Three surprising players who have helped Blue Jays surge to the top of the AL standings

Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays have heard it before. The team had a bad and underwhelming offseason. Two years ago, it was losing out on Shohei Ohtani. This past offseason they pursued Pete Alonso, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Roki Sasaki, Juan Soto, and several other big names, and landed precisely none of them. It was another offseason of being a runner-up.

And you know what? The Blue Jays did have a bad offseason.

Anthony Santander hasn't played since May 22 because of a shoulder injury and he hit .179/.273/.304 in the 50 games he did play. Andrés Giménez has again played superlative defense at second base, though injuries have limited him to 68 games, and his .225/.306/.322 line doesn't make anyone feel great about the $86.5 million he's owed from 2026-29. Closer Jeff Hoffman has been terrific at times and wobbly at others.

Myles Straw, who was taken on as a salary dump to get more international bonus pool money to throw at Sasaki, has been Toronto's most productive offense addition with 1.3 WAR. That's thanks to his excellent center field defense, not his .262/.304/.364 batting line. It took a 4 for 5 with two homers game this past Saturday to get Straw's slash line up that high.

Objectively, Toronto's offseason additions have not provided the expected impact, and it has not mattered at all. The Blue Jays sit atop the AL East with a 73-53 record, and only the juggernaut Milwaukee Brewers have a better record since May 27. They are well-positioned to win their first division title since 2015, and are poised to be a force in October.

"It's sick out there. There's 40,000 people here every day at this point," Straw told reporters, including MLB.com, this past weekend. "It's something like I've never seen before, so props to them. We love playing behind them. We talk about them all the time in the clubhouse and in the dugout, how special it is to get this many people here on a daily basis."

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a $500 million contract extension in April and has again been one of the game's top hitters. Bo Bichette is back to being the hit machine he was from 2021-23 following an injury-marred 2024. George Springer is having his best season as a Blue Jay. Veteran righties Chris Bassitt, José Berríos, and Kevin Gausman are providing rotation stability.

The out-of-nowhere contributors are the players who have really helped the Blue Jays make the leap from fringe contender to AL East leaders. Backup catcher Tyler Heineman is hitting .331/.404/.483! It doesn't get any more out-of-nowhere than that, especially since the underlying numbers don't support it at all. Still, Heineman has done it, and it's helped Toronto win games.

Here are three players other than Heineman and Straw who have given the Blue Jays more than I think even they expected, and have helped them move near the top of the league standings.

1. 3B/RF Addison Barger

Long a stathead favorite as a prospect because of his top of the line exit velocities, Barger has reined in his plate discipline enough this year to turn those exit velocities into big time production. He's also pulling the ball more, and when you pull the ball with great exit velocities, things like this happen:

Still only 25, Barger was a sixth round pick in 2018, and he's slashing .262/.312/.493 this season, including .267/.316/.523 against righties. Only 75 of his 383 plate appearances have come against lefties, so manager John Schneider has done good work sheltering his young hitter and putting him in the best position to succeed. Some relevant numbers:

Barger still gets himself into trouble by expanding the zone. His 32.7% chase rate is well above 28.4% league average and actually higher than last season (31.4%), when he hit .197/.250/.351 in 225 plate appearances. The big difference this year is Barger's in-zone swing rate. Last year he swung at only 61.7% of pitches in the zone. This year he's at 67.9%, which is almost exactly league average. Barger still swings at too many balls, but he is swinging at more strikes now, and that's a positive.

In addition to slugging 18 homers in 383 plate appearances, Barger has also seamlessly bounced between third base and right field. He's played 68 games at third and 46 in right, and his rocket arm plays well at both. And I do mean rocket arm. Barger's average competitive throw is 97.3 mph. Only Oneil Cruz has a stronger arm (98.6 mph).

Barger did not make the Blue Jays out of spring training. He was called up on April 15, when Nathan Lukes was placed on the paternity list, and Toronto kept him over Davis Schneider when Lukes returned because they needed another lefty bat. Barger capitalized on the opportunity and become a lineup mainstay. They can't keep him out of the lineup against righties.

"He's confident as ever," Schneider said about Barger in June (via Sportsnet). "It's cool to watch it unfold. You know he's talented, and then when it starts to click like this, you get sucked into every at-bat, thinking he's going to do something."  

2. LHP Eric Lauer

A year ago at this time, Lauer was pitching for the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, and not particularly well. He made seven starts for the Tigers and had a 4.93 ERA. Lauer began last season in Triple-A with the Pittsburgh Pirates, got released in May, went to Triple-A with the Houston Astros, and got released in August. That's when he headed to South Korea. All told, Lauer allowed 70 runs in 110 innings at all levels in 2024.

