TORONTO -- Whenever the Blue Jays seem to need Andrés Giménez, he has a way of showing up.
Most nights, that means a slick double-play turn up the middle, a throw from deep in the hole, or some other bit of defensive precision. Lately, though, his bat has carried just as much weight.
Giménez launched a three-run home run in the second inning, one of two long balls he hit in Monday’s 8-5 loss to the Rays at Rogers Centre. The game result wasn’t what Toronto wanted, but Giménez’s timely swings continued an encouraging trend. After driving in five runs on the night, the 27-year-old shortstop now ranks second on the Blue Jays with 23 RBIs, trailing only Kazuma Okamoto.
His second homer of the night was even louder, a towering two-run shot that carried high and deep to right field in the seventh inning. The fans at Rogers Centre, with its domed roof closed, quickly gathered excitement, inspired by Giménez’s first career multi-homer game.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider gave Giménez praise for putting in the hard work to adjust his stance and approach. After tinkering with a leg kick last year, the Jays' infielder is now in a more comfortable, athletic stance -- and the results have followed his changes.
“He's swinging with some intent, too,” said Schneider.
Any steady source of offense matters for a Blue Jays lineup that entered Monday with a .693 OPS, good for 21st in baseball. Giménez has become one of those sources, particularly with men on base, entering the night with an .800 OPS with runners in scoring position, and he increased that to a .934 mark after his home run with runners on the corners.
“It’s the kind of hitter he can be,” Schneider said, commending Giménez’s role as a run producer at the bottom of the order. “He gets overlooked because of his defense, but I think he’s in a good spot.”
Around the game, the perception of Giménez is shifting. Before the 2025 trade that brought him to Toronto from Cleveland, the Venezuelan shortstop was best known as a defensive wizard with untapped offensive potential.
Last season, that potential showed in flashes. But Giménez labored through 103 games with a .598 OPS before finding a second wind in the postseason, most notably in the ALCS against the Mariners, when his key home runs in Games 3 and 4 helped swing the series back in Toronto’s direction.
Even with a lower batting average, Giménez drove in 12 runs last postseason. Now, that same knack for timely production has carried into the 2026 regular season, giving the Blue Jays value well beyond the glove they already knew they had in him.
“He’s incredible. Between [Giménez] and Ernie [Clement] up the middle, you feel very confident they’re going to be able to get the ball,” said Jays starter Kevin Gausman, who became the sixth active pitcher to record 2,000 career strikeouts with his 5 K performance on Monday.
And, to add another layer, Giménez has played through some lower-body soreness this season -- though he’d never admit that’s impacting his play. The last thing the Blue Jays need right now is an injury, especially after they placed Addison Barger on the injured list Monday afternoon with right elbow soreness.
At this point, the Blue Jays’ injury issues are nothing new, but the pitching staff took another hit Monday when the club designated Eric Lauer for assignment. With Lauer off the roster, Toronto will likely turn to Spencer Miles and a combination of other arms to cover Saturday’s rotation spot.
Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber, and José Berríos remain on the injured list and are still some distance from returning. With the Blue Jays now 18-23, it would be natural for veterans like Gausman and Dylan Cease to feel added pressure to squeeze more out of every start.
For now, though, Gausman is preaching patience as Toronto tries to find its footing again.
“I think we put enough pressure on ourselves,” Gausman said. “That's kind of the nature of the beast. It's the next guy up … Definitely looking forward to all those guys getting back, but we feel like we can get through it.”