Examining the Blue Jays offensive woes since Bo Bichette landed on the Injured List

George Springer has continued to be the shining light in the lineup. The veteran bat owns a 4.2 bWAR on the campaign, and his numbers from these past two weeks match up similarly to his regular season output (.304/.393/.476 with a .943 OPS,) although his SLG these past two weeks is a bit higher. Since September 7th, Springer is the only Jays bat to have more than one home run – Nathan Lukes, Addison Barger, Davis Schneider, Daulton Varsho, and Joey Loperfido all have one – but Springer is the lone multi-home run hitter in the group.

Ernie Clement is leading this lineup in doubles (six) during the timeframe, while Springer has chipped in four as well, and the infielder is putting the ball in play at a high rate with Bichette out of the lineup. While he isn’t hitting for a ton of power, his high contact rate is getting him on base. He has four multi-hit games during that span, and while he is battling some soreness in his hand, he is still able to lace a double here and there to help with the Jays’ offensive output.

The two remaining batters hitting close to the 100 wRC+ threshold are Davis Schneider and Addison Barger. Schneider has a few less at-bats compared to most of his counterparts but he’s finding his name in the lineup more because he keeps putting the ball in play or finding ways on base. He leads the group in walks during this sample size (seven) and has provided some tough at-bats to opposing teams. His average sits a bit low (.231) as well as his OPS (.729), but that is attributed to his SLG being low due to the lack of power hits, with just one extra base hit since Bichette left the lineup.

Barger, on the other hand, has really cooled off after being a consistent bat in the lineup. This also aligns with Alejandro Kirk, who has seen his average dip down below .290 after sitting around the .300 mark for a good portion of the campaign. The left-handed bat has still provided some timely hits and driven in runs, as evidenced by tying Springer with seven RBIs in this span, but he’s playing average baseball as of late compared to Kirk, who is really battling.

One player who really needs to step things up with Bichette on the sidelines is Guerrero, who has produced just one extra-base hit since September 7th. He’s gone 14 for 50 in that span, so the .280 average looks nice on paper, but they need someone to pick up the slack in the power department and the Montreal-born product’s bat has gone cold in that area (.300 SLG). Guerrero isn’t capitalizing on mistake pitches like fans were seeing earlier this year, and he’s taken a few hacks that aren’t his usual style. This, combined with the bottom of the order struggling to produce anything as of late (Andres Gimenez, Nathan Lukes, Ty Frace, and Myles Straw), is an untimely cooldown for a squad looking to capture the AL East crown.

The Toronto Blue Jays are heading to the postseason; it’s a mathematical fact at this point. But everyone knows that the Jays want to avoid a Wild Card matchup if at all possible, and the Yankees are gaining ground with a weaker schedule on the horizon. Toronto does hold the tiebreaker over the Yankees, Red Sox, and a slew of others, but the best thing this Jays squad can do is break out of this funk, continue to win games in their own way, and avoid the scenario of having to rely on other teams to win or lose and determine their playoff standing.

The bats need to find a way to turn things around, and whether that’s an upcoming off-day to reset or returning to the Rogers Centre to finish the season, this trend is something the Blue Jays need to kick before October baseball rolls around.