 starter Max Scherzer to return.
Then came the news that their entire home schedule was expected to be sold out. Last year’s success had become this year’s anticipation.
That was also when the injuries began, as Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and Yimi García arrived in Florida with various ailments. Nathan Lukes spent the first month of his season playing through undiagnosed vertigo. Cody Ponce tore an anterior cruciate ligament two innings into his MLB return. Addison Barger injured both ankles tripping over first base and then blew out his elbow his first game back. Jesús Sánchez was hit by a ball thrown by a young fan.
Every team deals with injuries. The Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers, other hopefuls who fell flat, also experienced overwhelming ailments. But, as of Wednesday, the Jays had the second-most injured list stints and second-most total days lost to injury in the American League. They entered the spring with eight big league starting pitchers, restocked the rotation at the deadline and still ended up running regular bullpen games. The 63 players Toronto had used this year are tied for the most in franchise history.
Through it all, they expressed belief that, once players recovered and core pieces returned, the ship would turn. But it was hard not to have doubt. After Springer became the ninth Jay to hit the injured list just 15 games into the season, he said it was his duty to talk teammates off the ledge. He was only half-joking.
At the end of May, the Jays were 29-29. The 2025 team was just 30-28 at that same point. There was hope in that comparison. They got hot out of nowhere last year. Why not do it again?
“It’s not just going to happen,” Scherzer said in May. “We’re not just going to go out there and go on a crazy winning streak. We have to go make that happen. The rest of the league doesn’t just lose on purpose. You’ve got to go beat them.”
They were a win behind last year’s pace, then five, then 10. The injuries didn’t stop. The offense never got going. A lineup that scored the third-most runs in baseball last year now sits among the bottom of the league.
Barger recorded just one hit all year. Springer, through toe and shoulder injuries, fell from seventh in AL most valuable player voting to a league-average hitter. Daulton Varsho, who hit 20 homers in just 71 games last year, unsuccessfully attempted to hit to all fields instead of embracing his homer-heavy approach. Ernie Clement carried his October stardom into the first few months of 2026, then collapsed in the second half.
Hitting coach David Popkins and Toronto’s staff urged players to swing with more intent, hoping to find some slug, but that never materialized. Even as Dylan Cease’s Cy Young Award candidacy and Spencer Miles’ breakout kept the pitching staff afloat, they still needed runs.
Back in May, Tyler Heineman explained the team’s woes succinctly. “We’re losing,” he said, “because we just can’t hit.”
Springer’s regression, Clement’s second-half slide and injuries to Barger and Anthony Santander were significant factors in Toronto’s sluggish offense. But Guerrero’s falloff loomed above them all.
The franchise cornerstone’s season — easily the worst campaign of his career — might be what most remember from an otherwise unmemorable year, largely because it was unexpected. Eleven months ago, Guerrero was a playoff hero. During the spring, he recorded two homers and eight hits in five games as the Dominican Republic reached the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic. Then his momentum disappeared.
“I have to learn a lot from this year,” Guerrero said through his interpreter. “It’s a process. When you go to the World Series, like last year, that was my goal again for this year. You’re kind of putting that pressure on yourself, a little bit, to take your team back to the World Series. It didn’t happen.”
Manager John Schneider, Guerrero’s teammates and other coaches consistently preached their belief that the star would find his swing. In the end, they were just like the fans, hoping that every hard hit or rare homer would be the one that snapped him out of the funk.
The Jays espoused the same trust in their entire operation. Clement said in June that he thought the 2026 team could be even better than the previous iteration. Toronto’s relievers embraced bullpen games instead of fearing them. They took it all, Schneider said, as a challenge.
But their confidence faded at times. They were a team desperate to recapture magic.
The only thing that truly sparked the Jays was a roster change. When Gausman, Jeff Hoffman and Varsho were traded at a buy-and-sell deadline, the Jays revived. It was as if the book had finally closed on the 2025 Jays. The success, though, eventually ended.
Heartbreak was not how it was supposed to go.
“It feels good to have support from the fans,” Schneider said, “but it’s frustrating that we didn’t fulfill our end of the bargain.”
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