Can The Blue Jays Sign More Relief Pitchers, Please?!
This much-maligned offseason for Russ Atkins & the Blue Jays front office has seen yet another highly publicized swing and a miss as they came up short yet again in the bidding for Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
Instead, Blue Jays faithful will be excited to see near 41-year-old Max Scherzer step into a starting role as a likely 3rd starter behind Jose Berrios and Kevin Gausman. The emergence of Bowden Francis as a respectable back-of-the-rotation arm leaves the Jays hoping he can maintain the form we saw last season and that Chris Bassitt, who will be 36 by the start of Grapefruit League, can return to his 2023 form for this final year of this contract.
In addition to Scherzer, Toronto’s big signing was for Anthony Santander. Coming off a massive power year with Baltimore the switch-hitting OF looks to be a strong addition to the middle of the order and does provide more diversity in a lineup stacked with righty bats. I love this signing, and as much as I love this one move I hate the rest of the moves the front office has made. And it’s not only the moves they have made but the lack of noise around them doing anything to truly address the bullpen.
Last year the Blue Jays had the worst bullpen in the MLB. Fangraphs had them collectively at -2.5 fWAR which was the worst any bullpen has done since 2018. Letting Jordan Romano walk after an abysmal 15 appearances seems like a fine choice especially if you are expecting his elbow injury to be a lingering issue. But, on a 1-year deal worth $8.5M maybe that’s a risk you should be willing to take for a guy with 95 career saves over the previous 3 seasons who just so happens to be a hometown player.
They’ll obviously address the lack of a closer in free agency, right? Right??
Instead, they’ll acquire Nick Sandlin in a debatable trade with Atkins’ former employers, the Cleveland Guardians. Not to stray too far but taking on almost $100M for a gold glove 2B isn’t how I would want to build a roster and really it looks like Cleveland wanted out of that situation as well. 2B should be a spot you’re willing to take a bit of a defensive hit in favour of the bat but hopefully at least having a GG middle INF can boost some pitchers stats.
That being said, Nick Sandlin. He’s a RP who had an 8-0 record which I’m sure he’ll be able to replicate in Toronto…He had an ERA under 4, which is hard to find in the 2024 Blue Jays pen so that’s a checkmark in his column. He’s a righty, throwing mostly fastballs and sliders but does mix in a splitter and a sinker on occasion too. Baseball Savant has his whiff% in the 95th percentile along with his Offspeed run value in the 97th. On the flip side, his FB is extremely hittable with a run value in the 4th percentile and his 1st percentile average exit velo is likely largely attributed to his FB. Hopefully, Pete Walker has a good plan for how to build on some of the positive areas otherwise I’ll expect a regression towards his FIP which was over 5 last season.
Next, we look at Yimi Garcia, who the Jays had traded away to Seattle just before last year’s trade deadline. Landing the Mariners #10 prospect at the time in Jonatan Clase who raked in a small sample size for Toronto late last season and who is a real speed threat (70-80 grade) plus another dart throw prospect for an expiring RP was a great deal. Bringing Garcia back on a 2-year deal is a good choice for a respectable $7.5M. Hopefully, we get the Yimi Garcia we saw in Toronto last season rather than the one who showed up in Seattle. Regardless, it’s a fine deal but does make you wonder why the front office was willing to turn a blind eye towards his 10 games in Seattle but not Romano’s 15 games especially considering Garcia is a few years older.
The last guy we’ll take a bigger look at is the one true RP signing the team has made in Jeff Hoffman. That’s a name you love to see coming out of the pen. Alas, Jeff is unlikely to be the second coming of Trevor but since moving both to Philadelphia and exclusively out of the bullpen he has seen terrific results. In his last two seasons, he has appeared in 122 games for the Phillies sporting a 2.28 ERA under half of his career ERA of 4.82 and is a relative Baseball Savant darling finding himself in the 90th or better percentile in all of the following metrics: xERA (91), xBA (90), Chase% (96), Whiff% (96), K% (96). And outside of a poor GB% and Hard Hit % (both above the 20th percentile), he remains league average to good in the remaining metrics. On a 3-year deal averaging $11M per year it has the potential to be a contract looked back on favourably. Hoffman presumably would be a favourite to take on the closer role but will surely be involved in the highest-leverage bullpen situations no matter what. I can’t help but think how much more of a slam dunk this would feel if he were more confidently stepping into a setup role where he’s the 2nd or even 3rd best projected RP but here we are.
Last I am going to take a very quick look at some other pitching additions who will be involved in the bullpen to some extent.
Zach Pop - Signed a 1-year $900k deal to avoid arbitration. He was a full -1.3 bWAR last year and has 1 good season out of 4 in the majors and it was 3 years ago now. This has to be it for Pop.
Josh Walker - I’m not sure why he got an MLB deal and not a minor league one, especially with the Jays other minor league pitching signings. I guess being a LHP really can give you that boost in FA. Still has 1 MiLB option but I assume he gets a shake at making the roster in Spring. He has a career 6.45 ERA in 24 appearances with the Mets.
Richard Lovelady - Minor league signing but has almost 100 IP across 5 seasons between KC, OAK, CHC and most recently TB. The southpaw’s best stretch since his last year in KC was this past season in TB so maybe he builds off that in his age 29 season.
Eric Lauer - Minor league signing and presumably a depth starter. If all goes well with Toronto’s rotation I’m speculating we could see Lauer enter the bigs as a long man out of the pen. Only 3 years separated from a 29-start season in Milwaukee going 11-7 with a 3.69 ERA Lauer is a cut above most minor-league signings, or so you would think. Lauer went on to struggle in AAA in both the Pirates and Astros systems in 2024 followed by a less-than-remarkable stint in Korea before signing this past December.
With many notable relievers still available and all younger than Max Scherzer I hope every day to even just see a report that the Blue Jays are in on Kenley Jansen or might make a deal for Ryan Pressly, or even have talked to a Joe Kelly, Will Smith or Andrew Chafin. With Vlad Guerrero still without a long-term deal and the signing of an aging (more like aged) star in Scherzer it’s clear this team is in absolute win-now mode. The money we know they would have needed to spend on Ohtani pales in comparison to what it would take to at least try and solidify an absolutely glaring hole in a relative scrap heap of a bullpen. But hey, maybe Jeff is the second coming of Trevor.
