Blue Jays have an Andres Gimenez problem that isn't going away

The Toronto Blue Jays have an obvious problem with Andres Gimenez.

But the issue goes beyond that -- there also isn't a clear solution.

The basic dilemma is that Gimenez can't hit, and he hasn't hit well for a while.

But the Blue Jays don't have another player who can defend at the shortstop position as well as Gimenez, so he keeps getting opportunities.

He's a defensive shortstop for a team that has no other defensive fits at the position so he plays a lot. Ideally he wouldn't play against lefties (and I have advocated for this in the past when he was at 2B) but Clement really shouldn't be playing shortstop

MORE: Outfielder retires from baseball to go play college football

This season, Gimenez is batting .211. He does have six home runs and seven steals, but his overall OPS is just .606.

That aligns almost exactly with last season, when Gimenez batted .210 and had a .598 OPS.

He was a 1.1 Wins Above Replacement player in 2025 thanks to his positive contributions on defense, and he steals bases not with great frequency but at a very high success rate, which helps add an extra bag every now and then for Toronto.

In the big picture, though, he wouldn't be the starting shortstop for a team trying to follow up its appearance in the World Series.

The Blue Jays' struggles this season are about so much more than Gimenez, who was a similar contributor last year. But when other guys fall off a bit, Gimenez certainly isn't in a position to pick up the slack.

There might not be much the Blue Jays can do about it at this point, but Gimenez's issues at the plate are certainly one difficult piece of what they're trying to accomplish in turning their season around.

More MLB news:

• Bo Bichette reveals his plans for his opt-out clause
• Bumpus Jones is trending for an 1892 accomplishment
• The last time a team was this bad at walking, it took 9 balls to earn a walk
• Chase Burns makes Reds history that hasn't been done in 104 years
• Guardians pitcher trying to complete incredible comeback