Photo: Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire

The Blue Jays finished second in the voting for our Defensive Team of the Year award, which was part of The Fielding Bible Awards. And that was for good reason. The Blue Jays have an abundance of strengths on their roster and very few weaknesses. 

Here’s our scouting report on their defense heading into the World Series.

Strengths

Daulton Varsho

The Blue Jays have a center fielder who would run through walls to catch balls if he could. Varsho was the 2024 Fielding Bible Defensive Player of the Year and put up great Runs Saved numbers in limited action in 2025. He’s the MLB leader in Runs Saved since the start of both 2022 and 2023 (and 1 run shy of being the leader since the start of 2024). 

Their other outfielders

We previously said that Myles Straw was worthy of being named ‘Reliever of the Year’ as a late-game defensive replacement. He’s played in nine games this postseason, played a full game once and closed seven others. Straw tied for second in Runs Saved in center field despite playing barely more than 500 innings. You’ll likely see him finish games in left field. He’s very aggressive at going after fly balls.

There’s also Nathan Lukes, who played both corner outfield spots in each of the last five games of the ALCS. He had 7 Runs Saved in 446 innings in right field and 4 Runs Saved in 249 innings in left field. Between the three outfield spots he had 26 Good Fielding Plays (including 9 assists without the aid of a cutoff man, tied for fifth-most in the majors). 

Of the 20 outfielders with at least 18 Good Fielding Plays, Lukes had by far the fewest Misplays and Errors (5). The next-closest was 11.

Ernie Clement

Clement won a Fielding Bible Award for multi-position play this season after becoming the second player to record at least 10 Runs Saved at two different infield positions (second baseman/third baseman Ryan McMahon is the other). 

Clement can play shortstop or fill in at first base (admittedly unlikely) as well and he does it all with one glove, a Mizuno that’s at least a decade old and looks it, that he purchased on EBay (we talked to him about it, but a hat-tip to ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian for finding that out).

Alejandro Kirk and Tyler Heineman

Blue Jays catchers had 19 Runs Saved this season, more than any other team. Kirk ranked second in our pitch framing metric and tied for the top spot among catchers in Runs Saved from Good Fielding Plays, which largely consists of blocking pitches. Should anything happen to him, 

Heineman is more than capable of filling in defensively. He ranked tied for fourth among catchers with 10 Runs Saved despite ranking 47th in innings caught. He’s better at throwing out basestealers than Kirk, who’s a smidge below average at that.

Andrés Giménez

Giménez is MLB’s leader in Defensive Runs Saved among second basemen the last four seasons. He’s one of the most fun to watch defensive players in the sport and seamlessly slid over to shortstop (which he’d played in the past) when Bo Bichette got hurt. Wherever he’s going to play in the World Series, he’s capable of making a nifty, wow-inducing play. Giménez told us in a past interview that he loves to dance. It’s evident from how he plays in the field.

Vladimir Guerrero

Guerrero had the best defensive season of his career, finishing with 8 Runs Saved after back-to-back seasons of -7 and -1. He’s going to make his share of errors but he’s been particularly good rangewise in 2025.

Weaknesses

The Bo Bichette Quandary

With Bichette injured earlier this postseason and Springer at DH the Blue Jays were able to start their best possible defensive lineup. But as Bichette returns, the Blue Jays have a dilemma. Do they want to mess with a good thing and weaken their defense?

Bichette’s value as a hitter far outweighs his defensive shortcomings (-12 Runs Saved) so long as he’s healthy. But Toronto seems to be giving consideration to playing Bichette at second base, which would keep Gimenez on the field but take another good defender, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, out. Bichette’s pro history at that position is 30 games, the last one in 2019 

Wherever Bichette plays, there will be questions, and it will be the most worrisome defensive thing for Toronto in this series.

Addison Barger’s range

Barger is best suited for third base, but that spot is currently occupied. So he’s playing right field in the postseason, where he totaled -11 Runs Saved related to range in only 57 games during the regular season. That’s why he came out of the game late in games for defense in each of Toronto’s four ALCS wins.

On the positive side the top 10% of his throws averaged 96.5 MPH, the third-fastest average in MLB, and he had 6 assists without a cutoff man. His 5 Outfield Arm Runs Saved matched the most of any right fielder. 

George Springer 

This one comes with a “don’t worry about it.” Springer hasn’t played the field in a month as he’s been almost exclusively a DH in that time. It’s probably for the best. He totaled -6 Runs Saved in right field this season.

Defensive Positioning

The Blue Jays actually ranked last in the amount of value (Runs Saved) they got from defensive positioning. They rated poorly both in their infield positioning when playing straight-up and in their outfield positioning. The Blue Jays have such good athletes that they make up for how they set up. The Blue Jays may have been last in Runs Saved from positioning but they were first in Runs Saved from the skills of their players.

Also of note, only 43% of balls hit against the Blue Jays were hit against a defensive shift, the second-lowest rate in MLB (we consider it a shift when the second baseman or shortstop is playing unusually close to second base and at least one other fielder is significantly deviating from straight-up positioning).

Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt limiting steals

The Dodgers have attempted only 2 stolen bases this postseason, so this may not be a big deal, but baserunners stole 17 times in 20 attempts against Gausman in the regular season and they were 14-for-17 against Bassitt.