George Springer headlines Blue Jays’ 2025 BBWAA awards

The 2025 team awards for the Toronto Blue Jays were announced on Wednesday, per the club’s press release, featuring outfielder George Springer, starter Kevin Gausman, reliever Braydon Fisher and infielder Ernie Clement. Every vote was cast by local members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).

It should be noted that these are annual regular-season awards and aren’t impacted by post-season performances. Here are this year’s winners:

• Player of the Year: George Springer
• Most Improved Player: George Springer
• Pitcher of the Year: Kevin Gausman
• Rookie of the Year: Braydon Fisher
• John Cerutti Award: Ernie Clement

Coming off consecutive poor offensive showings, Springer redefined expectations for a player in his age-35 season while leading the Blue Jays’ offence last season, finishing third in wRC+ (166), behind only Shohei Ohtani (172) and Aaron Judge (204) — both MVP winners in their respective leagues. He placed seventh in AL MVP voting and captured his third-career Silver Slugger.

The resurgent DH also placed second in OBP (.399), fourth in AVG (.309) — both career-highs — and fifth in SLG (.560) among major league hitters. Additionally, his 5.2 fWAR — the second-highest of his career — led all Toronto players (hitter or pitcher).

No player meant more to the Blue Jays during the regular season than Springer.

On the pitching side, you could argue Gausman served that role for this team in ’25. The 34-year-old led all Toronto pitchers in fWAR (4.1), pitching to a 3.59 ERA and 3.41 FIP with 189 strikeouts across 32 starts — his most as a Blue Jay. Over 13 second-half starts, the right-hander dazzled to a 2.81 ERA and 2.76 FIP with a 21.3 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate (K-BB%).

Fisher, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 Cavan Biggio trade, burst onto the scene from triple-A Buffalo and quickly became one of manager John Schneider’s most-trusted bullpen arms, thanks to his 2.70 ERA and 30.7 per cent strikeout rate in 52 relief appearances. The 25-year-old didn’t allow a run on the road last season, earning him the longest shutout streak (28.2 innings) to begin a career in MLB history.

Clement, this year’s recipient of the John Cerutti Award “for displaying goodwill, cooperation, and character,” became an essential part of Toronto’s outstanding clubhouse culture during his second full big-league season. His leadership and attitude never changed throughout the 162-game schedule, and he also enjoyed a career year on the field, recording a career-high 3.2 fWAR.