u/3luejays

There's obviously a lot of talk about Vlad's power outage so far this season. I think it might help to highlight what he looked like at this point in past seasons compared to where he finished the year.

This post is not arguing that he is not struggling to hit for power. That's not the point I'm making. The point I want to make with this post is that Vladdy has almost always been a slow starter on offence. This season is a bit slower than the past. That's also a fact based on the numbers, but I think the fanbase is being heavily influenced by recency bias from his electric postseason and strong WBC showing. There is probably also an anchoring effect happening from his 2021 career-best season that skews the perception of Vlad as a player.

Below is a breakdown of Vladdy's numbers on May 11th in his last 5 seasons compared to this season. Outside of home runs, he's well within his normal range of production for this point in the season.

Year	Games	Hits	Doubles	Home Runs	AVG	OPS
2021	34	38	6	8	.322	1.028
2022	31	32	4	7	.286	.873
2023	35	43	8	7	.312	.914
2024	39	41	6	4	.272	.751
2025	40	43	7	4	.285	.789
2026	40	45	7	2	.308	.792

Year-end numbers

Year	Games	Hits	Doubles	Home Runs	AVG	OPS
2021	161	188	29	48	.311	1.002
2022	160	175	35	32	.274	.818
2023	156	159	30	26	.264	.788
2024	159	199	44	30	.323	.940
2025	156	172	34	23	.292	.848

Rushed to put this together, so let me know if I messed up any of the numbers.

Stats taken from Vladdy's Fangraphs page

Oak is getting all the love, deservedly so, but I also figured we should highlight Brandon for the job he's done so far. Kirk is irreplaceable, but Valenzuela and Heineman have been a steady duo lately.

Myles Straw and Lenyn Sosa also added solo shots today. Our power is really showing up now.

Got this from the new Baseball Savant page on ABS. I filtered it to the Jays.

Pics are batters and then catchers. No Jays pitcher has used a challenge yet this season.