The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 on Saturday night in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Game 5 is set for Sunday night in Cleveland with the winner of the series advancing to the World Series.

It was just one year ago that the Toronto Blue Jays were playing in their own ALCS - and advancing to the World Series. But the wheels fell off this year, with the Jays going 79-83 and finishing last in the American League East.

So, how far away from these two teams were Toronto in 2026? Let's take a look at some valuable data with regards to the Jays and Rays.

As we've said for weeks now, the lack of power and "slug" on the Blue Jays was their biggest woe this season. The Jays were the best team in baseball with runners in scoring position and they were the best team at making contact, but yet they were last in runs scored. Why? Because they couldn't drive the ball well enough.

It's hard to play station-to-station baseball, but that's essentially what the Jays were relegated to most of the time. When you hit a double followed by a single, you only get one run. When you only hit singles, you need at least three hits to score even one run. It's hard to win in modern baseball with singles and it's hard to win with one-run innings as opposed to multi-run outbursts.

Next year, obviously, the goal for the Jays is to get back to hitting the ball out of the park. The hope is that a better year from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the return of Anthony Santander will help that.

Headlined by Dylan Cease, the Blue Jays had a solid pitching group despite all their injury woes. The team ERA is obviously comparable to the Rays and the home runs allowed are significantly less. Where the problem lies for Toronto is that their 594 walks were entirely too much. For as great as Cease is/was, walks remain a real concern for him, and that filtered down the group as well.

The hope is that increased health will come in 2027 and that will lead to less reliance on openers and inexperienced pitchers, who just simply aren't as polished from a control perspective.