The Blue Jays are leading the American League East with three weeks left in the season because they鈥檝e often had a different hero every day. Contributions up and down the batting order and throughout the pitching staff mean that no player has stood head and shoulders above the rest.
You can make the case that as many as five Jays have a claim to being their 2025 most valuable player.
Several have stepped up in big spots, and we鈥檝e wondered at times where this season would have gone without Eric Lauer, Ernie Clement, Yariel Rodr铆guez, Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, Tyler Heineman, Mason Fluharty and Braydon Fisher, to name just a few. But this quintet has earned the largest consideration for club MVP:
September is upon us and the tension of the pennant race has ratcheted up
Nobody saw this coming, likely not even Springer himself.
The 35-year-old outfielder/DH spent five months as the worst hitter in the major leagues last season, and had just one spring hit going into his final Grapefruit League game in March. So, of course Springer is having his best year since a career-best 2019 campaign in which he was an all-star, won a silver slugger and finished seventh in American League MVP voting for the Houston Astros.
“I’ll say it now,” manager John Schneider said after Springer homered in the Jays’ 13-9 win in Cincinnati on Sept. 3, “I think (Springer) deserves MVP consideration. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but this dude is hitting over .300 with 27 (homers) and 70 (RBIs) and a nine-whatever OPS. The guy’s playing his ass off.”
Springer is hitting a career-high .301 and those 27 homers lead the team. So do his 16 stolen bases (he hasn鈥檛 been caught once). He鈥檚 the only Jay with an OPS over .900 and, though he鈥檚 been the DH more often than not, has done fine work at corner outfield as well as 11 times in centre.
Finally healthy after two injury-riddled seasons, despite a minor shin injury that kept him out of Sunday’s series finale in the Bronx, Bichette is back leading the major leagues in hits with 181, possibly on the way to his first聽 200-hit season.
The shortstop also leads the majors with 44 doubles, and his 93 RBIs top the Jays list. The free agent to be is hitting .311 with an .840 OPS and has been huge when the lights shine brightest, batting .381 with runners in scoring position with an incredible 1.053 OPS.
Unless he is chasing 50 home runs or a batting title or maybe both, many Jays fans feel he鈥檚 having a down year, especially with a 14-year, $500-million (U.S.) contract that kicks in next year. But very quietly, the 26-year-old Guerrero is having another great season, leading all big-league first basemen with an .893 OPS.
He is second to Springer on the Jays in home runs with 23, and second to Bichette in doubles and RBIs. He leads the team in walks, and only Bichette and Clement have played more聽 than his 137 games. He has struck out only 84 times (on pace for a full-season career low) against 76 walks.
Guerrero has really turned it on in the second half: .352 with a 1.053 OPS since the all-star break, which includes a ridiculous start to September (.560/1.527).
Kirk signed a five-year contract extension over the winter primarily for his ability behind the plate, but his bat has come back to where it was in his silver slugger season of 2022, earning the backstop a second all-star nod.
The 26-year-old Kirk is third in the major leagues (at any position) in fielding run value, the best in the business at blocking balls in the dirt and tops the American League in turning balls into strikes.
Add that to a yearlong flirtation with hitting .300 and a major-league-leading .296 average with two strikes which, after Sunday’s game, was one point ahead of three-time batting champion Luis Arr谩ez and 30 points better than third-place Sal Frelick of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Like Guerrero, he has almost as many walks (44) as strikeouts (49).
The least heralded of the unexpected contributors, Barger didn鈥檛 make the team out of spring training or get regular playing time until Andr茅s Gim茅nez and Anthony Santander got hurt in early May. Once he was given a chance, the 25-year-old third baseman/outfielder went off, posting an .887 OPS in May and providing the boost the Jays desperately needed at the time. After a bit of a dip in June, Barger roared back with an .895 OPS in July with six home runs.
Despite the late start, the sophomore is third on the team with 19 home runs, seven in the seventh inning or later.
He’s saved his best for the best, too. Barger hit .378 with a 1.074 OPS against the Yankees this season, driving in 10 runs in 11 games against the Jays’ closest pursuer in the division.
Beyond the batter’s box, he leads AL right fielders with nine outfield assists in just 56 games there.
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