When the Toronto Blue Jays decided in 2021 to make the biggest free agent investment in their history, they did not expect their $150 million gamble to spend four seasons with declining performance. Those are the risks of the baseball business, where not everything that glitters is gold and where not everyone manages to have an immediate impact on the diamond after receiving a lot of money.
That could be the case for George Springer, who arrived at the Canadian organization with a star status after seven glorious years with the Astros, where he was the MVP of the 2017 World Series in which Houston dealt a heavy blow to the Dodgers. In that stretch, the outfielder posted an offensive line of .270/.361/.491/.852, with stellar performance in center field.
However, things in Toronto have not been rosy. In his first year he had similar peaks to those in Houston and even went above some averages, although with a small sample of 78 games. Then everything changed and he went into a negative spiral, to the point that his offensive line in his first four seasons was .251/.328/.436/.764, well below what he had achieved with the Astros.
Alarm bells rang particularly after a disastrous 2024, in which his OPS fell to .674 despite playing 145 games and accumulating more than 600 plate appearances. That performance did not correspond to a man who earned more than $24 million and was going to earn the same amount in 2025. Then, Springer got his act together.
Change of mindset
In the current MLB season, if the Blue Jays are leading the American League East Division, it is largely due to George Springer, one of the team’s offensive spark plugs along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. The outfielder has assumed the responsibility as the second highest paid player on the roster and, in 117 games, has put up star numbers.
His OPS this season has skyrocketed to .946, second in the American League among all qualified hitters, behind only Aaron Judge. Springer’s offensive average is .305, his on-base average is .396 and his slugging percentage is .550, with 26 home runs, 71 RBIs, 87 runs scored and 16 stolen bases, indicators that no other MLB player has in 2025.
This is due, in large part, to a second half of the season that was exceptional. If we go back in time, before the last week of June, Springer was hitting .241 and his OPS was .800. But then came a total resurrection, producing at the level of the legends.
To get an idea, in his last 45 games the Toronto outfielder has an offensive line of .379/.460/.684/1.144, with 16 home runs, 39 RBIs, 50 runs scored, 66 hits and nine steals. According to OPTAStats, the only players who had achieved such a performance over a span of 45 games during a single season were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two immortals from the last century.
Between June 1 and July 15, 1920, the Yankees’ Bambino had 60 runs scored, 67 hits, 51 RBIs, 17 home runs and ten steals. Ruth’s OPS during that period was 1.496.
The other player who had repeated similar numbers over a 45-game span during a single season was Gehrig, also a member of the Hall of Fame. Between June 19 and July 28, 1931, the Yankees’ stellar first baseman scored 58 runs, 69 hits, 62 RBIs, 19 home runs, nine steals and an OPS of 1.272.
The most significant thing for George Springer is that his awakening with the bat has coincided with the explosion of the Blue Jays. On June 24, when the outfielder got going, Toronto was in third place in the American League East, and now they are the clear leaders of the division and one of the teams to watch heading into the postseason.
There is no better reward for Springer.
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