Blue Jays Offseason Moves Easily Makes Them Best American League Team
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The Toronto Blue Jays are coming off making their first World Series in over 30 years and it wasn't surprising that they got there after how the team looked like in the regular season.
Toronto was already the best team in the American League going into the offseason and since that started they have separated themselves even further.
The New York Yankees or the Seattle Mariners were arguably the other top teams in the AL in 2025 but neither have had the offseason that the Jays have. The Blue Jays had a photo finish to take the division this year but looking at their current roster it feels like they could pull away quickly.
The pitching staff ultimately turned into their Achilles heel as late-game long balls were the final nail in their coffin in Game 7 of the World Series. So what has management done? Spent money on arms.
Their most recent acquisition is their first position player upgrade: slugger Kazuma Okamoto who is primarily a third baseman which means they have likely taken their names out of the Alex Bregman hat.
If Bregman is no longer on the table they will shift focus to re-signing homegrown talent Bo Bichette as well as the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner Kyle Tucker. Once the Blue Jays roster is complete for 2026, it will not longer be who will beat them, but who can?
Significant Signings This Offseason
The main focus for the Jays in the last eight weeks has been in regards to their pitching staff, primarily the starting rotation but also a top reliever in Tyler Rogers who finished 2025 with a sub-1.00 ERA.
Dylan Cease: Cease has been an absolute strikeout machine since taking on a primary role as a starter back in 2022. This was his fourth consecutive season with 214 or more strikeouts and will be a really nice complement to Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber.
Cody Ponce: The KBO MVP from 2025 was an absolute menace for hitters and in his last season in the KBO with the Hanwha Eagles he was not only named the MVP, but set a record for most strikeouts in a game, 18, and eventually finished the year with 252 in less than 181 innings.
His stat-line for 2025 included:
- 17-1 Record
- 1.89 ERA
- 252 Strikeouts
- 0.93 WHIP
For no reason whatsoever here's a clip of Kazuma Okamoto taking a 99 MPH heater from Roki Sasaki and drilling it for a grand slam pic.twitter.com/kIwC0ggTyr
— Damon (@Damon98_) January 2, 2026
Kazuma Okamoto: This will be Okamoto's first time playing in the majors as he has been playing in foreign leagues for the last 11 years and emerged as quite a bat. In 2025 the 29-year-old played in 77 games where he batted over .320 to complement an OPS over .990.
It truly feels like the Blue Jays are gearing up to return to the Fall Classic as they have a massive chip on their shoulder. This might not be just the best roster in the AL but the NL as well.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.