Can Blue Jays still save their season in final nine games?

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It was a World Series hangover that lasted longer than the Blue Jays had anticipated and now in these final strides of the 2026 season, they are still paying the price for a malaise that lingered.

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Wearied by the grind, with nine games remaining the reigning American League champs desperately are trying to sneak into the playoffs via the back door, a stark contrast from where they were a year ago.

It would be imprudent to continue to lament it now, but it’s clear that the World Series hangover joins injuries and a benign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as some of the main conspirators to the current plight.

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“How could it not?” Jays infielder Ernie Clement said in a recent interview.

“It was just hard to shake. That’s all anybody wanted to talk about … last year.”

In the midst of that, the Jays were trying to get their feet on the ground while also navigating a new look and the absence of the strong clubhouse presence provided by veterans Chris Bassitt and Bo Bichette.

“It took us a little longer this year to figure out our identity and who we are as a team, just because that was all everybody wanted to talk about,” Clement said. “That had something to do with it, just naturally.

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“Once people stopped talking about last year, we then moved on. Finally.

“It was the last thing we wanted to talk about. We lost. It was a great year and all, but we just wanted to move on as fast as possible and I think it just took a little longer than any of us would have liked.”

To be clear, Clement isn’t reaching for excuses and is well aware that his own struggles the past two months haven’t helped matters.

But those early struggles have been an irrepressible burden on the Jays for the past five-plus months.

“We were a good team having a bad year individually and that led to some guys pressing,” is how manager John Schneider described it. “Guys were physically and mentally tired. It was a lot.”

When did the troubles start?

It is impossible not to link the Jays’ current plight with the first couple weeks of the season.

In just the third series, a visit to Chicago’s South Side saw the Jays get swept in three games by the White Sox, part of a larger six-game losing streak.

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That stretch led to a 10-16 April for Schneider’s squad and that White Sox series looms as trouble should the two end up tied for the final wild-card spot, which the Jays would lose via tiebreak.

A better May (15-14) was the Jays only winning month until August and, if it were not for truly dreadful form from so many AL teams, they’d be out of hope by now.

To their credit, the Jays didn’t fold before or after the trade deadline, which would have been easy to do given their plight.

“It’s just a different team, a totally different year, different things we’ve had to overcome as a group,” Clement said.

“We have similar players, some of the same guys, but especially at this point in the year. It’s totally different than what we had going last year.

“It’s not good or bad. It’s just different.”

Where were Jays a year ago?

Through 153 games in 2025, the Jays were a rousing 89-64 with a three-game lead in the AL East and just days away from clinching a playoff spot.

Today, as they prepare for a mammoth three-game series against the Rangers down in Arlington, Tex., they are fighting for their post-season lives.

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A 76-77 record has them two games behind Cleveland for the third AL wild-card spot and 17.5 in arrears of AL East-leading Tampa Bay, a divisional pursuit that died months ago.

Obviously it is a team far removed from that captivating 2025 team that spent 105 days in first place, finished with a 94-68 record and launched one of the most compelling post-season runs in franchise history.

While on one level it is absurd to even revisit the World Series hangover, its lingering effects have partially defined this team and this season.

At least they have picked themselves up off the mat, recovering from that dark place that at one point had them 10 games below .500, to put themselves in a place with a resuscitated opportunity to return to the October dance.

Now, with nine games remaining, a short-handed starting rotation and the various other shortcomings that have hindered them, the 2026 Toronto Blue Jays have one final opportunity to erase that feeling.

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