For the New York Yankees, while on paper they seemed to be a better team than the Toronto Blue Jays, that wasn’t the case during the 2025 ALDS.
The Yankees have to give credit to the Blue Jays for what they accomplished, especially offensively.
This young Blue Jays team doesn’t look like they have a ton of mighty hitters in their lineup, but they can swing it and play the game the right way.
When questioned about the Yankees prioritizing power and defense rather than contact hitting, Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees owner, had some intriguing thoughts about it.
He was asked if he wanted to be like the Blue Jays, but he went back on that comment a bit, saying that the Blue Jays also slug as well.
“I think balance in life is everything. [The Blue Jays] slug the ball too. It’s not just putting balls in play. They definitely slug the ball,” Steinbrenner said, per MLB.com’s Mike Petriello. “Hitting strikes hard, particularly in the air, not that you’re trying to hit it over the fence, but in the air, statistically speaking, the results speak for themselves, you have a better chance of success when you do that.”
Remember now, while the Yankees had to deal with certain players on the Blue Jays putting the ball in play and making things happen, they were also burned by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. multiple times.
Guerrero was the best hitter in baseball throughout the postseason, and a significant factor in that was his ability to leave the yard.
In this era, teams have to hit home runs, no matter how things look for a month in the postseason.
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