{"id":386934,"date":"2026-01-04T04:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:23:07","slug":"what-to-expect-from-george-springer-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386934\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from George Springer in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Springer was incredible for the Blue Jays<\/a> in 2025, posting one of the best seasons by a player in their mid-thirties in MLB history. Now, understandably, many are wondering whether he can do it again in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Springer, who turned 36 in September, set new single-season career highs in batting average (.309), on-base percentage (.399) and OPS+ (161) this past season. His 32 home runs and 84 RBIs were his most since 2019. He also stole 18 bases while being caught just once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What made this output so surprising was that it came after two straight underwhelming seasons. After seeing his slugging percentage drop to .405 two years ago, Springer bottomed out with a .674 OPS in 2024. He graded as a below-average hitter by OPS+ (91) for the first time in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The good news for Springer<\/a> and Blue Jays fans is that the changes that revitalized his bat should carry over into 2026, even if he may not produce at an MVP-level again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another INSANE view of George Springer’s go-ahead homer \ud83d\ude31 <\/p>\n

It starts with bat speed: Springer\u2019s 73.7 mph average last year was up nearly two mph from 2024. His hard-hit rate jumped from 37.4% to 47.6% as a result. Swinging more aggressively also helped him barrel the ball with elite consistency, as his 16.1% rate in this category ranked in the 94th percentile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Springer\u2019s slugging percentage rising by nearly .200 points from 2024 to 2025 was no accident. He made a deliberate effort \u2014 and presumably put in a ton of work \u2014 to swing the bat faster. That directly translated into more extra-base hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With all that being said, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see Springer\u2019s bat speed drop a bit in 2026. He\u2019ll be a year older and coming off a long season with an extended playoff run. However, there\u2019s no reason to think he\u2019ll fall back to 2024 levels or deviate from the mindset that got him back on track.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another season with a .959 OPS is probably unrealistic. But 25 home runs with an OPS somewhere in the .800 range? That appears very possible, and would be fantastic production for someone his age. The Blue Jays would happily take that atop their lineup, setting the table for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and ideally one of Bo Bichette or Kyle Tucker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, with Springer, there will always be injury concerns, but he\u2019s played in at least 133 games three years in a row. He\u2019s likely to be the full-time DH again, too, which should help him stay healthy and in the lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Springer\u2019s 2025 campaign wasn\u2019t a fluke \u2014 he should be dangerous again in what could be his last season as a Blue Jay<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Springer was incredible for the Blue Jays in 2025, posting one of the best seasons by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-386934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}