TORONTO -- Not all openings are grand.
Fresh off that long, encouraging dress rehearsal down in Dunedin, Fla., the Blue Jays¡¯ bats were completely flat in Thursday¡¯s Opening Day loss, 12-2, to the Orioles at Rogers Centre.
This will be what matters in 2025. If the Blue Jays are going to shake off all of the shortcomings and narratives they¡¯ve piled up in recent years, it¡¯s up to the offense.
No, Jos¨¦ Berr¨ªos wasn¡¯t sharp, but the three home runs he allowed will look smaller when we look back on his season six months from now and he¡¯s sporting his traditional three-point-something ERA. What matters is the Blue Jays¡¯ offense, which sat dead quiet as the Orioles launched six home runs and brought boos raining down on the home team on Opening Day.
The Orioles hit six home runs. The Blue Jays had four hits. The analytics suggest that won¡¯t work.
¡°That¡¯s two three-run homers with two outs. That¡¯s tough to come back from, and they didn¡¯t miss mistakes,¡± manager John Schneider said. ¡°Everyone¡¯s going to get mistakes over the course of a game. Today, they didn¡¯t miss them, and the final score is the final score.¡±
A year ago, Toronto finished 23rd in baseball in runs scored (671) and 26th in home runs (156). Those numbers simply won¡¯t work, and the Blue Jays know that. This pitching staff will be rock solid if it¡¯s healthy, perfectly built to hold opposing lineups down -- or at least keep them close -- long enough for a good offense to make a postseason run. They just need to figure out the ¡°good offense¡± part first.
¡°The thing we¡¯ve struggled to do the last couple of years at a high level is score runs,¡± GM Ross Atkins said Wednesday. ¡°That¡¯s where we feel like there is an opportunity to be better this year.¡±
The Blue Jays brought in Anthony Santander to help with that. Bo Bichette might have more power to change this team¡¯s trajectory than anyone, and No. 5 prospect Alan Roden, fresh off his first MLB hit, can be that ¡°other bat¡± the Blue Jays have been looking for, but it needs to come together on the field.
It¡¯s all about execution, but the Blue Jays¡¯ lineup construction on Day 1 gave us some hints at where that will need to come from.
Offense first ¡ then the rest
When you think of a cleanup hitter, you likely picture someone a little bigger than the 161-pound Andrés Giménez. It¡¯s unconventional by just about every definition, but on Opening Day, it worked.
Gim¨¦nez¡¯s two-run home run to right field was the Blue Jays¡¯ only offense of the day. We¡¯ve known all along that Schneider wants to keep Gim¨¦nez in front of Alejandro Kirk, but seeing the defensive whiz in the four hole was surprising. He¡¯ll move around the lineup depending on the day, but this captured the most interesting idea that Schneider shared pregame.
Within all of the ¡°creativity¡± and day-to-day shuffling, the Blue Jays are going to chase offense with their first step. This represents a clear shift in philosophy when it comes to constructing each day¡¯s lineup..
¡°I think we¡¯ve made progress in how we evaluate that in terms of what¡¯s the best plan on paper from offense, defense and baserunning,¡± Schneider explained. ¡°Now, we¡¯ve kind of said, ¡®OK, what¡¯s the best plan on offense?¡¯ From there, you can probably make some tweaks, but I like the profiles in this lineup offensively.¡±
When Bo goes ¡
Over the years, Schneider has said a dozen different versions of: ¡°When Bo goes, we go.¡±
Bichette as the leadoff man is here to stay -- at least until Roden tempts them a little further down the line -- and he represents another break from a traditional ¡°role¡± in a lineup. He¡¯s not up there to see pitches and slap a single. He¡¯s up there to punch you in the mouth, right away.
¡°We were operating without him last year for long periods of time,¡± Schneider said. ¡°He¡¯s shown that he can be one of the best hitters in the league. He¡¯s back to being a threat every single time. He can definitely be a guy that leads us.¡±
We should soon see that the locked-in trio of Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Santander be productive. The Blue Jays need that group to be great, not just good, and they need some sources of secondary offense on top of that, because the Blue Jays aren¡¯t going anywhere fun in 2025 until their offense picks this team up and takes them there.