What's in store for the reigning AL champions in 2026?

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

TORONTO -- What a difference a year makes.

Let’s remember that the 2025 Blue Jays, as we remember them, didn’t look like much until June. They trudged through April and May, bouncing around .500, looking like the middle-of-the-road team everyone had expected them to be coming into the season. Then, something clicked.

The season itself was magic, but on Opening Day? We weren’t talking about a World Series contender. Instead, we were talking about a team hoping to rebound from a 74-win season, maybe make a little noise along the way. Baseball is at its best when it surprises us, and the 2025 season might have been the greatest surprise in Blue Jays history.

This year, we’ll be surprised again. We don’t know how just yet, but that’s the fun part.

What needs to go right?

A year ago, the answer was “just about everything”... and that’s exactly what happened. This year, the Blue Jays already enter the year in the spotlight as a World Series contender, but they’ll still need a pleasant surprise or two to take this team over the top.

One of those pleasant surprises needs to come in the lineup. Bo Bichette is gone, replaced in part by Japanese star Kazuma Okamoto, but the Blue Jays need someone to truly “pop” and take this lineup to the next level. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., himself, can take care of some of this. What if that .848 OPS from a year ago turns into a .950 with a few more home runs?

Addison Barger and Daulton Varsho feel like the prime candidates, though. Barger truly broke out in the World Series, where it looked like he suddenly gained a new level of understanding about his own game and incredible abilities. Varsho, who’s in a contract year, launched five home runs in Spring Training and could easily hit 30-plus in a full, healthy season. Keep Jesús Sánchez in mind, too, as a potential breakout name further down the roster.

In 2025, it was George Springer. The Blue Jays need to find a story like that once more.

Great unknown

Okamoto is, by definition, this team’s unknown. That can be an exciting thing, though.

Okamoto comes to the Blue Jays from the Yomiuri Giants, where he starred for years as one of the most reliable power hitters in Japan. There will always be the question of how a player from overseas adapts to a league full of new pitchers -- plus all of the personal changes that come with moving to a new league and country -- but Okamoto has impressed everyone in this organization through his brief time with the club.

If Okamoto can become the player the Blue Jays believe he is? Look out. He’ll be one of your favorite players soon.

Team MVP will be …

Vladdy is the obvious answer for a reason. We’ve finally seen, for the first time since 2021, what his ceiling looks like.

Over 18 playoff games last October and November, Guerrero launched eight home runs with a 1.289 OPS. He carried this into the World Baseball Classic with the Dominican Republic, too, where Guerrero proved again that he’s capable of unlocking another level to his own game when the stakes are high.

There’s an incredible sense of momentum and motivation around the Blue Jays’ star, who feels like he’s due for another career year.

Team Cy Young will be …

Forget “team” Cy Young, Dylan Cease has a shot at the AL Cy Young Award. His combination of durability and strikeout totals will always make him a threat, but Cease says he’s feeling even better than he expected going into the season and the Blue Jays are optimistic that he can unlock a new level of consistency.

Cease’s talent has never lacked. Coming to Toronto, though, Cease sounded obsessed with the idea of consistency, fully aware that his 2022 and ‘24 seasons are what he’s capable of. When he’s lost some of that consistency, seasons like '23 and '25 happen, where his ERA slips to the wrong side of 4.00, but he’s capable of being a truly dominant starter.

Bold predictions:

• Cease finishes top-three in AL Cy Young Award voting
• Mason Fluharty quietly has a breakout season in the bullpen
• Barger is named an American League All-Star