Unc’s Still Got It: George Springer’s Outstanding Rebound

On this year’s Toronto Blue Jays, no position player is older than George Springer. In fact, only three hitters (Myles Straw, Tyler Heineman, Nathan Lukes) on the active roster are over the age of 30. While the industry may not be willing to accept it, this is a young and fun Blue Jays team.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and more recently the likes of Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger are the younger players taking the team by storm. However, everybody’s favorite uncle, Springer, is the one stealing the headlines as of late.

The Blue Jays as a whole are on absolute fire, but Springer’s play is turning heads more than anything else surrounding the team. He’s on the back-end of not only his six-year, $150 million contract with the Blue Jays, but his career in general.

And yet, he’s playing some of his best ball in years. As he inches closer and closer to his 36th birthday, Springer’s kicking ass and taking names.

Let’s take a closer look at the oddity that is 2025 George Springer, and give credit where it’s due.

George Springer Is Defying Father Time

Easily the best full season of Springer’s career came back in 2019 when he finished seventh in the AL MVP voting as a member of the Houston Astros. While he looked great in 2021 and 2022 on the Blue Jays, he hasn’t quite produced at the same level as he did pre-Jays.

In fact, he declined pretty rapidly between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2025. The years in between were at times hard to watch, as it seemed that Springer’s playing days – at least his days of being an above-average run-producer – were coming to an end. More often than not, players’ ages catch up to them as they march on into their 30s, so it wasn’t all that shocking to see his numbers begin to dip.

Yet, here he is, playing like one of the American League’s best. The defending AL Player of the Week (the Blue Jays’ first since August of 2024), Springer has 16 home runs through 85 games, which is three away from how many he had last year in 60 more contests.

He’s also already driven in 53 runs, also three less than last year. What’s most impressive about Springer’s game is that he’s walking at a career-high pace and hitting for much more power than we’ve seen out of him in years.

The 12-year veteran has raised his ISO to .227 and his SLG to .503. Neither has been this high in four years. His wRC+ currently sits at 143, which puts him 43% above league-average. Again, this hasn’t been reached since 2020.

What Changed?

Heading into last season, Springer had a mindset that his top priority was to get on base so Guerrero could drive him in. This led him to being much more passive at the plate, which resulted in an elevated groundball rate, and lowered bat speed. Pairing these things together, and it’s no wonder why he started to see his numbers dip.

Ahead of 2025, though, things were different. This time around, Springer came to play with a goal to “hit the ball out of the ballpark.” His bat speed has seen an uptick, going from a 52nd percentile 71.9 mph to a 68th percentile 73.1 mph. Springer’s quality of contact has improved tenfold, and he’s been barreling up the ball 15.6% of the time, which places him in the 92nd percentile.

Springer has always done a solid job of avoiding chasing bad pitches, but he’s now at an elite level in Chase%. He doesn’t swing at bad pitches, his mindset has shifted to hitting for more power and trying to send the baseball to the next town over, and he’s hitting the ball on the ground far less which has naturally resulted in more flyballs.

No matter which way you slice it, Springer’s turnaround is jaw-dropping. Players don’t rediscover this kind of success as they close in on their late-30s every day. At least he’s being rewarded with a division lead and his fifth trip to the All-Star Game.

…right?

An Insane All-Star Snub

It is downright embarrassing that Springer was not elected to this year’s All-Star Game. Guerrero and Kirk both made the cut, but Springer is on the outside looking in … at least for now. While he could (and likely will) be added as a substitute in the near future, he should’ve made the roster from the get-go.

Sure, every team needs to be represented on the roster, but no AL outfielders kept Springer off the roster because of this rule.

Take the Seattle Mariners’ representatives for instance. Cal Raleigh is the best catcher having the best offensive season from a catcher we’ve ever seen. There’s no doubt he should be starting the game. However, Julio Rodriguez made the cut as well, and his OPS on the season starts with a 6.

In many ways, this isn’t even particularly close. Rodriguez only has a higher fWAR because of his strong defense in the outfield. Springer on the other hand has lost more than a step or two as an outfielder in recent years.

J-Rod is wildly popular in Seattle, so it’s understandable that he got voted in based on popularity, but Springer had an entire country behind him. Plus, he’s still a beloved figure amongst Astros fans. This is one of the obvious examples of why the current All-Star voting system is flawed.

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Even if you don’t pit Springer against Rodriguez, he’s still got the AL’s seventh-best wRC+ this season and is also top-10 in the AL in RBI, BB%, SLG, and wRC+. Him being nothing more than an ASG snub is just disrespectful.

One of Many Blue Jays Playing Solid Ball

Springer might’ve gotten screwed out of a spot in the All-Star Game, but I’m sure he feels a bit better knowing that his Blue Jays are looking down at everyone else in the AL East standings. As of right now, the Blue Jays are 53-38 with a three-and-a-half game lead over the New York Yankees, who are 3-7 in their last 10 and without four key pieces of their starting rotation.

That will surely help Springer feel better. His team is absolutely rolling. What makes matters even better for the boys in blue is that Springer is far from the only player on this team that’s on a hot streak.

In their last 20 games, Springer, Guerrero, and Barger have been the premier hitters, to the surprise of nobody. Kirk and Bichette are also well above-average hitters as of late.

Barger has a 161 wRC+ with five home runs and 15 RBI through 18 games. He has come out of nowhere this year to become a surprising All-Star candidate in his own right, and has been taking his game to a whole new level recently. His .319 ISO and .609 SLG lead the Jays through their current hot streak.

Guerrero’s been in the midst of a strange season-wide power outage, but he’s got for home runs and 13 RBI through his past 19 games. His 163 wRC+ is second on the team behind Springer, and he’s been walking more than striking out as of late, which is always nice to see from the team’s face of the franchise.

Since June 1, the Blue Jays have scored more runs (180) than any other team in baseball. Their .268 average, .334 OBP, and 7.4 fWAR are second in baseball during that time as well. It’s a good time to be George Springer, and an even better time to simply be a part of a surging Blue Jays organization.