Nine Years in the Making: Blue Jays Advance to 2025 ALCS

A few seasons ago, Guerrero was asked whether he would ever play for the Yankees and he replied “No, not even dead.” Fresh off signing a 14-year, $500 million contract earlier this year, Vlad stuck it to the Yankees, slashing an insane .529/.550/1.059 with three home runs and nine RBI across the four-game set in the ALDS. He joins 2024 Freddie Freeman and 2010 Josh Hamilton as the only players since the turn of the century to tally 18+ total bases in a 4-game span against the Yankees in October.

Hitting a home run in each of the first three games of the series, Guerrero absolutely demolished Yankee pitching. He torched these home runs off three pitchers who started games regularly for the Yankees in 2025: Carlos Rodón, Will Warren, and Luis Gil. Following the series win and during the team celebration, Guerrero Jr. joined noted Yankee rival David Ortiz to recite his favourite phrase; “DAAAAAA Yankees lose!”

This performance was legendary from the Blue Jays’ franchise cornerstone and career Yankee clipper, who had already notched 22 career regular season home runs against the Bronx Bombers, but he wasn’t the only one who showed up big time for Toronto.

Trey Is Savage

Where does one even begin to talk about Trey Yesavage’s Game 2 masterpiece? The 22-year-old rookie spun 5.1 innings of hitless baseball, allowing only two Yankees to reach base (one walk, one error) and struck out eleven batters. While, yes, the Blue Jays offense scored him 13 runs of support throughout the game, they needed a dominant outing from Yesavage and he supplied much more than anyone could have asked for.

Yesavage was the first pitcher in Blue Jays postseason history to tally more than eight batters in a game and is only the second pitcher in baseball history to record double-digit strikeouts and now allow a hit in the same game. In fact, the Game Score for Yesavage’s Game 2 start was the second-highest in franchise playoff history behind Dave Stieb’s eight innings of shutout ball in the 1985 ALCS.

His splitter was truly a nail in the coffin for the Yankees, as he notched a ridiculous 68.8% whiff rate on the pitch throughout that start including finishing eight of his eleven strikeouts with the pitch and getting hitters to chase it out of the zone at an incredible rate.

The Blue Jays made Yesavage and Kevin Gausman available in relief during a Game 4 bullpen game but neither starter was brought out to the mound. While this might’ve been expected, it’s worth noting that these guys are weapons that can be utilized in this new type of role as well. Gausman will likely be given Game 1 again in the ALCS and Yesavage will follow up with a Game 2 start, both of their outings coming at home yet again.

The Kings of Contact Prevail

The Blue Jays led all of baseball in batting average (.265) and on-base percentage (.333) in the regular season, and the Yankees were intent on using their top arms to silence Toronto’s bats. However, this proved to be in vain and the Jays put balls in play at an alarming rate.

Over the regular season, Max Fried had a 9.3 K/9 against the rest of MLB (177 K/171.0 IP) and had a 4.4 K/9 against the Blue Jays (12 K/24.1 IP). Rodón had a 9.5 K/9 against the rest of MLB (195 K/185.1 IP) and posted just a 7.2 K/9 against Toronto (8 K/10 IP). Cam Schlittler came off a 12-strikeout gem against the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series and only mustered two strikeouts against the Jays in a do-or-die Game 4 for the Yanks.

While the Yankees’ best pitchers thrive on missing opponents’ bats, the Toronto Blue Jays have thrived on putting the bat on the ball at a better rate than any other team in baseball this year. Some of Toronto’s hitters played a crucial role in this series not necessarily by hitting for power, but by hitting for contact.

Ernie Clement, some might argue, nearly had a more impressive series than Guerrero due to his ridiculous .643 average (9 H/14 AB) and contributing a .039 wPA this series, second to only Guerrero’s mark of 0.43. With seven of his nine hits being singles, Clement consistently put himself on base for the top of the order to drive him in, being one of only three Blue Jays to come home five or more times in the series.

Myles Straw only got five at-bats in the ALDS, but he made them count. He went 2-for-5 and drove in Toronto’s final run in Game 4 to seal the series and send the Blue Jays firmly atop the AL East and into the ALCS as one of the American League’s top two teams.

There were so many strong performers for the Jays from Clement and Straw to Nathan Lukes and Daulton Varsho; Alejandro Kirk had four hits and three of them went for extra bases! Lukes is one of three players in this series with 5+ RBI and that’s the best way to symbolize the 2025 Blue Jays.

All Rise for the Judge

Aaron Judge was the only Yankee with more than four hits in the series…and he had nine. He was the only Yankee to score more than three runs…and he had five. He was the only Yankee to have multiple extra-base hits in the series…and Toronto had six of them. Judge was absolutely phenomenal in the ALDS, but the rest of the team couldn’t pick him up.

The newest Yankee captain who will certainly be the last to don No. 99 in pinstripes .600/.684/.933 with a 1.618 OPS, even beating out Vladdy in all of these categories except slugging percentage. Time and time again his presence in the batter’s box struck fear into the heart of Blue Jays fans who knew he could change the game in one swing.

And in the one game the Yankees won? Judge hit a three-run game-tying home run off Louis Varland that probably still has not landed. The Yankees epitomized the one-dimensionality of their lineup with the exception of Judge in this series. Anthony Volpe batted an unsightly .067 in 15 plate appearances with eleven strikeouts and Jazz Chisholm Jr. went 2-for14 (.143 AVG).

The Yankees’ catchphrase for Aaron Judge’s success “All Rise” seemed to take on a different meaning in this series; one that rather alluded to the fans’ ability to rely on the star slugger much more than the rest of the lineup. For a Yankees team that proved itself so capable of crushing its opponents down the stretch in the regular season, this was an unorthodox collapse.

But regardless of how the rest of the team performed, Aaron Judge tried to carry the whole team on his back. Does this make up for his performance in the 2024 World Series or is it just another lost year for the Yankees?

What or Who Is Next?

The Jays have clinched their spot in the ALCS against the winner of the Mariners/Tigers series that is currently headed to a winner-takes-all Game 5 in Seattle. Both teams are 1-1 at home and on the road in the series, but Tarik Skubal goes for Detroit in hopes of taking the franchise to its first ALCS appearance since 2013.

MVP-candidate (frontrunner?) Cal Raleigh looks to lead his Mariners to their first appearance in the series since setting the all-time single-season win record with 116 victories in 2001. Toronto won the season series against both of these teams (4-3 vs. DET, 4-2 vs. SEA) including a sweep on the road in Seattle, so it should be interesting to see who they’ll face in the next round.

For the Yankees, it’s yet another year without a World Series for the most successful and historic franchise in the game’s storied history. Aaron Judge will have to look to lead the Bronx Bombers to their 28th World Series win next season, because they simply couldn’t match the Blue Jays this year. What at initially looked like a destined Game 5 matchup prior to the series turned into a war of momentum that the Blue Jays wrestled from the Yankees with all their strength.

This series was not necessarily decided by any specific faults of the Yankees, although their shortcomings can certainly be noted, but rather the utter dominance on all sides of the ball by the Toronto Blue Jays. They’re on their way to their first ALCS in nine years and they seem to have plenty left in the tank.