How past Blue Jays squads have fared in the ALCS

Across nearly a half-century of Blue Jays baseball, the team has made it to the post-season on 11 occasions — including this year.

This Sunday, the Blue Jays begin the American League Championship Series (ALCS) — a playoff rung that Toronto last reached in 2016. They'll be up against the Seattle Mariners, who knocked out the Detroit Lions on Friday night.

The Jays beat the Yankees in the American League Division Series (ALDS) to get to this next step in the playoffs.

The Blue Jays have been to the ALCS on seven previous occasions — in 1985, 1989, from 1991 to 1993, and again in 2015 and 2016.

Here's a recap of how those past squads fared when they got there.

In 1985, the Blue Jays won 99 regular-season games — a feat never since repeated by Toronto — and headed to the post-season for the first time.

The team scored the fourth-most runs in the league that year and six Blue Jays had double-digit home run totals. (The current Blue Jays were similarly ranked fourth in runs scored during the 2025 regular season. Four Toronto players had 20 or more home runs, while four others had lower, two-digit HR totals.)

In those days, the playoffs were shorter and that playoff berth dropped the Blue Jays directly into the ALCS, where Toronto faced the Kansas City Royals.

The series went seven games, but it was Kansas that prevailed. The Royals would go on to win the World Series.

The Blue Jays won 89 games in 1989 and somehow took home the division title. (To put this in perspective, this win total is five games below what Toronto finished with this year.)

Up against the Oakland Athletics (also known as the A's) in the ALCS, the Jays won just one game in the series.

The A's went on to sweep the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

Two years later, the Jays secured their third division title, with a 91-win campaign.

But once again, Toronto faltered in the ALCS and won just a single game over the Minnesota Twins, who advanced to the World Series and became champions.

The Blue Jays famously won back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.

In 1992, the Blue Jays won 96 games and won the division title, which sent them back to the ALCS for the second year in a row.

The '92 lineup had power (Joe Carter, Dave Winfield) and speed (Roberto Alomar), strong fielding (Alomar, Devon White and others) and starting pitching (Jimmy Key, Juan Guzmán and late-season acquisition David Cone), and a reliable, shutdown, back end of the bullpen (Duane Ward and Tom Henke).

Three years after losing to the A's in the 1989 ALCS, the Jays won the equivalent 1992 series in six games.

Toronto then headed to the World Series, where the championship series had them taking on the Atlanta Braves. The Jays won the series in six games to secure their first-ever MLB title.

A year later, the Jays re-upped with a few new faces (DH Paul Molitor, speedster and outfielder Rickey Henderson, and pitcher Dave Stewart among them). This team had a higher batting average (.279) and got on base more (.350 on-base percentage) than the 2025 Blue Jays (.265, and .333 on-base percentage).

The '93 Toronto squad won 95 games during the regular season, took the ALCS for a second year in a row (taking down the Chicago White Sox in six games) and went on to claim a second consecutive World Series title by beating the Philadelphia Phillies in another six-game stretch.

It took more than two decades for Toronto to return to the post-season. But the dam was broken by the José Bautista-led squad of 2015 — the year of the iconic bat flip.

Toronto won 93 games and the division title that year, going on to beat Texas in the ALDS and play Kansas City in the ALCS.

This Toronto squad had some serious power (including Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnación) along with good fielders and a decent starting rotation.

But, in an echo of 1985, the Jays lost the ALCS 4-2 to the Royals, who then went on to win the World Series.

Bautista told CBC News last month that he saw similarities between the talented 2015 Jays team and the current roster that has since made it to the ALCS.

"They're having fun, and that's what teams have to do in order to reach a new level of excellence and performance … that's what we had, and I think that's the biggest similarity," he said.

In 2016, the Blue Jays won just 89 games during the regular season, but won a wildcard game to gain entry to the ALDS, where Toronto then swept the Texas Rangers.

That got the Jays to the ALCS, which they lost in five games to Cleveland, who then lost the World Series to the Chicago Cubs.

WATCH | Blue Jays legend rooting for Toronto and its latest playoff run:

It’s been 10 years since the Blue Jays’ last division title — the same year as Bautista’s iconic bat flip. As they await the Yankees-Red Sox winner, CBC’s Natalie Kalata sat down with Bautista to reflect and talk playoff hopes.