Blue Jays Opening Day Roster Projection, Starting Lineup and Pitchers Prediction
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It seems like just yesterday that the World Series came to a close, marking an end to the 2025 season. But here we are. Opening Day is a month away, and the Toronto Blue Jays' season will commence on March 27 against the Athletics at Rogers Centre.
This will be the first time since 2019 that Bo Bichette has not suited up for the Blue Jays on day one of their season, as he will now be playing for the New York Mets, meaning that it is more than likely that Andrés Giménez is going to step into the shoes that Bichette left behind.
There will be plenty of familiar faces, but the lineup is going to look eerily similar, with some players shuffled around. The starter for not only the season opener, but their home opener, is much more interesting with a plethora of options to choose from.
Starting Pitcher Options
The masterpiece that was Toronto's offseason brought in a pair of new arms to the rotation in strikeout machine Dylan Cease and KBO MVP Cody Ponce. But, those two aren't the only pitchers who weren't available at this time last year, as both Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber weren't on the roster yet.
So, four of the players in their six-man rotation weren't options for their 2025 Opener that José Berríos started. To say John Schneider has plenty of elite options would be an understatement, but this should be a battle between the two known for retiring batters: Yesavage and Cease.
It isn't often that a manager would entrust a rookie to kick off their season, but Yesavage's short career in professional baseball has been anything but typical. He trailed only Blake Snell in the postseason in K's after spending significantly less time on the mound.
Trey Yesavage started the 2025 season at Single-A.
— MLB (@MLB) October 21, 2025
He will finish the year in the World Series 🥹 pic.twitter.com/JuYKsSTaS2
Cease, on the other hand, has nothing but experience as he just finished his fifth consecutive season where he struck out at least 214 batters by the end of it. Either would be a great pick and it is too soon to tell.
Position Player Projection
- First: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Second: Ernie Clement
- Third: Kazuma Okamoto
- Shortstop: Andrés Giménez
- Left: Nathan Lukes
- Center: Daulton Varsho
- Right: Addison Barger
- Catcher: Alejandro Kirk
- Designated Hitter: George Springer
Giménez and Clement are fairly interchangeable, as Clement can go where he is needed in the infield. The same goes for Barger and Springer, but with the defensive clinic that Barger put on when Springer was battling injuries in the postseason, it seems more than fair to say that he should start out in the field.
Ultimately, this team is going to be hard to stop this year and especially when October comes around.
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.