We don’t blame Toronto Blue Jays fans if they’re not ready to move on to the offseason just yet. Not once but twice, their team had a golden opportunity at home to capture their first World Series title since 1993, only to let both of them slip away in the most agonizing fashion imaginable. This was a dream season that deserved a better ending, and this will sting for a very long time.
But while the end of 2025 was painful, the sun will in fact rise again. And when it does, Canada will still have a heck of a baseball team to root for, one that should enter next year among the favorites to win the AL East. There’s quite the foundation already here, starting with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and with the right moves this offseason, they can get over the hump next fall.
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INF Bo Bichette
Really, could this list start anywhere else? There are ways for Toronto to pivot if Bichette walks this winter. Ernie Clement and Addison Barger are very capable options at third base, Andres Gimenez can slide over to shortstop and free agents like Gleyber Torres or trade targets like Brandon Lowe could backfill second. And if the bidding for Bichette gets really rich, there’s an argument to be made that the money is needed more desperately elsewhere (more on that in a moment). Heck, you could even make a run at Alex Bregman, moving Clement to second.
But man, losing Bichette would be a real blow, both on and off the field. He’s one of the faces of this franchise, and he’s also a tone-setter atop the lineup, a hit machine with a preternatural ability to put the barrel on the ball. Anything plan B the Jays could come up with would represent a significant downgrade offensively; Bichette is that good, and the market around him (particularly at shortstop) is that thin. Other heavyweights will be involved here, and the lack of compelling alternatives could drive up the price even further. But the best version of this Toronto team is one with Bichette on it.
LHP Framber Valdez (and RHP Shane Bieber)
No matter how the Bichette question gets decided, the next item on Ross Atkins’ to-do list is a starting rotation that’s set for some major turnover this offseason. Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt are bound for free agency, and Shane Bieber will be too if he declines his $16 million player option for 2026. That’s 60 percent of the team’s starting five down the stretch of this season. Oh, and Kevin Gausman will be a free agent next winter, while Jose Berrios declined so badly he was left off the Jays’ postseason roster entirely.
Toronto needs pitching, is what we’re saying, and they can’t afford to shop in the bargain aisle either. They need impact talent and a lot of innings, and Valdez should be at the top of the list for a number of reasons. For starters, he’s a workhorse, having cracked the 175-inning mark in each of the last four seasons. He’s also a lefty, a nice change of pace for a rotation comprised entirely of righties right now. And he’s also one of the league’s preeminent ground-ball pitchers, a dream fit for what was the best defense in baseball in 2025.
Toronto needs to add not just one but multiple starters by the time Opening Day rolls around. Ideally, Bieber will pick up his option and play out 2026 before hitting free agency with a hopefully full season under his belt, but if not, a short multi-year deal could be a good fit for both sides.
RHP Devin Williams
Hard as it may be for Jays fans to wrap their minds around signing a former Yankee, let alone one who struggled so mightily at times this year, hear me out here. Yes, Williams’ top-line numbers are ugly, and yes, things got so bad that he lost the closer’s role in New York. But he was also the victim of some truly awful luck, as his 3.04 ERA will attest. His chase, whiff and K rates were as elite as ever, and he pitched much better toward the end of the year.
There isn’t a more obvious bounce-back candidate in this year’s free agent pool, and his ability to miss bats would be hugely valuable to a Blue Jays bullpen that needs to add more high-leverage options around Jeff Hoffman. Toronto already has some nice pieces to build around, but as the World Series exposed, there aren’t a ton of true shutdown guys here. Williams has been that before and can be again, and 2025 might drive down his price just a little bit.
UTIL Willi Castro
Bringing Bichette back would more or less round out Toronto’s starting nine, but there’s still the bench to worry about, especially with Isiah Kiner-Falefa hitting free agency this winter. Castro isn’t quite as defensively versatile as IKF — you really don’t want to put him at shortstop — but he can still play four or five different positions, and he brings a ton of speed on the bases and an ability to hit left-handed pitching that would make him an ideal short-side platoon partner with guys like Gimenez, Barger and Nathan Lukes. He can help patch a lot of different leaks that pop up over the course of a 162-game season.