Pitching depth is always in demand though, so despite his poor and well-traveled 2024, the Blue Jays signed Lauer to a minor-league contract in December. He opened this season in Triple-A and was called up on April 30 simply because the team needed a body. An April 27 doubleheader had taxed the bullpen and the Blue Jays needed innings.

Now 30, Lauer has been a revelation. He performed well in long relief and spot start duty his first few weeks with the Blue Jays, and when Bowden Francis and Max Scherzer went down with injuries, Lauer moved into the rotation full-time. This past weekend he threw five innings of one-run ball against the Texas Rangers and lowered his season ERA to 2.76 in 88 innings.

Is Lauer a true talent 2.76 ERA pitcher? No, almost certainly not. The underlying numbers are strong though. Lauer has a 3.36 expected ERA based on the quality of contact he's allowed, and his 3.54 FIP is based on strong strikeout, walk, and home run rates. In fact, Lauer has struck out 24.5% of batters faced while walking only 7.0%. Those are both career bests.

Lauer is not a power pitcher. His fastball sits low-90s and he mostly cuts the ball in on righties in the mid-80s. Neither his slider nor his curveball light up Statcast with big spin rates, and his changeup is a distant fifth pitch. He has long been an excellent tunneler though (i.e. his pitches look the same out of his hand), and his command, particularly with his fastball, has leveled up this season.

Shane Bieber will join the Blue Jays this Friday and it is likely Lauer will lose his rotation spot. That does not mean he will no longer be an important part of the pitching staff though. Lauer has bullpen experience and can be a multi-inning weapon, plus he can make spot starts. Using a six-man rotation at times will be helpful with Bieber coming back from Tommy John surgery and Scherzer having battled injuries. Bottom line, Lauer has made himself indispensable.

"If I was living in a world that did not include Eric Lauer, I'd have a lot more grey in my beard, for sure," Schneider said last month (via MLB.com). "He's been phenomenal."

3. LHP Brendon Little

You are forgiven if you missed the transaction. On Nov. 6, 2023, the Blue Jays picked up Little from the Chicago Cubs in a cash trade. Chicago needed the 40-man roster space to active Nick Madrigal off the 60-day injured list, and Little, who appeared in one game and allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning for Chicago, was the casualty.

Little, 29, spent most of last season as a low-leverage second lefty for the Blue Jays. This season he has a 3.00 ERA in a league-leading 59 appearances, and has ascended to a high-leverage role because he excels at the two things most likely to lead to success for a pitcher: strikeouts and ground balls. Here's where Little ranks among the 252 pitchers with at least 50 innings:

Little is the only pitcher in the top 15 in both strikeout rate and ground ball rate. In fact, only two others -- Brewers setup man Abner Uribe and Detroit Tigers closer Will Vest -- rank in the top 35 in both strikeout rate and ground ball rate. No pitcher in the game has combined strikeouts and grounders like Little, who has been better against righties (.541 OPS) than lefties (.628 OPS), and is more than a lefty specialist.

Like most relievers, Little is a two-pitch pitcher. He throws his mid-90s sinker and upper-80s curveball at an almost 50/50 split, and that curveball is an outlier pitch. It spins in at roughly 1,800 rpm, a freakishly low spin rate for a curveball, yet hitters have missed with more than half their swings against it. Hitters just don't see curveballs with that little spin, which works to Little's advantage.

A shutdown lefty is imperative. The path through the AL in October goes through Yordan Alvarez, Josh Naylor, Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene, Roman Anthony and Jarren Duran, Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice, and other quality lefty bats. In Little, Toronto has a more than qualified shutdown lefty. He's been a pleasant surprise and an impact bullpen arm this season.

The Blue Jays are also getting strong work from complementary players like lefty mashing infielder Ernie Clement, righty reliever Braydon Fisher, lefty reliever Mason Fluharty, and up/down outfielder Joey Loperfido. Toronto has 12 position players with at least 1 WAR, more than they can field at one time, and Lauer is about to be squeezed out of the rotation despite his success.

In the moment, Toronto's offseason was a letdown, and it's been made worse by Santander and Giménez missing time with injury and not moving the needle much when healthy. The Blue Jays have risen to the top of the AL East anyway thanks to impressive depth, including Barger on offense, Lauer in the rotation, and Little in the bullpen. If Santander can get healthy and Giménez can stay on the field, the Blue Jays could be even more formidable than they are now.