Nearly one week removed from the 2025 trade deadline, we’ve already witnessed the value in adding Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland to the back end of the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen, plus the potential upside that Shane Bieber presents to the starting rotation once he returns from his triple-A rehab assignment.
But, did the front office make a large enough swing on offence?
Granted, it probably seems a bit silly to suggest this type of question with Toronto’s lineup exploding for 25 runs over the last two games in Colorado. At the same time, though, it won’t always be this easy to generate offence. The previous two series against Baltimore and Kansas City were prime examples of that. With a pair of marquee series upcoming versus the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, this offence will soon face another crucial test against two of the NL’s premier clubs.
Heading into last week’s trade deadline, general manager Ross Atkins and his staff hoped to insert a right-handed-hitting power bat into this lineup, someone capable of providing more thump than Myles Straw versus left-handed pitching. But they wound up taking on more of a project for hitting coach David Popkins, acquiring Ty France — who hasn’t posted a wRC+ of 100 (league average) or better since 2023 — in the Varland trade from Minnesota.
In 101 games with the Twins this season, France owned six home runs and a mediocre .251/.320/.357 slash line, accounting for a 92 wRC+. But perhaps the Blue Jays’ hitting department can squeeze more juice out of the 31-year-old’s bat moving forward. He did hit 20 home runs in 2022 and finished two shy of that mark in ’21.
It’s been a few years since he’s been an effective hitter, though, particularly versus lefties.
| PA | AVG/OBP/SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | |
| 2021 | 216 | .311/.366/.508 | .370 | 140 |
| 2022 | 172 | .273/.345/.390 | .326 | 119 |
| 2023 | 160 | .280/.325/.393 | .315 | 106 |
| 2024 | 134 | .231/.321/.350 | .301 | 98 |
| 2025 | 107 | .250/.299/.380 | .298 | 89 |
France certainly has the potential to outperform Straw versus left-handed pitching over these final two months of the season. Hitting for power, however, isn’t necessarily part of his craft. He can drive balls out of the yard, but that has more to do with his ability to pull fly balls and line drives rather than producing high exit velocities and barrel rates.
The right-handed-hitting first baseman is a contact-over-power bat, whose best traits are putting balls in play and minimizing swing-and-miss — perfectly fitting the Blue Jays’ hitter mould. Still, it remains to be seen if he can return to the impact hitter he was a few years ago.
That brings us back to the original issue of whether this front office should’ve been more aggressive in their pursuit of an offensive upgrade. Toronto may feature the best offence in baseball since the start of May, leading the majors with a 121 wRC+. From a power standpoint, though, this lineup sits closer to the middle of the pack.
As history tells us, hitting home runs becomes extremely important in the post-season. It’s what can separate a deep playoff run from an early exit. While this Blue Jays offence can beat you in several different ways, it’s worth wondering if they feature enough power to deliver a crucial blow when they need it most in October, especially amidst Anthony Santander’s uncertain return.
Suppose Santander — who was signed last winter to serve as a formidable middle-of-the-order threat — is unavailable or a shell of himself like earlier this season. It’d place immense pressure on the likes of Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer and Addison Barger to continue carrying the freight at a time when stringing baserunners together is extremely difficult.
Getting more out of France may help in that regard, but likely not in a meaningful capacity as an off-the-bench platoon bat. Ideally, acquiring a certainty rather than a project for the hitting department probably would’ve made more sense. Such a hitter would’ve surely helped further raise the ceiling of Toronto’s lineup.
Supply versus demand likely derailed those plans, though.
Just look at how few high-level position players were moved leading up to this year’s trade deadline, which included Carlos Correa, Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor. While the Blue Jays probably explored those deals, chances are they were never playing at the top of the hitters’ market, given how dire their needs were on the pitching side.
Perhaps if those needs were different, Atkins might have gone all-in to successfully pry All-Star outfielder Steven Kwan away from the Cleveland Guardians — a blockbuster trade that probably would’ve required attaching top prospects Arjun Nimmala and Trey Yesavage in any package heading the other way.
Looking further down the market, there weren’t many righty platoon alternatives traded that presented more upside than France’s profile, other than Willi Castro (a switch-hitter who’s fared well versus lefties in 2025), Ramón Laureano and former Blue Jay Randal Grichuk. And two of those three netted considerable returns.
In Castro’s case, the Twins received a pair of double-A pitching prospects for the rental utility player. Meanwhile, the Orioles packaged Laureano with Ryan O’Hearn to the Padres in exchange for six prospects. Those are steep prices to pay for complementary pieces. But that was simply the reality of this season’s sellers’ market.
Another element that impacted the hitters’ market was potential trade targets who weren’t moved, such as Pittsburgh’s Tommy Pham and Los Angeles’ Taylor Ward — a pair of outfielders who would’ve likely garnered some level of interest from Toronto had they been available.
In the end, the Blue Jays decided their best path forward was taking a flyer on France — a pending free agent — while doubling down on the group of hitters who’ve gotten them to this point of the season, carrying an AL-best 67-48 record into Wednesday’s series finale versus the Rockies. Only time will tell if it’s enough to propel them to their first extended playoff run in nearly a decade.