Blue Jays: Reflecting on the Andres Gimenez trade

Giménez slashed .210/.285/.313 across 101 games last season. He put up the worst numbers of his career on a squad where seemingly everyone bounced back under new hitting coach David Popkins. 

His .252 expected batting average suggests some positive regression could come in 2026. Still, all of his poor quality of contact metrics don’t provide much hope. He doesn’t barrel the ball or hit it hard with any consistency. The best-case scenario for him is that he’s a singles hitter with an OPS below .700. 

Of course, the Blue Jays didn’t acquire Giménez with the expectations that he would be a middle-of-the-order bat—even if he did hit cleanup a few times in April after a hot start that fizzled quickly. They acquired him because he’s an all-world defender at second base who could be an insurance policy at shortstop if Bo Bichette decided to leave in free agency, which he did. 

This context doesn’t make paying Giménez a boat load money any better, though. It might actually make it worse if the Blue Jays were more willing to let Bichette walk because they knew they had Giménez to replace him. It’s hard not to think they would have been more aggressive in their pursuit of Bichette had they not made this trade. 

The other issue is that Spencer Horwitz, the main piece the Blue Jays gave up in the deal, looks like a solid MLB-quality hitter. The Guardians flipped him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he hit 11 home runs and 26 doubles with a .787 OPS in 2025. He put up similar numbers in Toronto the year before. They might have been better off with him at second base and Ernie Clement at shortstop. 

Hindsight is ultimately 20/20. A healthy Giménez might be a huge piece for the Blue Jays in 2026 and beyond. However, it’s hard to see Atkins and Shapiro trading for him and Sandlin all over again if given a do-over.