Blue Jays’ early season success should look plenty familiar to Guardians fans 

Last season the Toronto Blue Jays came one inning away from winning the World Series on the back of a roster filled with former Cleveland Guardians. 

They’ve carried that over into the 2026 season thanks to an undefeated 3-0 start punctuated by two walk-off wins over The Athletics.

And both of those walk-offs came from familiar faces, as former Guardians infielder Andrés Giménez picked up Toronto’s first walk-off win on Friday before Ernie Clement played hero the next day with an extra-innings walk-off single. 

The Guardians of the North are back in full force. 

Former Guardians Ernie Clement and Andrés Giménez are playing well for Blue Jays 

The Blue Jays picked up their first non-walk-off win of the year on Sunday via a 5-2 win over The Athletics to secure their series-opening sweep. While Giménez and Clement went 0-for-6 in that finale, they’re both still off to hot starts this season. 

Last year Giménez got off to a hot start for the Blue Jays before fading as the season went on thanks in large part to an ankle injury. He hit a career-low .210 last season in 101 games with just seven home runs and 12 steals. 

He’s done his best to put that in the rearview at the start of this season thanks to a 6-for-11 (.545) start with one triple, four RBI and a stolen base. 

He picked up those RBI on Opening Day thanks to a two-run triple in the fifth inning followed by his walk-off heroics. He stepped to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning and hit a Justin Sterner cutter 104.8 miles per hour through the right side of the infield to secure the win. 

As he was rounding first he hit his signature ‘night night’ celebration that became a staple after his walk-off hits at Progressive Field. 

Last year Giménez’s strong start ended up being a bit of fool’s gold thanks to his struggles down the stretch. But that was before Luis Ortiz (the Guardians’ main return from for Giménez) was placed on leave as a part of a gambling investigation. 

Meanwhile Clement picked up where he left off last season with four hits in the Blue Jays’ first three games — one of which was his walk-off single against The Athletics the next day on a classic Clement swing. 

Although the Guardians' decision to get rid of Giménez made sense at the time given his contract and lack of production, Cleveland’s decision to get rid of Clement looks worse and worse by the day. 

While no one expected him to turn into the everyday player he’s become, the Guardians let him go for nothing at the end of 2022 and he latched on with the Blue Jays a year later, who gave him the runway needed for him to turn into a star and fan favorite. 

The Blue Jays aren’t going to go anywhere, so chances are this won’t be the last time that Guardians fans are going to be forced to pay attention to Clement and Giménez’s production this season.