2024 was George Springer’s fourth season with the Blue Jays, after signing a six-year $150 million contract. And, ummm, it wasn’t a very good season.

Since 2022 his bWAR had been falling, from 4.2 to 2.0 to 1.1. I’m probably wasn’t alone in thinking that he was aging out of where he could be a star player. Or a useful play.

And this year was his age-35 season, I wasn’t expecting a lot. Before the season i asked if ‘anybody had a bounce back season at age 35?’ Well, we found out that the answer is yes:

Baseball Reference has him at a 4.8 WAR. FanGraphs 5.2, giving him a value of $41.6 million to the Blue Jays.

He had a wOBA of .408 (up massisvely from .298 last year) and a wRC+ of 166 (down from 94).

Compared to 2024, Springer’s walk rate was up (11.8% from 9.8), and his strikeout rate was up a little (18.9% from 18.7).

His line-drive rate was up (21.7% from 16.4), the ground ball rate was way down (37.3% from 50.7), and the fly-ball rate was up (40.9% from 32.9). More of his fly balls left the park (20.0% from 13.4%).

George’s hard contact rate was down (35.3% from 30.3), and the soft contact rate was down (16.1% from 17.1).

Springer’s BABIP was .340 (up from .245 last year).

Like last year George hit RHP (.327/.412/.588) better than LHP (.254/.361/.475). He’s had reverse splits the last two seasons as well. In his career, he has had more normal splits.

He hit better at home (.323/.423/.593) than on the road (.296/.374/.528).

George hit .330/.419/.580 with RISP, slightly better than he hit with bases empty (.306/.395/.560).

He hit much better in the second half (.369/.454/.667) than in the first half (.270/.363/.490).

Springer by month:

June was pretty good, by most standards, but July was amazing. I’ve always wondered how players can seemingly flip a switch from one month to the next.

Defensively? George played 44 games in right (283.2 innings), 12 games in left (85 innings) and 11 games in CF (68 innings). He had no errors in any of the three spots. Outs above average had him at a -6, which pretty much is what the eye test showed.

FanGraphs has him at a 2.8 runs above average as a baserunner. Not bad for an old guy (it really hurts me to call a 35-year-old ‘old’). As well as being good on the bases, he was 18 and 1 as a basestealer.

Springer’s games started by his spot in the batting order:

By Position:

Favourite team to face: Twins, hitting .458/.519/1.000 in 6 games.

Least favourite: Phillies, hitting .059/.158/.118 in 5 games.

The Jays were 78-53 in his starts.

Longest hitting streak: 10 games. Longest on base streak: 18 games.

Longest streak without a home run: 15 games. Longest hitless streak: 5 games.

In the playoffs:

Not bad for a guy playing on one leg

Sometime, over the winter, when there isn’t a daily need to post a GameThread and Recap and all the news that goes with the running of a blog during the regular season, I should look to list the best seasons from a hitter in his age 35 season (post PEDs edition). Or maybe biggest bounce back season at age 35.

He got and deserved the Silver Slugger award for DH. And he was 7th in MVP voting.

A lot was made of how the team got along, how all the players liked each other. I think, in part, it was Springer’s influence. He seems like a happy, easy-going guy, and it would be hard to be on the team and watch him, and not think, ‘He’s a good guy and he’s had all the success in the world. Why shouldn’t I be the same?‘ And, the club says to him, ‘You aren’t leading off anymore,’ and he’s ok with it. ‘You aren’t playing the outfield anymore.‘ No problem. If he doesn’t fight, how can anyone else complain about their role.

He is moving up the Jays All-time hitter leader boards:

I guess the big question is: Can he have another season like this one?