With the Yankees on deck, a look back at the Blue Jays’ magical season

It’s almost Game One of the American League Divisional Series, and everything the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans have been waiting for – the playoffs and a showdown with the New York Yankees beginning Saturday, Oct. 4. But wait, let’s back up a bit and see what has happened during the season that made it so magical.

Let’s jump back into the offseason. The Blue Jays were coming off a bad 2024 season where they finished the season with a 74-88 record, finishing last place in the American League East.

By far, it was the team’s worst record since 2019. Although there was one highlight during the season that had fans hopeful for seasons to come – Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. had a monster season and was a top five player in the American League.

But the team failed to sign Guerrero, who had one year left on his contract, and other big names during the off-season. The off season for the Blue Jays did not look good. Ross Atkins, the team’s general manager, tried to put them out there to sign some big teams. The team tried to sign the biggest player in the market at the time, which was Juan Soto, who just had a big season with the New York Yankees, but they failed. Then they were in the running to sign Clay Holmes, failed; Roki Saski, failed; Corbin Burns, failed; Gleber Torres, failed; and Max Fried, failed; This team has missed out on so many good players that their team was not looking good.

But they did add Andres Gimenez, Myles Straw, Braydon Fisher, Eric Lauer, Antony Santander, Jeff Hoffman and Max Scherzer . Despite the pick-ups they did have, a lot of people that were fans of other teams and baseball reporters still didn’t think the Blue Jays would get anything done. Their expected win total going into this season was only at 76 wins, seventeen less than they ended up winning.

The team season had a lot of emotions of ups and downs and lots of crazy and fun has happened to this team. Let’s start at the beginning of the season.

After going 5-2 to the start of the season, the team traveled to Queens to start the first road series against the promising New York Mets. The Jays got swept, though this was an interesting series because a lot of the narrative for that weekend was if the Jays didn’t get it done the Mets would put their hats in to try to sign Vladdy Jr.

They got swept by the Mets, but the day after the series ended, Guerrero, Jr. signed the biggest contract in Blue Jays – 14 years and $500 million. Now yes that didn’t turn the season around, but that gave Jays fans a little less nervousness about the season ahead.

Next, let’s go to the start of July where the Blue Jays were 49-38 and just swept the New York Yankees in a four-game series for the first time in franchise history. That series was big and it showed as the Blue Jays stayed in first place in the American League East for the rest of the season.

The team battled this year and they came in with no one (other than the team and some of the fans) believing they would win the A.L. East despite controlling it since July. But it doesn’t matter anymore though because they won the East and the playoffs are like a new season.

“I’m super excited about the team making the playoffs. I think we have a really good shot at the world series and after everything that has gone on with the team the past couple years this is so fun,” said Abby Stoner from Toronto.

“I’m really happy, they were disappointing me at the beginning of the season, so I never expected this,” said Cassandra Stevans, a fan from Mississauga. “Ready for the playoffs!!”

Josh O’Toole, a fan from Mississauga fan, said he was excited by this unexpectedly good season. “We were never projected to make the playoffs. Regardless of the outcome of how we do in the playoffs, I’m proud of the team and hope we can win the division and eventually win the World Series.” Another fan, Suruthy Sathiyapalan from Toronto, said the team’s success means she has high expectations. “Normally I would be happy with just a chance at the playoffs, but this time I want the team to go deep in the playoffs, or at the very least, make it to the ALCS. I think they can do that, if they actually start to get the bats going.”