Has Andrés Giménez turned his offense around? Why early returns tease hope for new Blue Jays second baseman

The Toronto Blue Jays will be the first to admit their offseason did not go according to plan. They pursued several big-name free agents (Pete Alonso, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Juan Soto, etc.), didn’t get any of them, and were unable to lock up franchise player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a long-term extension before his spring training deadline. It was an offseason of Plan Bs and Cs.

One player the Blue Jays did land over the winter is second baseman Andrés Giménez, who came over in what amounted to a salary dump trade with the Cleveland Guardians in early December. The Blue Jays sent first baseman/corner outfielder Spencer Horwitz, an interesting enough player, and outfielder Nick Mitchell, last year’s fourth-round draft pick, to Cleveland for Giménez and the five years and $96.5 million remaining on his contract.

Cleveland almost immediately flipped Horwitz to the Pittsburgh Pirates for three pitchers, though the trade had as much to do with unloading Giménez’s contract as anything. A superlative defender, Giménez had fallen from a 141 OPS+ in 2022 to a 96 OPS+ in 2023 to an 82 OPS+ in 2024. Another step down in 2025 would have rendered him untradeable the following year. Add in the presence of second base prospect Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, and trading Giménez was a sensible move.

The Blue Jays took on Giménez because, first and foremost, he’s maybe the best defensive second baseman in the game, and they can afford to pay big dollars for defense. Also, Giménez is still only 26, and they clearly believe they can get his bat back to a place where he is not just a glove-only player. With only league-average offense, Giménez would still project to be a 5-WAR player thanks to his glove. With above-average offense, he’s a borderline star, albeit an unconventional one.

Five games into the new season, Giménez’s time with the Blue Jays could not be going much better. He stepped right into the cleanup spot and is 6 for 18 (.333) with two doubles, three home runs, and three walks. Last year he did not hit his third home run until May 19. This year he got there before his team went out on its first road trip.

“I know he doesn’t look the part, and if you’re drawing up a cleanup hitter, it probably looks like (Anthony Santander), but this is what he can do,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider told Sportsnet following Monday’s win (TOR 5, WAS 2). “The optics may look weird, but he’s a damn good hitter … Credit to him for not really budging and not trying to do anything that he’s not capable of.”

Below-average hitters, something Giménez objectively was in 2023 and 2024, have great weeks all the time. Giménez himself hit three home runs in a seven-game span last August and September. Do it in August and September, and it’s a good week. Do it to start the season, and we all wonder if we’re watching a breakout. The first week of the season is ripe for overreactions.

Giménez’s early season power binge may ultimately prove to be nothing more than small sample size noise, though it is notable he has made a few changes to his swing. In fact, they’re the kind of changes that suggest hey, maybe this is for real. Not three homers every five games real — no one can keep up that pace — but real enough that something more than last year’s 82 OPS+ is possible. 

Here is 2024 Giménez vs. 2025 Giménez:

Giménez has replaced his old toe tap with a full blown leg kick, something that typically helps add power through a more forceful weight transfer. (Don’t read anything into the one-handed vs. two-handed follow through. Giménez has used both for years.) Five games into the season, Giménez’s average bat speed is up close to 2 mph, and he’s already produced seven 100 mph exit velocities (plus another at 99.0 mph). He had 62 100 mph exit velocities all last year, or a little more than one every three games.

Furthermore, Giménez is standing deeper in the batter’s box, which is difficult to see in the GIF above. Statcast’s new batting stance data tells us that, on average, Giménez is lining up about three inches further back in the batter’s box, and also about two inches further off the plate. Here’s where Giménez’s feet begin (black) and end (red) during his swing:

Despite moving further back in the batter’s box, Giménez’s “intercept” point, essentially the point where his bat meets the ball, has moved up about five inches this season. In English, that means Giménez is connecting with the ball farther out in front of the plate, which is where the best contact is made. Meeting the ball out in front of the plate typically produces the hardest exit velocities.

Even with these adjustments (new leg kick, standing deeper in the box, catching the ball out front, etc.), Giménez is unlikely to ever be a significant power hitter. He’s run into a few homers this last week, sure, though his ceiling is likely closer to 25 homers than, say, 35 homers. And that’s fine! More than fine, really. A 25-homer second baseman with Gold Glove defense is an All-Star. There aren’t many of those players in the league at any given moment.

The Blue Jays may not have had the offseason they wanted, though they did improve the team, with Santander adding much-needed power and Yimi García and Jeff Hoffman strengthening what was one of the league’s worst bullpens in 2024. Toronto owes Giménez a lot of money, but they didn’t surrender much in the trade, and his defense gives him a very high floor. His glove ensures he’ll never be a total zero even when he’s not hitting. And again, he’s only 26. This isn’t a 30-something in decline.

First impressions matter and Giménez’s first impression with the Blue Jays could not be going better. No, he won’t continue hitting three homers every five games, but Giménez has made several adjustments to his swing since joining the club. Those adjustments are a tangible reason to believe his bat could bounce back from its 2023-24 decline. If nothing else, they’re a reason to continue paying attention, and to think Giménez has more to give offensively than he did the last few years.

“There’s a lot more in there,” Schneider told the Toronto Star. “And I think it’s just him trusting that. Getting good counts definitely helps. And he’s taking really good swings and not being afraid to take some chances.”