The Toronto Blue Jays‘ 2025 season is — to this point at least — the most pleasant surprise in the team’s history.
A surprise, because few observers regarded the Blue Jays as a serious contender, much less as the team who would end up with best record in the American League.
National baseball pundits at best saw the Blue Jays as a fringe wild-card team, or more likely the fourth- or fifth-place team in the American League East. Even local baseball scribes and analysts were strained to piece together everything that would need to line up just right for the Jays to exceed expectations, or to peak over the .500 mark.
This opinion wasn’t completely disrespectful. Last year’s team was a dreary mess, and there were few reasons for immediate optimism. Much of the pre-season “ifs” that could potentially lead to success required a lot of Blue Jays to play well above the level they did last year. Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk and George Springer were all coming off the worst seasons of their careers, and the questions around that trio coming into this season were whether if their steep one-year declines were simultaneous anomalies, or were they part of a trend that could be expected to continue.
Of those three, Springer was the one who seemed least likely to return to former glories. It wasn’t so far beyond the pale when a local member of the media foresaw his role as “fourth outfielder, at best.”
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Watch Blue Jays in ALDS on Sportsnet
The Toronto Blue Jays’ post-season journey begins Saturday against the Yankees, with Game 1 of the ALDS at Rogers Centre. Catch the action on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, starting at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT.
Add on to this the fact that the Jays were snookered again by the Los Angeles Dodgers in their pursuit of free agent Roki Sasaki, they were left with Myles Straw and a bag of extra international free agent money, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s performance was as uncertain as his future with the team. Even the most optimistic fans would have struggled to explain the path to playoffs, much less the pennant.
By May 7, after a blown save led to a walk-off loss to the Angels, the Jays were four games under .500, with a minus-40 run differential. (Oh, how we had fun with run differential this year.)
But from there, the Jays would win their next four games, get back to .500 and though they hung around that mark for another week or so, they would go 74-48 the rest of the way, on their way to the division crown, and all the fun Jays fans are having now.
Bichette, Kirk and especially Springer all contributed well above expectations, while Guerrero at various times in the season played like the star player and face of the franchise who deserved the monumental contract he received early in the season, reaffirming the Rogers Centre, Toronto and Canada as his home.
As to the pleasantness of it all, this 2025 edition of the Jays has been one of the most fun and genuinely likeable squads in franchise history. This season wasn’t just about rooting for the stars, but finding a new hero every day, up and down throughout the roster.
It’s always a dubious proposition to suppose that we really know the players on the field, and what’s on their mind and in their hearts. But from what fans could see at the ballpark and through their screens, this year’s collection of guys seemed fun and amiable, and there were no visible eruptions between teammates. If there were cliques in the clubhouse, they didn’t seem obvious from the outside. Maybe it helps when your biggest stars are generally happy dudes who smile more than they scowl.
Moreover, you’d be hard-pressed to think of a single contributor who dogged it this year. Without descending into the indulgence of eye-wash hustle, this year’s Jays seemed to always give it their all and took little for granted. They led the league in comeback wins, and from midway through the season, never seemed out of any game. Five-run deficit in the first inning? You’d better stick around for the comeback, as the Jays’ bullpen hung on and the offence grinded out the other team’s bullpen.
Sure, there were a few blowouts, but when manager John Schneider encouraged everyone to move on and focus on tomorrow, it was far less of an imposition than in the previous year.
Of course, all these great vibes are only what got the Blue Jays to this point. Like any great and enjoyable narrative, the final assessment of the season can only be judged by the final chapters.
With the last weeks of the season effectively taking on a playoff atmosphere, as the Jays battled to win their last four games to hold off the New York Yankees for the division, fans have had a small taste of what lies ahead in the post-season. The last week was one must-win after another, until the very end.
From here, the tension only rises. The beautiful agony of the playoffs means that beyond every game being meaningful, every at-bat and every pitch takes on additional weight.
The divisional champion banners in centre field at Rogers Centre are white, and we know that one will go up before next season. The World Series banners are blue.
Despite how gratifying and uplifting the Blue Jays season has been, there’s little indication that either the team or their fans will be satisfied in the coming rounds of the playoffs with anything less than another blue banner, and a perfectly memorable ending to the story.
